The Committee to Protect Journalists joined the International Press Institute and six other press freedom and human rights organizations in the seventh year of a joint press freedom mission to Ankara, Turkey. The delegation also included representatives from the ARTICLE 19 Europe, the European Centre for Press and Media Freedom, Osservatorio Balcani Caucaso Transeuropa as part of Media Freedom Rapid Response, Reporters Without Borders, and the South East Europe Media Organisation.

“Ensuring a safe, free and pluralistic media environment is essential to democracy, the rule of law, and the meaningful protection of human rights,” the delegation said in a press release Wednesday. “The steps taken in 2025 have moved Turkey further away from these standards.”

Representatives of the Turkish governmental bodies either rejected or ignored the mission’s requests for meetings. The delegation held meetings with the Turkish Constitutional Court, the opposition representatives of the Radio and Television Supreme Council, the Delegation of the European Union to Turkey, several foreign diplomatic missions, the Association of Journalists in Ankara, and representatives of from the Republican People’s Party and the Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party. 

Read the full press release here.