Turkey has had a rough year politically, socially, and financially. The ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) was busy battling both at home and abroad and steered the country into a financial crisis. By some non-state accounts, the inflation has reached 170 percent, and the annual price increase reached 86 percent at the time of writing this story, making future projections look grim for the country of some 80 million people. But it is not just the domestic political scene or the economy that is hurting. The crackdown on media practitioners and an increasingly restrictive media environment was another grim highlight of the past year. In what critics have described as a boost to systematic censorship and a threat to freedom of speech, with disastrous consequences ahead of Turkey's 2023 election, in October, Turkish lawmakers approved a law on disinformation. On December 15, Sinan Aygül became the first journalist to be prosecuted under the new law. According to a local civic platform, Media and Law Studies Association, there are at least 66 imprisoned journalists and media employees in Turkey. The most recent example is financial reporter Mustafa Sönmez who was charged with insulting the head of state over a tweet the journalist shared about the government’s economic and currency (mis)management. According to Article 299 of the Turkish Penal Code, it is illegal to insult the President. The accused can face up to four years behind bars. Students, artists, journalists, lawyers, and average citizens have been prosecuted or faced trial for insulting the president. The ruling party continued to wage war on arts and culture. The most recent example includes a Turkish film, “Burning Days” [Kurak Gunler], which has won accolades globally since its premiere. The film was censored by Turkey’s Ministry of Culture and Tourism. The ministry claimed the film changed its script after getting funding from the ministry. The makers of the film refuted the claims. The film's plot “subtly condemns cruelty against minority groups — from people of different sexual orientations to ethnic minorities, women, animals and the environment. It uses an impoverished town in the Anatolian countryside as an allegory for Turkey,” wrote freelance journalist and academic Kenan Behzat Sharpe. This year, local authorities also canceled a series of music events, attempted censoring Spotify, and banned a music video about love between two men. At least one singer was arrested, and news reports of musicians getting beaten up by random strangers kept making it into the news cycle. In one case, musician Onur Şener died as a result of violence. The judiciary system also drew public ire. While perpetrators of crimes like child abuse and pedophilia, supporters of hate and violence, and culprits behind the death of a young university student went unpunished, hasty court decisions were handed left and right to imprison or reprimand journalists, level accusations against mayors, as well as sentence one prominent philanthropist to life in prison for bogus charges. Most recently, documentary filmmaker, Sibel Tekin, was arrested for filming a police car and accused of being a member of a terrorist organization. Tekin was working on a new project about daylight savings time, according to local media reports. And yet, no measures were taken against police officers who beat up, used tear gas and rubber bullets on protesters who took the streets for various causes, including the annual night march organized by women, the PRIDE march, and a demonstration calling for an end to violence against women to name a few. Turkey was also rocked by news of a deadly explosion on Istanbul's busy pedestrian street of Istiklal, killing six and injuring over 80 people. Shortly after the explosion, internet access across the country was throttled, and the authorities accused Kurdish militants, namely the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) and the Syrian People's Protection Units (YPG), of orchestrating the attack. Shortly after, Turkey launched its largest air campaign to date — operation “Claw-Sword” — against Syrian Kurdish groups. Both accused groups denied any responsibility for the bombing. In an interview with Al-Monitor, Mazlum Kobane (also known as Mazloum Abdi), the commander of the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), said their investigations pointed at the “Syrian opposition groups operating under Turkey's control” as culprits and possible links to the Islamic State.