Turkish officials throughout the week and into Friday scrambled to respond to last week’s “Freedom of the Press” report – published annually by the Washington-based Freedom House watchdog group – which had downgraded Turkey from “Partly Free” to “Not Free” and had explained that “constitutional guarantees of freedom of the press and expression are only partially upheld in practice, undermined by restrictive provisions in the criminal code and the Anti-Terrorism Act.”
The report also noted that “Turkey remained the world’s leading jailer of journalists in 2013, with 40 behind bars as of Dec. 1.”
Responding to the ensuing controversy, Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu declared on Friday that the report was “an insult” and that the real problem was that journalists remain uninformed about Turkey:
Elaborating on a recent Freedom House report on Turkey, Davutoğlu suggested that there was a misperception on the situation of press freedom in Turkey amid a Reform Monitoring Group (RİG) meeting on the issue on May 9.
“We agreed to have closer contacts with foreign media outlets in other countries and to invite them to Turkey to enable them to better see the truth of Turkey,” Davutoğlu said at a press conference after the 29th meeting of the RİG, which is overseeing Turkey’s accession process to the EU.
Davutoglu had previously declared that Turkey was in fact more free than even “Partly Free” countries, part of a statement in which he emphasized that the Justice and Development Party (AKP) expected Turkish journalists “to reject” the Freedom House report. Ankara has had trouble settling on talking points describing its jailing of journalists in general, and more specifically on the number of journalists that the Turks are willing to admit are behind bars.
Davutoglu’s Friday statements insisted that “there are only five imprisoned journalists with press cards,” opposite a list of 44.
Responding to the same list, a statement released by Turkey’s Justice Ministry earlier this week had held that only 29 journalists were in jail. Government officials had in April cited a statement from the the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) – one that CPJ insists Ankara invented out of thin air – pegging the number at 15:
The Committee to Protect Journalists is disturbed by reports in Turkey’s pro-government media that made false claims about CPJ. The reports said CPJ made a statement on April 18 saying Turkey holds only 15 journalists behind bars. CPJ did not issue a statement.
“The government’s strategy is to attack its critics rather than address legitimate concerns. These concerns stem from the fact that Turkish authorities continue to unjustly jail journalists for carrying out their work and to systematically suppress critical reporting,” said CPJ Europe and Central Asia Program Coordinator Nina Ognianova. “CPJ calls on the Turkish government to respond to our April 9 letter addressed to Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, which details our profound concerns about Turkey’s anti-press policies, including the jailing of journalists, the censorship of social media, and adoption of restrictive legislation.”
[Photo: Chuck Hagel /YouTube]