New turkey law mandates jail time for spreading ‘disinformation'
Turkish parliament approved legislation that could be jailed if alleged disinformation is spreading in the media. Critiques fear a spike in restricting critiques for the coming election in June. A third requirement is for social networking websites to disclose information about their customers. The Turkish parliament approved the bill, which will allow jailed journalists to be sentenced to 3 years of restitution. The European Parliament has warned that the measure could cause "an alarming effect and further self-censorship not least because it would affect elections in June 2025".
Why are reporters speculating that banning disinformation is an infringement on rights in Turkey?
Ankuba (AFP) – The Turkish government approved the draft law, which would jail reporters and social media users for spreading false information. The new rules reinforce an already tight grip on news organizations eight months before the upcoming presidential campaign. The EU said its vague definition of the term "disinformation could lead to heightened self-denial - even with the upcoming May [correction June] election in 2023."
Reporters Without Borders’ World Press Freedom Index ranks Turkey 149th out of 180 nations, saying
90% of the national media is under state control.
Courts banned YouTube and Wikipedia for years, while access to Twitter was slowed to a trickle at times of heightened strife, such as cross-border operations into Syria and terrorist attacks at home.
The final piece of the legislation, which also requires social media companies to hand over the personal details of users suspected of spreading “fake news,” was approved on Thursday night with votes from President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s governing party and its allies, who control a parliamentary majority. According to the New York Times. Recep Tayyip Erdogan has a long history of dissent towards social networks and internet sites to hand over personal details of users to the government when suspected of propagating misleading information. This new law comes as no surprise as his recent polls have been dropping substantially lately.