Dateline: May 17

Tonight Dateline speaks to Turkish journalist Can Dündar about what he describes as an attack on freedom of speech.

He has recently been shot at, then sentenced to six years in prison for revealing state secrets.

Can Dündar is Editor in Chief of influential newspaper Cumhuriyet and a strong critic of the government.

“We have a president that hates criticism,” he says. “He tries to give the idea that if you criticise me, you will be in jail. And the others keep their silence, that’s the chilling effect.”

Dateline is also able to get access to more of those fighting to speak out, including a TV executive already in prison and an outspoken former presenter facing a social media hate campaign.

“Hoping Inshallah your body will be dismantled into tiny little pieces,” Sedef Kabas reads in a tweet she received.

The former host and panel guest has over 200,000 twitter followers. The backlash followed a tweet she posted in 2013 about an investigation into corruption that implicated government ministers.

She was charged and faced 10 years in jail. Although acquitted, she won’t be silenced.

“There are hundreds of people being paid, getting salary, to write these posts,” she says, believing they’re written by supporters of the president’s ruling AK Party. “There is escalating crackdown on free press.”

But the government denies that it’s targeting journalists and academics.

“You can see that some are very critical of the government, some are pro-government maybe,” MP Talip Küçükcan tells Geoff. “I think this is the case in many countries.”

“So, no crackdown underway in your view?” Geoff asks him. “No,” he replies.

President Erdoğan has guided Turkey for 13 years, first as Prime Minister and now President.

He’s credited with many positive reforms including in the legal system, health and transport. Per capita income has nearly tripled. And he’s vowed to protect his people from terror attacks by Islamic State and Kurdish militants.

“Tayyip Erdoğan is definitely not a hard man… he is not hard towards the people,” one of his supporters tells Dateline. “He is very hard towards the guilty… that’s the reason these people love him.”

Actor Levent Üzümcü is also loved by millions, but he says Erdoğan is not among his fans. He believes he was sacked from the Istanbul City Theatre for criticising the country’s politics.

“There are now almost no free media organisations that can freely produce a TV series or have control of the medium,” he tells Geoff. “That’s why we can’t talk about anything being free in Turkey today.”

So is Turkey’s democracy on trial?

9.30pm tonight on SBS.