“Dear Turkish people, great care and vigilance is needed. The government and election authorities are planning to steal your votes once again,” said Turkish mountaineer Nasuh Mahruyki, criticizing the government’s plans to digitize election processes.

A short time later the 56-year-old was arrested, taken into custody and immediately charged. At the end of December, the founder of the well-known rescue organization AKUT Search and Rescue Association will stand trial – and he faces up to three years in prison.

Mahruki is accused of insulting the Turkish authorities, in this case the electoral authorities, as well as of spreading false information. The second charge is for violating the so-called misinformation law, which came into effect in November 2022 – and is also known among citizens as the “censorship law.” The specific legislation provides for a prison sentence of one to three years for “spreading false information about the country’s internal and external security, public order and the health system.”

Human rights activists and the opposition have often criticized the vague wording of the provisions in the past, which leave huge room for interpretation – and therefore facilitate arbitrary prosecutions and restrictions on freedom of expression and the freedom of the press. And now their fears seem to be confirmed.

4,600 investigations and 33 arrests

Human rights activists have long been calling on the AKP government to release statistics on prosecutions under this law. In vain.

However, “during a consultation on another censorship law in parliament a few weeks ago some facts became known,” says Vesel Ock, a lawyer and co-director of the Media and Law Studies Association (MLSA). MLSA particularly monitors prosecutions against journalists and activists.

According to the parliamentary protocols, since the enactment of the law and until October 2024, the Turkish authorities have launched investigations against 4,590 persons. 33 of them were arrested. 384 cases were prosecuted – 42 of which ultimately led to a conviction, while in 146 the defendants were released. About half of the investigations were discontinued.

This “censorship law” is certainly not a means of prosecuting only journalists and media representatives, as Ock emphasizes: “Even ordinary citizens who criticize the government in cases of natural disasters, epidemics, crises or other similar events”. In an interview with DW, Ock recalls that “the well-known sociologist Veli Sacilik was sentenced to 10 months in prison, because he wrote about the earthquake. Evren Baris Yavuz, expert in political communication, was sentenced to one year and 15 days in prison. Doctor Yusuf Eryazgan is on trial for criticizing the vaccination policy of some medical centers. And these are three examples – there are thousands more.”

A means of intimidation

The Turkish penal code has in the past also included other laws aimed at suppressing unwanted criticism – such as the anti-terror law, the internet law or the criminalization of insulting the president. But these laws did not always bring the desired result for the government.

So “the government is trying to close those ‘loopholes’ with the Misinformation Act as a vehicle,” Ock says. Now there’s a law with provisions open to almost any interpretation, making it much easier to suppress unwanted views. And in this way the government also shows that only it can control the dissemination of information and news.

68 investigative procedures against 57 journalists

Since the enactment of the law to date, the MLSA has recorded at least 68 investigative proceedings against 57 journalists, writers and media people. 22 of these resulted in a trial, while the majority of proceedings were concluded without further legal action after many delays.

Lawyer Gizay Dulkadir, who also represents a number of journalists, criticizes the Turkish authorities’ standard practice: security authorities act ex officio to target government-critical online posts without first prosecuting them. And then prosecutors initiate prosecutions based on those targeted investigations. All this is illegal according to Dulqadir. According to the law, there are relevant decisions of the Turkish Constitutional Court that have found that this tactic is illegal – but the authorities just blatantly ignore these decisions.

The case of Firat Bulut is a prime example of these targeted prosecutions under the MLSA. The journalist had reported on a prison riot in Elbistan after the earthquakes of February 2023. The local prosecutor opened investigations against the journalist, accusing him of spreading false information. Finally, it became known that there had indeed been a riot in the prisons of Elbistan, which was being investigated by the same prosecutor’s office that had prosecuted the journalist. “Nevertheless, the proceedings against Bulut were not stopped. Under the threat of a multi-year prison sentence, the journalist was forced to leave Turkey”, reports Ok.

Will something similar happen now in the trial of mountaineer Nasouch Mahrouki? This will be seen on December 26th. He maintains that he did not disseminate any information, but only commented on the actions of the government, thus only exercising his right to freedom of expression. Of course, the argument did not convince the prosecution. Last Thursday, however, Mahrouki managed a small victory: until the hearing of his case, he will be free with restrictive conditions.

Edited by: Giorgos Passas