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The rise of criminal cases involving freedom of expression in Turkey under a state of emergency declared in the aftermath of a controversial military coup attempt on July 15, 2016 has inevitably had direct consequences for writers and publishers in the country, said a report released by English PEN on Thursday, according to the Stockholm Center for Freedom.

The report, titled “Turkey: Freedom of expression in jeopardy: Violations of the rights of authors, publishers and academics under the State of Emergency,” was written for English PEN by academics Yaman Akdeniz and Kerem Altıparmak. It presents an overview of the current situation of freedom of expression in Turkey and engages in a critical evaluation of violations of rights against writers, publishers, academics and academic institutions.

The research conducted produced a list of 80 writers. Of the 80 authors listed in the report, only three are being tried for the books they have written. A large majority of the remaining 77 authors are being prosecuted for being a member of a terrorist organisation or for having affiliations or links with such organisations due to their newspaper articles or social media posts.

Of the 80 authors, 19 are in pre-trial detention, and 22 have been released pending trial, while the proceedings against 34 have been concluded and 26 have been convicted. Only eight have been acquitted.

There has been an even more alarming increase in the number of academics being dismissed from several universities, the report said, and added that by the end of 2017, 5,822 academics had been dismissed from 118 public universities. Like writers, many academics have also been prosecuted under criminal law.

“In addition to the administrative proceedings initiated at universities, Chief Public Prosecutors in many provinces launched criminal investigations against Academics for Peace who signed a peace petition criticising the state violence in South East Turkey. Some academics were taken into police custody and questioned within the scope of these investigations for ‘disseminating terrorist propaganda’ or denigrating the Turkish nation, the Republic of Turkey, the institutions and bodies of the State’,” the report underlined.