On the 102nd anniversary of the abolishment of censorship in Turkey the chair of the Contemporary Journalist Association Ahmet Akabay asked whether the Prime Minister Erdoðan is aware of the fact that there 47 journalists in prison and more than 700 prisoners are currently on trial.

Reminding 106-year imprisonment punishment given Vedat Kurþun, the editor in chief of the only Kurdish newspaper in Turkey Azadiya Welat, Akabay said the government is putting political and financial pressure on opposition journalist and considers journalists as his clerks working for the government.

Akabay also stated that anti-terror laws used against alternative media institutions on account of ‘violating confidentiality’ and ‘attempting to influence the judiciary’. He further stated that even the sources are afraid of talking to the journalist in case their phones are tapped within the scope of the anti-terror law which increased since the AKP government came to power.