{"id":61658,"date":"2026-04-15T18:23:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-15T18:23:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/61658\/"},"modified":"2026-04-15T18:23:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-15T18:23:09","slug":"turkish-court-sentences-3-journalists-over-tv-commentary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/61658\/","title":{"rendered":"Turkish court sentences 3 journalists over TV commentary"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>            <a href=\"https:\/\/stockholmcf.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Let-It-Be-on-the-Record.jpeg\" data-caption=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" fetchpriority=\"high\" width=\"696\" height=\"392\" class=\"entry-thumb td-modal-image\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Let-It-Be-on-the-Record-696x392.jpeg\"   alt=\"\" title=\"Let It Be on the Record\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>A Turkish court on Tuesday <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mlsaturkey.com\/tr\/kayda-gecsin-dava\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">sentenced<\/a> three journalists over remarks made on a television program, convicting them on charges of spreading disinformation and violating confidentiality, the Media and Law Studies Association (MLSA) reported.<\/p>\n<p>The case concerned comments aired on the \u201cKayda Ge\u00e7sin\u201d (Let It Be on the Record) program on pro-opposition Halk TV in October 2024, in which the defendants discussed allegations of gold smuggling through Istanbul Airport\u2019s VIP section as well as Turkey\u2019s continued exports to Israel during the war in Gaza and members of the judiciary.<\/p>\n<p>The Bak\u0131rk\u00f6y 34th Criminal Court of First Instance sentenced Timur Soykan to 10 months in prison for violation of confidentiality, with the sentence suspended, while Bar\u0131\u015f Pehlivan and Murat A\u011f\u0131rel were each sentenced to one year, three months in prison for publicly disseminating misleading information. \u015eule Ayd\u0131n was acquitted.<\/p>\n<p>Prosecutors had also accused the journalists of denigrating religious values, citing their critical remarks about Islamists, but the court acquitted them of those charges. The ruling is subject to appeal.<\/p>\n<p>Journalists in Turkey critical of the government or allied political parties have faced increasing scrutiny under laws criminalizing \u201cdisinformation,\u201d \u201cinsulting public officials\u201d and \u201cdisseminating terrorist propaganda.\u201d Dozens of reporters remain in prison, and many more are the subjects of ongoing investigations.<\/p>\n<p>According to Expression Interrupted, a press freedom monitoring group, 26 journalists\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/expressioninterrupted.com\/tr\/liste.php\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">are<\/a>\u00a0currently behind bars in Turkey. The country\u2019s deteriorating media landscape was further pointed out in the 2025 World Press Freedom Index published by Reporters Without Borders (RSF), where it was\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/rsf.org\/en\/country-t%C3%BCrkiye\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">ranked<\/a>\u00a0159th out of 180 nations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Turkish court on Tuesday sentenced three journalists over remarks made on a television program, convicting them on&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":61659,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[83],"tags":[13061,33828,2431,312,33829,33830,2033,131,33831,132,12632,155,33832],"class_list":["post-61658","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-stockholm","tag-baris-pehlivan","tag-denigrating-religious-values","tag-disinformation","tag-human-rights","tag-let-it-be-on-the-record","tag-murat-agirel","tag-press-freedom","tag-stockholm","tag-sule-aydin","tag-sweden","tag-timur-soykan","tag-turkey","tag-violating-confidentiality"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@dk\/116410122734287861","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61658","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=61658"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61658\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61659"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61658"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61658"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61658"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}