Home > 5 Referendum/Consultation > TÜRKIYE - Opinion on the Amendments to the Constituion Adopted by the Grand National Assembly on 21 January 2017 and to be Submitted to a National Referendum on 16 April 2017
 
 
 
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Paragraph 37
 

With respect to the situation currently pertaining under the state of emergency in Turkey, the Venice Commission has already noted with concern the liquidation of several private media outlets and the severe interference with the freedom of expression and the media caused by the emergency decree laws.38 According to the figures provided by the Turkish authorities,39in toto, since July 2016, 190 media outlets (including publishing houses, newspapers and magazines, news agencies, TV stations and radios) were closed, but pursuant to Decree Laws 675 and 679, the closure of 23 of these media outlets was annulled. As was stressed by the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, “more than 150 media outlets, including newspapers, television stations, radios and publishing houses, were closed and their assets liquidated by governmental decrees, in the absence of any judicial decision. In parallel, the number of journalists in jail which had reduced significantly in previous years, increased manifold, reportedly to 151 at the time of writing of this memorandum”. The Commissioner for Human Rights considers with the “utmost concern” that “the current situation is characterised by numerous, blatant violations of principles enshrined in the ECHR, the case-law of the European Court of Human Rights, standards of the Council of Europe, as well as other relevant international standards. These violations have created a distinct chilling effect manifesting itself not only in self-censorship in the remaining media which is not controlled by or sympathetic to the government and the ruling political party, but also among ordinary citizens. This has led to an extremely unfavourable environment for journalism and an increasingly impoverished and one-sided public debate.”