Turn of the screw on freedom of information in Turkey a few months before the general elections of June 2023. The Turkish Parliament indeed adopted, Thursday, October 13, a law on disinformation, providing for up to three years in prison for the disclosure “false or misleading information”.
In addition to newspapers, radios, televisions, the law targets social networks and websites which will be asked to denounce and deliver the personal information of their users accused of spreading false news.
Debated since the beginning of October, the 40 articles of the text, officially baptized “press law”, have been the subject of numerous amendments tabled, in vain, by the opposition, which for its part denounces a “censorship law”. With a majority of 334 seats out of 581 for the AK, the presidential party, and its allies, the text had little chance of being stopped.
A “censorship law” denounced by the opposition
Article 29, in particular, provides for prison terms of one to three years for “spreading false or misleading information contrary to the internal and external security of the country and likely to harm public health, disturb public order, spread fear or panic among the population”.
The law further stipulates that the presidency will be responsible for preparing a « “disinformation bulletin” every Monday (…) in order to inform the public about disinformation and fake news”.
In December 2021, the Head of State considered that social networks, first perceived as a symbol of freedom, were “have become one of the main threats to democracy”.
In the last hours of the debates on Wednesday, and in a fit of mood, a deputy from the opposition CHP (social democrat) party, Burak Erbay, addressing the Turkish youth who “will vote for the first time in June” – and who is suffering the brunt of the serious economic crisis – brandished his smartphone and crushed it with a hammer blow.
“You only have one freedom, that phone in your pocket. There you have Instagram, YouTube, Facebook. You trade. Today (…) if the law is passed by this Parliament, you can break them like that, my young brothers. Because you won’t be able to use it anymore., did he declare. Meral Danis Bektas, elected HDP (opposition, pro-Kurdish) also estimated that “this law is a declaration of war on the truth”.
The bill has aroused many concerns in journalistic circles and human rights organizations which had mobilized at the beginning of the month, masked in black in front of Parliament.
It was tabled in May by AKP deputies, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party, who will run for a new term in June 2023. A dozen journalists’ associations and unions, including Reporters Without Borders (RSF ) had therefore denounced it as an attempt at censorship on the part of the government.
Before the law was passed, the Council of Europe had also denounced a “impediment” freedom of expression guaranteed by the European Convention on Human Rights. According to the RSF ranking, Turkey appears in 2022 at 149e rank out of 180 countries for freedom of information.