Freedom House: “Turkish web freedom in sharp decline”.

Freedom House: “Turkish web freedom in sharp decline”. (Platform24).

Freedom House, the Washington-based rights monitoring organization has again slammed Turkey for the rapid erosion of basic liberties in a report on Internet freedom released today (4 December).

The report complains of a sharp decline in web freedom worldwide but says nowhere has that decline been steeper than Russia, Turkey and Ukraine.

In May this year, Freedom House lambasted the state of press freedom in Turkey, demoting it to “not free.” Turkish web denizens do not fare quite so badly. They are still assessed as “partly free.” In a human rights report card in which lower means better, Turkey scores 55 points putting it on a par with Zimbabwe and Azerbaijan.

The report entitled “Freedom on the Net 2014 emphasises the rate of decline. Whereas Russia sank by11 points over the last three years Turkey has fallen by 13. In making their assessment, evaluators consider a host of factors including whether authorities block social, political or religious content and whether internet reporters and bloggers face prosecution or arrest.

Turkey has been weighed and found wanting. “The government increased censorship, granted state agencies broad powers to block content, and charged more people for online expression,” the report says. Read the full story here.