{"id":151561,"date":"2026-08-24T16:36:10","date_gmt":"2026-08-24T16:36:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/151561\/"},"modified":"2026-08-24T16:36:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-24T16:36:10","slug":"turkish-journalists-group-condemns-restrictions-at-imamoglu-trial-health-ministry-event","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/151561\/","title":{"rendered":"Turkish journalists group condemns restrictions at \u0130mamo\u011flu trial, Health Ministry event"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

The Turkish Journalists Association (TGC) has condemned restrictions on reporters covering the trial of jailed Istanbul Mayor Ekrem \u0130mamo\u011flu 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.<\/p>\n

According to the ANKA news agency<\/a> the TGC said reporters covering the trial of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem \u0130mamo\u011flu and hundreds of co-defendants were seated so far from the proceedings that they were effectively being forced to follow the hearing \u201cwith binoculars.\u201d It separately said pro-government media were invited to an August 15 meeting with Health Minister Kemal Memi\u015fo\u011flu, while several prominent independent outlets and media organizations critical of the government were left out.<\/p>\n

\u201cJournalists being effectively forced to follow the hearing with binoculars is unacceptable,\u201d the TGC said in a statement Friday. It said restricting reporters\u2019 working areas or making it physically difficult for them to follow court proceedings constituted interference with freedom of the press.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s 33rd High Criminal Court.<\/p>\n

Among those detained is \u0130mamo\u011flu, President Recep Tayyip Erdo\u011fan\u2019s 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 Erdo\u011fan\u2019s opponents. The government denies those accusations and claims the courts operate independently.<\/p>\n

The TGC also criticized the Health Ministry over Memi\u015fo\u011flu\u2019s August 15 meeting with journalists in Istanbul.<\/p>\n

The association said media organizations considered close to the government were invited while Halk TV, S\u00f6zc\u00fc TV, the Cumhuriyet and BirG\u00fcn newspapers and the Diken news website were not.<\/p>\n

The TGC said public institutions should not decide which journalists receive access based on their outlets\u2019 editorial positions or perceived political views.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe duty of public institutions is not to decide which journalists will report the news, but to guarantee all journalists\u2019 right to obtain and report information,\u201d the association said. It called on public officials to stop using accreditation to discriminate among journalists.<\/p>\n

According to Expression Interrupted, a press freedom monitoring group, 22 journalists\u00a0are<\/a>\u00a0currently behind bars in Turkey. The country\u2019s deteriorating media landscape was further pointed out in the 2026 World Press Freedom Index published by Reporters Without Borders (RSF), where it was\u00a0ranked<\/a>\u00a0163rd out of 180 countries.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Turkish Journalists Association (TGC) has condemned restrictions on reporters covering the trial of jailed Istanbul Mayor Ekrem…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":151562,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[83],"tags":[43850,422,423,65416,71418,425,25126,8785,46445,312,71419,20590,427,71420,428,71421,19261,429,2033,431,71422,13573,131,132,71423,155,71424],"class_list":["post-151561","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-stockholm","tag-accreditation","tag-ak-party","tag-akp","tag-birgun","tag-cumhuriyet","tag-democracy","tag-ekrem-imamoglu","tag-halk-tv","tag-health-ministry","tag-human-rights","tag-istanbul-metropolitan-municipality","tag-journalists","tag-justice","tag-kemal-memisoglu","tag-law","tag-marmara-prison","tag-media-freedom","tag-oppression","tag-press-freedom","tag-rule-of-law","tag-silivri","tag-sozcu-tv","tag-stockholm","tag-sweden","tag-tgc","tag-turkey","tag-turkish-journalists-association"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@dk\/117151464774632417","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151561","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=151561"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151561\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/151562"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=151561"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=151561"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=151561"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}