{"id":151865,"date":"2026-08-25T02:10:11","date_gmt":"2026-08-25T02:10:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/151865\/"},"modified":"2026-08-25T02:10:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-25T02:10:11","slug":"turkey-blocks-reports-on-former-health-minister-on-national-security-grounds-after-court-rejects-access-ban","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/151865\/","title":{"rendered":"Turkey blocks reports on former health minister on national security grounds after court rejects access ban"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"\"\"<\/a>Fahrettin Koca – Celal Eren \u00c7elik<\/p>\n

Turkish authorities have blocked access<\/a> to an investigative report, podcast and social media posts about former health minister Fahrettin Koca and the Medipol healthcare and education group he founded, on national security and public order grounds, days after a court rejected a request to restrict the same content.<\/p>\n

The restrictions target an investigative report<\/a> by Celal Eren \u00c7elik, editor-in-chief of the Haber Alternatif news website, titled \u201cMedipol \u0130mparatorlu\u011fu\u201d (Medipol Empire), along with a related podcast on YouTube and his posts on X, according to the Freedom of Expression Association (\u0130F\u00d6D).<\/p>\n

The content was blocked under Article 8\/A of Turkey\u2019s Internet Law No. 5651, which allows restrictions on online content on grounds including national security and public order. X also made \u00c7elik\u2019s posts inaccessible in Turkey.<\/p>\n

The restrictions came after Ankara Medipol University, \u0130stanbul Medipol University, Medipolitan Health and Education Services Inc. and two foundations sought an interim court order restricting the content. The \u0130stanbul 24th Civil Court of First Instance rejected<\/a> the request on August 12.<\/p>\n

\u00c7elik\u2019s report examines the growth of Medipol and Koca\u2019s role in the network as well as allegations concerning the allocation of public land and resources to Medipol-linked institutions and their ties to the health bureaucracy. Koca served as Turkey\u2019s health minister from 2018 to 2024.<\/p>\n

The report discusses, among other issues, the allocation of a former state tobacco building and a large tract of land in \u0130stanbul, as well as land in Ankara, to Medipol universities.<\/p>\n

The investigation also cites allegations dating from the COVID-19 pandemic that licensing applications by three pharmaceutical companies were delayed in order to favor a similar drug project involving Medipol University.<\/p>\n

A related podcast<\/a> by \u00c7elik discusses the same allegations and raises questions about why the Health Ministry allegedly did not act on the \u201cNewborn Gang\u201d case during Koca\u2019s tenure. The case involves allegations that healthcare workers at private hospitals subjected<\/a> newborns to unnecessary medical procedures to increase hospital revenue, resulting in the death of at least 10 infants.<\/p>\n

Turkey authorities have repeatedly used Law No. 5651 to restrict online content on national security and public order grounds. Courts and administrative authorities have used the provision to block news reports, social media posts, accounts and websites. Press freedom and digital rights groups have criticized Article 8\/A for allowing content to be blocked without adequate judicial scrutiny.<\/p>\n

Online censorship in Turkey has expanded sharply in recent years. According to the \u0130F\u00d6D\u2019s EngelliWeb project, authorities\u00a0blocked<\/a>\u00a0more than 232,000 websites and domain names in 2025, bringing the total number restricted since 2018 to more than 1.5 million.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fahrettin Koca – Celal Eren \u00c7elik Turkish authorities have blocked access to an investigative report, podcast and social…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":151866,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[83],"tags":[71539,71540,71541,9709,71542,71543,71544,51831,2033,131,132,155,60772],"class_list":["post-151865","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-stockholm","tag-ankara-medipol-university","tag-celal-eren-celik","tag-fahrettin-koca","tag-freedom-of-expression-association-ifod","tag-haber-alternatif","tag-istanbul-medipol-university","tag-medipol","tag-newborn-gang","tag-press-freedom","tag-stockholm","tag-sweden","tag-turkey","tag-turkeys-internet-law"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@dk\/117153721790303891","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151865","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=151865"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151865\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/151866"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=151865"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=151865"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=151865"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}