Almost 85 percent of Europe’s detained journalists in Turkish jails
Of the 130 journalists detained in the Council of Europe’s member countries as of Dec. 31, 2018, 110 were jailed in Turkey, according to the 2019 annual report of the council’s Platform for the Protection of Journalism and Safety of Journalists.
Press freedom in Europe is more fragile now than at any time since the end of the Cold War with journalists increasingly facing obstruction, hostility and violence as they investigate and report on behalf of the public, the report said, Ahvalnews reported.
Turkey remains the world’s biggest jailer of journalists with 110 imprisoned in 2018, while Italy saw the sharpest increase in the number of media freedom alerts reported throughout the year.
The report said that Turkey, along with Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Italy, and Russian Federation had not responded to the any of the Platform’s alerts in 2018. As of 31 December 2018, there were 92 active alerts on Turkey, while 14 new alerts were submitted to the Platform during the year, it said