Pen International issued a report this week calling attention to escalating restrictions on journalists and writers in Turkey, particularly after the crackdown on the Gezi Protests last June.

The excessive use of police force, as well as widespread media censorship and reprisals against journalists and users of social media, starkly illustrated the shortcomings of Turkish democracy in its lack of pluralism and disregard for fundamental rights and freedoms.

PEN’s recommendations include:

• Investigate all violations of the right to freedom of expression and assembly committed by state officials and bring anyone responsible for abuses to justice
• Ensure that violations of the right to life are not met with impunity
• Carry out an independent inquiry into the failure of the police to protect journalists adequately
• Decriminalise defamation as a matter of urgency and dismiss cases brought against critics of the prime minister
• Overturn the regime of online censorship and surveillance initiated by the new internet law

Links to the report, in English and in Turkish can be found here.