move in October 2015, were also dropped from Türksat in November 2015. Later on 1 March 2016 these two seized channels closed due to financial reasons by government trustees. In March 2016 the two TV channels from other wings of the politics were also removed from Türksat, namely, Turkish Nationalist Benguturk and Kurdish Nationalist IMC TV. On 25 September 2017, Turkey decided to remove broadcaster Rudaw, which is affiliated to the Kurdistan Region, from its satellite broadcasting on the same day voting took place on an independence referendum in the KRG. Censorship of the media Censorship of sensitive topics in Turkey happens both online and offline. Kurdish issues, the Armenian genocide, as well as subjects controversial for Islam or the Turkish state are often censored. Enforcement remains arbitrary and unpredictable. Also, defamation of the Head of the State is a crime provision increasingly used for censoring critical voices in Turkey. In the 2018 Reporters Without Borders World Press Freedom Index, Turkey is ranked in the 157th place out of 178 countries. The situation for free expression has always been troubled in Turkey. The situation dramatically deteriorated after the 2013 Gezi protests, reaching its peak after the 15 July 2016 coup attempt. From that moment on, a state of emergency is in force, tens of thousand of journalists, academics, public officials and intellectuals have been arrested or charged, mainly with terrorist charges, sometimes following some statement or writing of them. The Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights' report on freedom of expression and media freedom in Turkey, after his 2016 visits to Turkey, noted that the violations to freedom of expression in Turkey have created a distinct chilling effect, manifesting in self- censorship both among the remaining media and among ordinary citizens. In addition, the Commissioner wrote that the main obstacle to an improvement of the situation of freedom of expression and media freedom in Turkey is the lack of political will both to acknowledge and to address such problems. Reporting bans and gag orders In 2017, the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights noted that with regard to judicial harassment restricting freedom of expression the main issues consist in: Backsliding in the case-law of the Turkish judiciary; Issues related to the independence of the judiciary and of the judicial culture; Defamation remains a criminal offence and causes dangerous chilling effects, in particular defamation of the President of the