The International Press Institute (IPI) today joined with the Council of Europe’s leadership in calling on Turkey to change its attitude toward media freedom.

Reuters reported on Tuesday that the Council’s secretary general, Thorbjorn Jagland, said Turkey had approximately 16,000 cases pending before the European Court of Human Rights, 1,000 of which concerned media freedom.

Jagland, who was in Ankara to discuss media freedom with members of Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan’s government, said the situation had “a chilling effect” on freedom of expression. He told Reuters: “Turkish courts and prosecutors need to have a better understanding of European standards of what journalists are allowed to write and say without being put in jail.”

IPI Executive Director Alison Bethel McKenzie said: “We are pleased to hear the secretary general of the Council of Europe speaking out so clearly about the predicament of the media in Turkey. We await clear decisive action on the part of the Turkish authorities to address concerns that dozens of journalists are in prison in Turkey because of their work.”

Ferai Tinç, a member of IPI’s Executive Board and the chair of its Turkey National Committee, added: ” Even if one journalist is in jail, this is enough to poison the media climate in a country. Today we have 63 journalist in the jails of Turkey.  We call on the government to make appropriate legal changes to ensure freedom of opinion and press freedom in the country. We want freedom for all journalists and writers. Without a free press, Turkey can neither be a real democracy, nor a role model in the democratisation process of its region.”

According to the Freedom for Journalists Platform, an umbrella group representing local and national media organizations in Turkey, including IPI’s National Committee, Turkey is currently holding 63 journalists in prison. That number includes IPI World Press Freedom Hero Nedim Şener and it appears to make Turkey the world’s leading jailer of journalists.

Turkey’s Justice Ministry in August acknowledged that it was holding 63 journalists and that only 18 had been convicted of a crime. The ministry reportedly declared that four journalists were imprisoned due to their writings, but maintained that the others were not in prison because of their work.

Many of the imprisoned journalists – particularly those detained in connection with the “Ergenekon” probe into an alleged clandestine Kemalist ultra-nationalist organisation with ties to members of the country’s military and security forces, which has been accused of plotting to use terrorism to overthrow the government – have been subject to lengthy pre-trial imprisonment.

The South and East Europe Media Organisation (SEEMO), an IPI affiliate, supports this statement.