Thousands of people, including journalists, human rights activists and opposition representatives, gathered in Istanbul and Ankara on Saturday to protest against state pressure on independent media in Turkey.
Police estimated that at least 3,000 people attended demonstrations in each city. Protesters carried photographs of jailed journalists and chanted slogans including "Enough!", "We can no longer breathe!", "We will not be silenced. Enough is enough!" and "We will not bow to pressure".
Press freedom in Turkey has faced increasing restrictions since a failed coup attempt in 2016, including prosecutions, digital censorship and official allegations of fake news. The Turkish Journalists' Union said authorities had jailed 11 journalists over the past two months and shut down several media outlets, reports AFP.
Recent actions cited by demonstrators included a police raid on Halk TV, one of Turkey's most-watched news channels, which halted broadcasts and led to the appointment of a state administrator over its critical coverage of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's government. Authorities also blocked the website and social media channels of digital news platform T24 over allegations of "LGBT propaganda".
Another case involved Ismail Ari, a reporter for the newspaper BirGun, who was imprisoned at Sincan prison for a second time in seven months. He faces charges of "insulting a public official" and "publicly disseminating misleading information" following a complaint by broadcasting regulator chief Ebubekir Sahin.
Zafer Arapkirli, a columnist for BirGun, said the demonstrations were about defending both journalists and the public's access to information.
"This gathering is not simply about standing up for journalists... It is also about defending respect for society's right to access information and news through journalists and independent media", he said.
Arapkirli said the authorities' actions were intended to intimidate journalists and the wider public.
"What the regime wants is to intimidate, silence and frighten society through such pressure -- by arresting individual journalists, seizing media outlets, banning news coverage and blocking access to social media", he said.
"We must show that we will not allow this to happen... I believe we are now moving towards demonstrating this determination on a much larger scale", he added.
Gokhan Durmus, president of the Turkish Journalists' Union, said recent restrictions had affected major broadcasters and news platforms.
"If we look at the recent restrictions, access bans and trustee appointments, they have targeted some of the most widely followed and watched broadcasters, news channels and media platforms", he said.
"We are seeing a system emerge in which everything is uniform: one voice, one source of news, one centralised operation", Durmus added.
Gokcer Tahincioglu, a journalist from the shut-down outlet T24, said the protest had brought journalists together while highlighting the public's right to information.
"Today's protest was important both because it brought journalists together to make their voices heard and because it defended citizens' right to access information", he said.
"Journalists are determined to get one message across: we want to practise journalism, and we want to be able to do so freely", he added.
A letter from Ari, read aloud at the demonstration, described his imprisonment as a consequence of his work.
"I am being held in prison for no reason other than doing my job as a journalist. Days are being stolen from my life", he wrote.
"We will defend journalism to the very end. Take your hands off us, comply with the constitution and let us do our job", he added.
The Turkish government maintains that journalists are not arrested or imprisoned for performing their professional duties.