Turkey will punish the spread of “fake news” with prison sentences of up to three years

Oct. 14 (EUROPA PRESS) –

The Turkish Parliament has approved this Thursday night a disinformation law that will punish the spread of “fake news” with up to three years in prison.

Article 29 of the law opens the way for journalists and social network users to be sentenced to up to three years in prison for “disseminating misleading information to the public,” reports the T24 newspaper.

“Whoever publicly disseminates false information about the internal and external security of the country, public order and health in general, with the purpose of creating anxiety, fear or panic in the citizenry, in a way capable of disturbing public peace, will be sanctioned with prison sentence of 1 year to 3 years,” reports the Anadolia agency.

In the event that the author commits this crime by concealing his true identity or within the framework of the activities of an organization, the penalty in question will increase, collects the aforementioned agency.

On the other hand, article 31 gives the provider association the authority to make the decision to remove or block access to all content on websites.

The Draft Law to Amend the Press Law and Some Laws, known as the ‘Censorship Law’, has been approved by deputies from the Justice and Development Party (AKP), of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and the Nationalist Action Party (MHP), the president’s main ally.

The deputy chairman of the Iyi party’s parliamentary group, Erján Usta, has criticized the adoption of the law. “This law will further increase this climate of fear and oppression. In particular, article 29 is a bad article,” he commented; while Tuncay Ozcan, a deputy from the CHP Izmir party, has stated that this law “puts Turkey in a dark tunnel”, collects T24.