The Presidential Decree on Press and Publication Activities was issued in the Official Gazette on January 29. The decree, signed by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan of the AKP, stated that steps would be taken to ‘eliminate’ the destructive effects of TV programs on society, which undermine the ‘fundamental values ​​of society’.

Following the decree, access to Yeni Yaşam newspaper, the weekly Kurdish-language newspaper Xwebûn, and woman-focused news outlets NuJinha and Jinnews has been blocked. The publisher of Xwebûn Newspaper, Kadri Esen, spoke about the recent government bans on Kurdish news outlets and increasing pressure.

FREE PRESS TRADITION

“There are two different press traditions in Turkey. One is the free press, which focuses on facts and informs society. The second one is the government-controlled press,” the Kurdish publisher said, noting that the AKP government controls a large part of the press. “Journalism is carried out as Erdoğan wishes. Erdoğan determines the newspaper headlines, the topics of the TV programs and the magazines. Smear campaigns are introduced against the opposition groups and the ongoing economic crisis is denied. There has been an economic crisis in Turkey, but the pro-AKP press is trying to present the facts otherwise,” he said.

GOVERNMENT CRACKDOWN ON PRESS

Esen stressed that the free press in the country works under difficult conditions and has been targeted by the AKP. “Journalists are arrested, and the government prevents the activities of the journalists they cannot arrest. Most recently, Kurdish newspapers have been shut down. Previously, the relevant institution used to warn press outlets before blocking access to them. However, the recent decree says that the government can now directly close press outlets without warnings beforehand. On January 28, access to our newspaper was blocked without any warning or justification. We don't even know why we were blocked. This blocking directly targets press activities. Xwebûn is a weekly Kurdish newspaper. The newspaper carries out all its activities in Kurdish.”

The publisher noted that there has been a campaign for elective courses in Kurdish at schools recently. “At a time when citizens demand to speak Kurdish in public sphere, the AKP government imposes a ban on our newspaper. In fact, the language of the Kurds is banned,” he said.

ATTACK ON THE KURDISH LANGUAGE

Emphasizing that they are targeted because they publish a newspaper in Kurdish, Esen remarked that the main target of the blocking is the Kurdish language, rather than Xwebûn newspaper itself. The publisher stated that they would continue to do journalism based on the same principles despite all the pressures and crackdown. “They can prevent it, they can ban it, but we have alternatives. We have other methods. We will continue our activities in the same way. We will continue to do our job with the same determination as we did a few hours after the blocking,” the publisher concluded.