Ankara - (AFP) - On Thursday evening, with the general elections scheduled for June 2023 approaching, the Turkish Parliament approved a law to combat disinformation, which imposes, in particular, on those who publish "false or misleading information", a penalty of up to three years in prison.

In addition to visual, audio and written media, the law targets social networks and websites that will be obligated, according to its provisions, to report their users who publish misleading or false news and provide the authorities with their personal data.

The law, which was approved on Thursday evening under the name "The Press Law," includes forty articles, and Parliament began debating it in early October.

Since the beginning of the discussion of this law proposal, the opposition has tried to introduce several amendments to its provisions, but its attempts failed.
The opposition denounced the new legislation, considering it a "censorship law".

Article 29 of this law stipulates, in particular, the imposition of a prison sentence of between one and three years on anyone who commits the crime of “publishing false or misleading information that contradicts the internal or external security of the country, or that is likely to harm public health, or disturb pacifying public order, or spreading fear or panic among people.”

The new sharia is the fruit of a law proposal put forward in May by deputies of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), led by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who will seek a new term in the June 2023 elections.

Dozens of Turkish journalists staged a sit-in in front of the parliament in Ankara in early October, rejecting the "censorship law" and emphasizing that "a free press is a condition for democracy."

With the presidential and legislative elections scheduled for June 2023 approaching, observers believe that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is trying to exercise more control over the press and social media.

Non-governmental organizations continue to denounce the decline in press freedom in Turkey, which ranks 149th out of 180 countries in the 2022 press freedom ranking issued by Reporters Without Borders.