A/HRC/41/35/Add.2 sweeping decrees enacted under the state of emergency. Cumulatively, they reinforced a climate for freedom of expression defined by media concentration, fear of reprisals and preemptive self-censorship. This could also be observed online, with legislation in place granting expansive governmental control over Internet content, providing for the blocking of websites, large numbers of takedown requests and a wide base for data collection, all without sufficient or effectively independent judicial oversight. 16. The Special Rapporteur made a series of recommendations subsequent to the visit, which concerned media freedom and access to information; Internet freedom; emergency decrees; and restrictions on the right to freedom of opinion and expression in national legislation. Table 2 contains a summary of the status of implementation of the recommendations. 17. Following the visit, the state of emergency was renewed at three-month intervals until it was lifted on 19 July 2018. Amid the renewals, widespread arrests, detentions, convictions, the imposition of harsh sentences and dismissals of journalists, media workers, academics, judges and public employees continued, as did the closure of independent and critical media outlets. Twenty-two new emergency decrees were passed, significantly reshaping portions of Turkish law. A referendum was held on 16 April 2017, in which amendments to the Constitution were passed by a narrow majority, thus transforming the country’s political system from a parliamentary system into a strong presidential system. In the context of security operations carried out by the Turkish military forces in south-eastern Turkey, human rights violations in that region intensified, with evidence gathered by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) attesting to killings of unarmed civilians, allegations of torture, the criminalization of journalism and public criticism of the operations. 3 18. The Special Rapporteur welcomes the input provided by the Turkish authorities for the present report, along with the responses to 17 of the 18 communications sent following the visit. However, he regrets the lack of effective efforts by the State to implement the recommendations made. While in some instances this has amounted to a lack of action and the resultant continuance of the status quo, in others action directly contrary to the recommendations has been taken. 19. The Government lifted the state of emergency in July 2018. During the period following the visit, in which the state of emergency was still being renewed, emergency measures continued to be used despite serious concerns as to their compatibility with international human rights standards regarding restrictions on freedom of expression. A great number of amendments to existing legislation were fast-tracked through state-ofemergency executive decrees and remain in force. 20. Many individuals who were being held in detention following their criticism of the Government or certain journalistic work at the time of the Special Rapporteur’s visit have remained in prison under national security and counter-terrorism legislation. To make matters worse, further persons have been detained on the same bases despite the ending of the state of emergency. The Special Rapporteur notes the Government’s position that no profession can be used as a shield against criminal investigations for alleged terrorist activities. He stresses, however, that the lack of evidence presented to justify charges of terrorism in these cases and the general overbroad legislation in this regard raises serious concerns. Civil society monitoring indicates that, as at the date of finalization of the present report, between 68 and 139 journalists were being detained. 21. The cases of those detained are dominated by arrests based on alleged violations of the counter-terrorism law. Placed in pretrial detention on charges including membership of a terrorist organization, spreading propaganda for a terrorist organization and assisting a 3 6 OHCHR, “Report on the human rights situation in south-east Turkey: July 2015 to December 2016”, available at www.ohchr.org/Documents/Countries/TR/OHCHR_SouthEast_TurkeyReport_10March2017.pdf; and “Report on the impact of the state of emergency on human rights in Turkey, including an update on the south-east: January–December 2017”, available at www.ohchr.org/Documents/Countries/TR/2018-03-19_Second_OHCHR_Turkey_Report.pdf.