Update on 11 April 2025: Journalists Timur Soykan and Murat Ağırel were released under judicial supervision last night, around midnight. They have been deprived of their passports and are required to report to a police station three times a week while awaiting trial.
On the morning of 10 April, Turkish authorities detained investigative journalists Timur Soykan, a columnist for the independent daily BirGün, and Murat Ağırel from the newspaper Cumhuriyet. Both journalists are also prominent figures on the debate program Onlar TV, a recently launched YouTube channel. In the latest episodes, they spoke about alleged irregularities in the investigation targeting Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu. The Istanbul prosecutor has now charged the journalists with “blackmail” and “insult.” The homes of both journalists were searched and their professional equipment was seized.
These arrests come amid the authorities’ harsh crackdown on media outlets covering the mass protests sparked by the 19 March arrest of Istanbul’s mayor, the main political rival of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.