CAIRO – 19 January 2020: Turkey has closed 200 media platforms over the past six years, and has arrested hundreds of journalists over criticizing President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Egyptian human rights official said.
In an interview with Egypt Today, Mohamed Osman, head of the human rights unit in the State Information Service, said that he has observed that Turkish prisons are full of journalists and thinkers.
Osman urged Turkish authorities to address their internal problems and stop suppressing peaceful opposition figures, instead of Fracturing our heads with hollow lectures on human rights. He affirmed that the regime violates the rights of Turkish citizens and do not apply human rights principles on the ground.
Closing Turkish platform
On Wednesday, Egypt's Interior Ministry said it thwarted schemes for the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood group, as the ministry’s national security sector spotted an electronic platform “funded by Turkey.”
The ministry said the platform leaders rented an apartment to create “negative” press reports that contain “false and fabricated” information about the political, economic, security, and human rights situation in Egypt and send them to the headquarters of the “agency” in Turkey, to “distort the image of the Egyptian state on the internal and external levels.
The Turkish presidency described the Egyptian steps against the alleged headquarters of the Turkish state-run Anadolu Agency as “hostile.”
In response, Egyptian Foreign Ministry voiced Egypt’s categorical rejection of the Turkish official comments on the Egyptian “legal procedures,” saying that the current Turkish regime takes the lead in abusing the freedom of opinion, expression and press, as well as other basic rights and freedoms, according to indicators.
The ministry also accused the Turkish regime of "supporting and financing extremist groups and terrorist militias in a number of countries in the region, with the aim of enabling them to control the fate of their peoples by force of arms and by using rogue methods of intimidation, in a desperate endeavor by the Ankara regime to achieve personal aspirations and personal goals, in order to restore a past that is based on the illusion of false glories.”
In a sharper tone, the statement said the Turkish comments would not change “the fact that the disgraced system” stained the name of Turkey, made it occupy an advanced position globally concerning imprisoning journalists, and caused it rank 157th out of 180 countries in terms of the 2019 Press Freedom Index.
Egypt Ministry of Foreign Affairs summoned on Thursday the Turkish Chargé d'affaires to express their refusal to the latest Turkish comments.
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