{"id":134816,"date":"2026-07-24T15:35:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-24T15:35:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/134816\/"},"modified":"2026-07-24T15:35:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-24T15:35:12","slug":"turkey-arrested-at-least-6-journalists-in-second-quarter-of-2026-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/134816\/","title":{"rendered":"Turkey arrested at least 6 journalists in second quarter of 2026: report"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Turkish courts sentenced six journalists to a combined seven-and-a-half years in prison during the second quarter of 2026, according to a media monitoring report<\/a> published Friday.<\/p>\n

The six journalists were convicted of charges including publicly disseminating misleading information, insulting judicial institutions, violating the confidentiality of an investigation and spreading propaganda for a terrorist organization. Three of the sentences were suspended.<\/p>\n

The B\u0130A Media Monitoring Report by the Bianet news website tracks prosecutions, detentions, physical attacks, censorship and regulatory action affecting journalists in Turkey.<\/p>\n

T24 columnist Tolga \u015eardan received a suspended five-month sentence for allegedly insulting judicial institutions in an article about a purported report by Turkey\u2019s National Intelligence Organization (M\u0130T) concerning the judiciary.<\/p>\n

Investigative journalists Bar\u0131\u015f Pehlivan and Murat A\u011f\u0131rel were each sentenced to 15 months in prison under Turkey\u2019s law criminalizing the public dissemination of allegedly misleading information. The charges arose from comments they made during a program on Halk TV.<\/p>\n

Journalist Timur Soykan received a suspended 10-month sentence for violating the confidentiality of an investigation. BirG\u00fcn columnist Zafer Arapkirli was sentenced to two-and-a-half years under the misleading-information law over a social media post about attacks on Alawites in Syria.<\/p>\n

Erdo\u011fan Alayumat received a suspended 15-month sentence on a charge of spreading propaganda for a terrorist organization.<\/p>\n

The report said the use of pretrial detention against journalists also continued. It cited the imprisonment of Kaos GL editor Y\u0131ld\u0131z Tar ahead of a NATO summit in Ankara and cases involving BirG\u00fcn reporter \u0130smail Ar\u0131, Ayd\u0131npost editor Yelis Ayaz and DW T\u00fcrk\u00e7e reporter Alican Uluda\u011f, who were later released.<\/p>\n

TELE1 editor-in-chief Merdan Yanarda\u011f had spent more than eight months in pretrial detention in a case involving allegations of political espionage, the report said.<\/p>\n

At least five journalists were detained by police during the quarter. Three of them \u2014 M\u00fcberra \u00dcnsal, Yusuf \u00c7elik and Do\u011fa Tekneci \u2014 were taken into custody while covering LGBTQ+ Pride Week and related events.<\/p>\n

The report said police beat pro-Kurdish Mezopotamya Agency reporter Sema Bing\u00f6l while detaining her as she covered a commemoration in Ankara for Ethem Sar\u0131s\u00fcl\u00fck, a protester killed during Turkey\u2019s 2013 anti-government demonstrations.<\/p>\n

At least five journalists were attacked or physically obstructed, including three during incidents outside the headquarters of the main opposition Republican People\u2019s Party (CHP).<\/p>\n

A police officer also sprayed tear gas at close range toward the face of K\u0131sa Dalga reporter G\u00fclseren \u00d6zkan as she covered May Day demonstrations. Journalist Erhan G\u00fclen\u00e7 said he was threatened after publishing footage of businessman Rahmi Ko\u00e7 telling a controversial joke referring to a Kurdish woman and that an executive pressured him to remove the video.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The office of the \u0130zmir-based \u0130z Gazete newspaper was also damaged in an attempted break-in, according to the report.<\/p>\n

The report separately documented restrictions on X accounts belonging to journalists, media outlets and organizations covering LGBTQ+ issues.<\/p>\n

At least 16 journalists and cartoonists faced trials carrying possible sentences of up to four years, eight months for allegedly insulting President Recep Tayyip Erdo\u011fan.<\/p>\n

More than 250 journalists have faced prosecution under the provision since Erdo\u011fan became president in 2014, and at least 80 have received prison sentences or fines, the report said.<\/p>\n

Turkey\u2019s broadcasting regulator also imposed three fines totaling about 1.1 million Turkish lira ($23,233) on television stations over news and current affairs programming during the quarter.<\/p>\n

Turkey, which remains one of the world\u2019s leading jailers of journalists, according to press freedom organizations, dropped to 159th out of 180 countries in the 2025 World Press Freedom Index, published by Reporters Without Borders (RSF) in early May.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Turkish courts sentenced six journalists to a combined seven-and-a-half years in prison during the second quarter of 2026,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":134817,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[83],"tags":[422,423,13061,65414,65415,65416,65417,425,426,53375,65418,25127,65419,8785,312,40209,65420,427,59328,65421,428,65422,19261,1871,65423,65424,16180,33830,65425,9711,429,34421,2033,43199,3579,431,31430,131,132,13067,65426,12632,21943,155,57364,33846],"class_list":["post-134816","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-stockholm","tag-ak-party","tag-akp","tag-baris-pehlivan","tag-bia-media-monitoring-report","tag-bianet","tag-birgun","tag-broadcasting-fines","tag-democracy","tag-erdogan","tag-erdogan-alayumat","tag-erhan-gulenc","tag-european-court-of-human-rights","tag-gulseren-ozkan","tag-halk-tv","tag-human-rights","tag-journalism","tag-journalist-prosecutions","tag-justice","tag-kaos-gl","tag-kisa-dalga","tag-law","tag-lgbtq-reporting","tag-media-freedom","tag-merdan-yanardag","tag-mezopotamya-agency","tag-misleading-information-law","tag-mit","tag-murat-agirel","tag-national-intelligence-organization","tag-online-censorship","tag-oppression","tag-police-violence","tag-press-freedom","tag-pretrial-detention","tag-recep-tayyip-erdogan","tag-rule-of-law","tag-sema-bingol","tag-stockholm","tag-sweden","tag-tele1","tag-terrorist-propaganda-charges","tag-timur-soykan","tag-tolga-sardan","tag-turkey","tag-yildiz-tar","tag-zafer-arapkirli"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134816","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=134816"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134816\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/134817"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=134816"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=134816"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=134816"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}