{"id":47502,"date":"2026-03-24T18:55:11","date_gmt":"2026-03-24T18:55:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/47502\/"},"modified":"2026-03-24T18:55:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-24T18:55:11","slug":"turkish-court-orders-arrest-of-journalist-on-disinformation-charges","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/47502\/","title":{"rendered":"Turkish court orders arrest of journalist on disinformation charges"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

A Turkish court on Sunday ordered the arrest of journalist \u0130smail Ar\u0131 of the BirG\u00fcn daily on charges of \u201cpublicly disseminating misleading information,\u201d Turkish media reported.<\/p>\n

An Ankara magistrate court of peace ordered<\/a> Ar\u0131 jailed pending trial at the request of the Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor\u2019s Office, without taking his statement. He was detained on Saturday evening in the northern province of Tokat.<\/p>\n

In a message conveyed through his lawyers, Ar\u0131 said he was detained over a video broadcast three months ago. \u201cThey have been looking for a pretext to arrest me for the past year,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

During his interrogation at the Ankara Police Department, Ar\u0131 was asked<\/a> about four of his news reports and social media posts, including a video about foundations linked to family members of President Recep Tayyip Erdo\u011fan, alleged irregularities<\/a> at the state-run Yunus Emre Institute, the construction<\/a> of a dormitory on a cultural heritage site near the imam hatip religious school from which President Erdo\u011fan graduated and judicial appointments.<\/p>\n

Ar\u0131 was recently indicted<\/a> after his report on alleged corruption at the Yunus Emre Institute on charges of \u201ccreating the perception of involvement in corruption,\u201d following a complaint by former deputy chairman of the institute Rahmi G\u00f6kta\u015f, the husband of Family and Social Services Minister Mahinur G\u00f6kta\u015f.<\/p>\n

Ar\u0131 denied the accusations, saying the information he shared was based on open sources and that his reporting should be considered within the scope of freedom of the press and expression.<\/p>\n

His arrest attracted widespread criticism. The Turkish Journalists Union (TGS) said<\/a> such practices against journalists had reached a level that \u201chardly differs from a system of hostile law,\u201d urging the authorities to respect press freedom, end practices undermining the public\u2019s right to information and release all imprisoned journalists.<\/p>\n

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said<\/a> the detention reflected the continuation of \u201ca political project aimed at dismantling investigative journalism through judicial means.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) urged<\/a> Turkish authorities to immediately release Ar\u0131 and stop misusing the disinformation law.<\/p>\n

Celal F\u0131rat, a lawmaker from the opposition Peoples\u2019 Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party), submitted<\/a> a parliamentary question to Justice Minister Ak\u0131n G\u00fcrlek, asking what specific acts formed the basis of the investigation into Ar\u0131, why they were not considered within the scope of journalistic activity and on what grounds his reporting on alleged corruption involving the Yunus Emre Institute was included in the probe.<\/p>\n

Protests were held<\/a> in \u0130stanbul and Ankara, with journalists, press organizations and opposition politicians publicly demanding his release.<\/p>\n

According to Expression Interrupted, a press freedom monitoring group, 29 journalists\u00a0are<\/a>\u00a0currently behind bars in Turkey. The country\u2019s deteriorating media landscape was also highlighted in the 2025 World Press Freedom Index published by Reporters Without Borders (RSF), which\u00a0ranked<\/a>\u00a0Turkey\u00a0159th out of 180 nations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Turkish court on Sunday ordered the arrest of journalist \u0130smail Ar\u0131 of the BirG\u00fcn daily on charges…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":47503,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[83],"tags":[26738,26364,11960,429,314,2033,16759,26739,131,132,13574,155,26740,26741],"class_list":{"0":"post-47502","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-stockholm","8":"tag-critical-journalism","9":"tag-disinformation-law","10":"tag-ismail-ari","11":"tag-oppression","12":"tag-president-recep-tayyip-erdogan","13":"tag-press-freedom","14":"tag-public-dissemination-of-misleading-information","15":"tag-reporters-without-borders-rsf","16":"tag-stockholm","17":"tag-sweden","18":"tag-the-committee-to-protect-journalists-cpj","19":"tag-turkey","20":"tag-turkish-journalists-union","21":"tag-yunus-emre-institute"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@dk\/116285677596463362","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47502","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=47502"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47502\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47503"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47502"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47502"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47502"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}