Turkey accused of censorship during virus outbreak

LONDON - As the number of coronavirus infections in Turkey continues to rise sharply and authorities tighten social restrictions, concerns are being raised that the government under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is hampering efforts to inform the Turkish public on the extent of the outbreak.

Writing in Deutsche Welle, journalist Miray Erbey highlighted the difficulty for both medical professionals and journalists in Turkey to do their work while enduring "intimidation" from authorities more concerned with controlling the flow of information than the spread of COVID-19.

"Without transparency and freedom of the press, the true scale of the epidemic remains obscured, and increases the threat to public health," Erbey said.

"Considering that accurate and timely information is one of the most effective tools for fighting a pandemic, governmental transparency and the protection of freedom of speech are more important than ever."

Turkey has among the highest numbers of journalists in prison, a statistic that increased exponentially following a failed coup attempt in 2016 that was followed by a severe crackdown on freedom of speech as the government targeted people it charged with being involved.

According to Amnesty International, since then "academics, journalists and writers who criticise the government risk criminal investigation and prosecution, intimidation, harassment and censorship."

With the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, scrutiny of the Turkish government's handling of the crisis has in turn led to greater scrutiny of public discourse by authorities.

One incident highlighted by Erbey was the government's investigation of doctor Gule Cinar, who was videoed suggesting that the number of cases in Turkey may have been under-reported by the government, which had faced criticism for botching the return and subsequent quarantining of Turkish pilgrims from Saudi Arabia.

Erbey also criticised the government for announcing that it would release prisoners convicted of serious crimes, including murder, due to fears of a prison outbreak of coronavirus while refusing to extend the same measures to political prisoners and journalists. Many of those are held under charges criticised by rights groups as being dubious and trumped-up.

According to the NGO Reporters Without Borders, "spending more than a year in [a Turkish] prison before trial is the new norm [since 2016], and long jail sentences are common, in some cases as long as life imprisonment with no possibility of a pardon."

Around 50,000 people, including the former head of the second-largest opposition party, a prominent journalist and a philanthropist, are excluded from the new law because they are charged with or convicted on terrorism charges.

The crackdown since 2016 saw the number of prisoners swell to nearly 300,000 - the second-largest prison population in Europe and the most over-crowded prison system, according to data from the Council of Europe.

Turkey has reported 30,217 confirmed cases of coronavirus and 649 deaths as of April 6. The threat of a large outbreak in Turkey is relatively high given its sizable population and status as a transit hub between Europe and Asia.