Judge Isil Karakas of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has stated in an interview with Turkish media that Turkey has the worst record on press freedom and freedom of expression among all member states of the Council of Europe. Turkey has been held accountable for almost 200 violations, compared to France's record of only 10 violations.
Judge Karakas highlighted his concern with the length of trial and detention periods for journalists in Turkey, similar to those experienced by journalist Mustafa Balbay. Mr Balbay spent his 1000th day in prison as the comments were released. The Turkish National Committee of the International Press Institute called for the release of Mr Balbay in addition to "all related laws (anti-terror law to be on top) which give way to the detention of journalists be amended as soon as possible."
The Judge also highlighted Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code, which prohibits insulting "Turkishness" as directly infringing Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights.