Turkey Criticized for Limiting Freedom of Expression

The Deputy Prime Minister of Turkey, Bülent Arınç, was harshly criticized at the UN Human Rights Review meeting hosted by the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva on January 27, where he reported on the human rights protection status in Turkey, reports the Daily News.

The infringement on the freedom of expression was one of the topics that was particularly criticized. The US delegation expressed concern about “growing restrictions on the freedom of expression, including censorship of new media and the Internet”. Egypt harshly criticized Turkey by claiming that it had held the top position in the ranking of countries by number of imprisoned journalists for the last two years.
 
Bülent Arınç stated that the freedom of expression and media freedom are an “indispensable part of democratic order” and that Turkey was constantly striving at ensuring their better protection. As for the detention of the journalists, he claimed that they had been charged for crimes committed while involved in the activity of terrorist groups, not for their professional activity.
 
It was the second time that Turkey attended a meeting of the UN Human Rights Council. The first such meeting was attended back in May 2010 by a delegation headed by Cemil Çiçek, Deputy Prime Minister, who is currently Turkey’s Parliament Speaker.