The Turkish Journalists Association (TGC) has condemned restrictions on reporters covering the trial of jailed Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu and accused the Health Ministry of excluding critical news outlets from a meeting with the minister, calling the measures discriminatory and an infringement on press freedom.
According to the ANKA news agency the TGC said reporters covering the trial of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu and hundreds of co-defendants were seated so far from the proceedings that they were effectively being forced to follow the hearing “with binoculars.” It separately said pro-government media were invited to an August 15 meeting with Health Minister Kemal Memişoğlu, while several prominent independent outlets and media organizations critical of the government were left out.
“Journalists being effectively forced to follow the hearing with binoculars is unacceptable,” the TGC said in a statement Friday. It said restricting reporters’ working areas or making it physically difficult for them to follow court proceedings constituted interference with freedom of the press.
The proceedings are being held in a newly built courtroom at the Marmara prison complex in Silivri, west of Istanbul. The case has 414 defendants, including 53 being held in pretrial detention, and is being heard by Istanbul’s 33rd High Criminal Court.
Among those detained is İmamoğlu, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s strongest political rival, who has been jailed since March 2025 on corruption charges he denies. His prosecution and a larger series of cases against opposition politicians have sparked accusations that the judiciary is being used to sideline Erdoğan’s opponents. The government denies those accusations and claims the courts operate independently.
The TGC also criticized the Health Ministry over Memişoğlu’s August 15 meeting with journalists in Istanbul.
The association said media organizations considered close to the government were invited while Halk TV, Sözcü TV, the Cumhuriyet and BirGün newspapers and the Diken news website were not.
The TGC said public institutions should not decide which journalists receive access based on their outlets’ editorial positions or perceived political views.
“The duty of public institutions is not to decide which journalists will report the news, but to guarantee all journalists’ right to obtain and report information,” the association said. It called on public officials to stop using accreditation to discriminate among journalists.
According to Expression Interrupted, a press freedom monitoring group, 22 journalists are currently behind bars in Turkey. The country’s deteriorating media landscape was further pointed out in the 2026 World Press Freedom Index published by Reporters Without Borders (RSF), where it was ranked 163rd out of 180 countries.