Turkey bans independent news sites in latest move to silence opposition
Following a new law restricting the online news media, a court order blocking 136 websites and social media accounts has highlighted the shrinking space for oppositional voices in Turkey.
![TURKEY-INTERNET/ People use computers at an internet cafe in Ankara February 6, 2014. Turkey's parliament, where Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan's AK Party has a majority, has approved internet controls enabling web pages to be blocked within hours in what the opposition decried as part of a government bid to stifle a corruption scandal with methods more suitable to "times of coups". Under a bill passed late on Wednesday, telecommunications authorities can block access to material within four hours without a prior court order](/sites/default/files/styles/article_hero_medium/public/almpics/2019/08/RTX18ALF.jpg/RTX18ALF.jpg?h=a5ae579a&itok=3nzkG4SF)
Independent journalist Hayri Tunc first noticed his news site Gazete Fersude was blocked on July 18.
He had been running the small alternative news outlet on personal funds for about a year with a team of five editors and 15 contributors. It was one of several news sites founded to fill a coverage gap left by the shuttering of nearly 200 news outlets since a 2016 coup attempt in Turkey. Media freedoms have been stifled as ongoing legal proceedings have landed at least 138 Turkish journalists behind bars, according to the press monitor Platform24.