With the hollowing out of the Turkish media landscape in recent years, honest coverage on the night of the historic referendum was rare
Yavuz Baydar: Turkey’s crippled and tarnished journalism found space to breathe
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Yavuz Baydar
Yavuz Baydar is the co-founder of Platform for Independent Journalism (P24), an initiative to support and promote editorial independence in the Turkish press. He is a veteran Turkish columnist and blogger and was awarded the Special Award of the European Press Prize in 2014.
Dim hopes for 2017, but we’ll keep up the struggle for a free world
Journalist Yavuz Baydar writes about this hopes for Turkey’s journalists in 2017
Yavuz Baydar: In exile you spend your days in a fog
My gut tells me that this time Turkey’s turmoil may turn out to be long-lasting and leave a more harmful imprint on the nation’s soul.
Turkey: Think you are free? Think again
If made out of the right stuff a journalist is a tough nut. Some of us are, you may say, born that way. Our profession lives in our cells. We are compelled to do what our DNA instructs us to do.
Turkey: Losing the rule of law
“When I understood that I was to be detained by a directive given from the top, my fear vanished,” novelist and journalist Aslı Erdoğan told the daily Cumhuriyet
200 Turkish journalists blacklisted from parliament
One of the most vital duties of a journalist — in any democracy — is to report on the day-to-day operations of a country’s parliament. But 200 Turkish journalists have been barred.
Yavuz Baydar: As academic freedom recedes, intellectuals begin an exodus from Turkey
The stream may be small right now, a trickle, but it is unmistakable. Turkey’s academics and its secular elite are quietly and slowly making their way for the exits.
Yavuz Baydar: Turkey cancelling journalists’ passports en masse
“Turkish police have cancelled all the journalists’ passports since July 15.” This tweet landed in my timeline on Monday morning. The author was Selina Doğan, an opposition deputy and a lawyer.
Yavuz Baydar: Turkey takes wife of journalist hostage
As I’ve been writing for months now, the job that runs the highest risk in Turkey is, without a shred of doubt, journalism.
Yavuz Baydar: Half-truths in the age of Turkey’s emergency rule
Turkey’s third post-coup week has been full of uncertainties, suspicion and concern. As of Wednesday morning there were 1,297 individuals subject to an international travel ban, among them 35 journalists and 51 lawyers.
Yavuz Baydar: Six more journalists jailed in Turkey
It was a long Saturday night for all of us, at home and abroad, monitoring the worrisome developments around media freedom in Turkey
Yavuz Baydar: Silence is the enemy of democracy
Ministers are empowered to close TV, radio, websites and, even, book publishers. Prosecutors are required to follow those orders. This means a total end of media freedom in Turkey.