Indexes that measure scores of democratization in countries all agree that Turkey has become authoritarian in recent years. The dramatic decline regarding freedom and a rapid shift towards authoritarianism has also deeply affected the freedom of the press in Turkey. At the point reached, the situation is not very promising.
Freedom Research Association has been monitoring the state of the freedom of press since 2014. Our latest report is titled ‘The Freedom of Press in Turkey: 2019-2020 Report’ has evaluated the state of press freedom in Turkey from January 1st of the year 2019 until June 21, 2020, which is the date this report was completed. The last report shows that the state of press freedom in Turkey has maintained its negative outlook and it has been increasingly worsening. The report examines the state of press freedom in Turkey through the pressure on press organizations and journalists, economic dependency relationship between the government and media outlets and the quality of public debate.
