Freedom of expression during each president's tenure
Every president since 1991, ranked by how the freedom of expression changed from their first day in office. Politare shows what happened during a tenure; it does not claim the office-holder caused it.
| # | President | In office | Total | Per year | Chart |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | DSP Bülent Ecevit | 11 Jan 1999 – 18 Nov 2002 | +13.4 points 1998 → 2002 | +3.4 points/yr | |
| 2 | DYP Tansu Çiller | 25 Jun 1993 – 6 Mar 1996 | +1.3 points 1992 → 1995 | +0.4 points/yr | |
| 3 | AKP Recep Tayyip Erdoğan | 9 Jul 2018 – now | −1.9 points 2018 → 2025 | −0.3 points/yr | |
| 4 | AKP Binali Yıldırım | 24 May 2016 – 9 Jul 2018 | −15.4 points 2015 → 2018 | −5.1 points/yr | |
| 5 | AKP Recep Tayyip Erdoğan | 14 Mar 2003 – 28 Aug 2014 | −36.9 points 2002 → 2014 | −3.1 points/yr |
Sorted by total, highest first. Every row is indexed to the last count complete before the first day in office ("from" marks a start that had to move because that count had no data, or because the period cut it); Levels are per cent changes, rates are differences in points; "per year" compounds levels and divides rates. Tenures with under 12 months, or under three observations, are left out. points, 0 to 100, V-Dem's 0 to 1 index times 100 · V-Dem Institute, V-Dem dataset v16 (v2x_freexp_altinf): the freedom of expression and alternative sources of information index, the press, academic and private speech and the media's independence, as V-Dem's country experts rate them, with V-Dem's confidence interval; the 0 to 1 index times 100 · Turkey data · as of Sep 2026.