Turkey’s independent news televisions are crashing under heavy fines and penalties by the country’s broadcasting watchdog RTUK. TV executives say RTUK is trying to force them to cave by imposing self-censorship or selling their broadcasting licenses ahead of the upcoming election period.
The fines came as the Turkish is expected to pass a draft bill criminalizing social media posts deemed as “fake” and amid a mass arrest of the journalists in Turkey’s predominantly Kurdish southeast, underscoring the fears of increasing pressure on the media ahead of the elections scheduled for June 2023.
