The International Press Institute (IPI) is marking December 10, Human Rights Day, with a nationwide advertising campaign in Turkey to highlight the immense challenges and threats the country’s independent media face.

In recent years, the Turkish government has systematically increased pressure on media via a number of methods including judicial harassment, disproportionate laws, online attacks and smear campaigns, regulatory fines, and advertising and broadcast bans. Through friendly ownership networks, the government has also captured the majority of the mainstream press.

Amid the growing number of methods of information control, IPI is focusing its nationwide ad campaign on the theme of censorship. Despite the challenges, the campaign slogan stresses that “censorship does not bend the truth”.

“This campaign highlights the grave level of government efforts to censor independent media on all possible fronts. But it also draws attention to the fact that no matter how great such censorship is, and no matter how strong the pressure, the truth will always find its way out thanks to the dedication of Turkey’s journalists to critical, factual, and independent reporting”, IPI Turkey Programme Coordinator Renan Akyavaş said.