Business reporters now being harassed in Turkey

Source:Reporters without Borders Date:22Jun2019

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) is alarmed by the number of business reporters who are being prosecuted in Turkey. One, Cengiz Erdinç, was going on trial today in a case brought by the Turkish state-owned bank Ziraat, while two Bloomberg correspondents will go on trial in September in connection with their coverage of last year’s currency crisis.

It seems as though almost all subjects are now off limits for the media in Turkey. Covering the economy is certainly getting more dangerous. In a trial opening in Istanbul today, Erdinç is facing a possible jail term for a story for the daily newspaper Yurt in 2016 in which he reported that Ziraat’s New York branch had been forced to stop providing banking services to individuals as a result of an investigation by the US financial authorities.