“Turkish authorities in Ankara must take the threats made against journalist İsmail Arı and his relatives seriously and take decisive steps to better ensure their safety,” said Özgür Öğret, CPJ’s Turkey representative. “The authorities should swiftly and comprehensively investigate the threats and hold those responsible to account, so all journalists in Turkey can safely do their jobs.”

Arı, based in the capital Ankara, said in a post on X that he filed a criminal complaint on May 16 notifying authorities that he was insulted, threatened and sent a list of his relatives via messaging app by an unknown foreign number earlier in the day, and at least one of his relatives was threatened in a phone call, according to the complaint reviewed CPJ.

Arı told CPJ via messaging app on Monday that the police provided a “caution protection” number for him to call and report incidents for 90 days. The journalist also contacted the Interior Ministry about the matter but did not receive a reply as of Monday evening.

Arı was previously targeted with death threats in late 2023 in connection with his reporting on an Islamist group in southern Turkey.

CPJ’s emailed request for comment to Turkey’s Interior Ministry, which oversees the police, did not receive a reply. 

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by CPJ Staff.

“Turkish authorities should stop turning a blind eye to reporter İsmail Arı’s criminal complaints about the online threats he is facing and take them seriously,” said Özgür Öğret, CPJ’s Turkey representative. “Arı has legitimate worries for his safety and authorities are legally obliged to protect him, and any other members of the media who are in danger, in every way they can.”

Arı, a reporter for the leftist daily BirGün, posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, on September 19 that he had been receiving death threats but prosecutors had not investigated his complaints.

Arı told CPJ that he had been targeted with online insults and threats since he started reporting on the activities of an Islamist group in southern Turkey after the area was struck by a 7.8 magnitude earthquake on February 6, killing tens of thousands.

Arı told CPJ that most of the threats came through X and Instagram. Some messages came from named accounts and some mentioned the Islamist group in their messages, Arı said.

Arı said Istanbul prosecutors had rejected at least 10 complaints that he and his lawyer had filed since February for “insults and threats.” In their rejections, authorities simply said that there were no grounds for investigating insults, and they did not mention the threats, he said.

“They purposefully do not recognize the threat,” he said.

CPJ emailed the Istanbul chief prosecutor’s office for comment but did not receive a reply.

Since 1992, 31 journalists and media workers have been killed in Turkey, according to CPJ data.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

The leading pro-government Turkish daily newspaper Sabah revealed the locations of at least three exiled Turkish journalists living abroad in separate stories in September and October that portrayed them as criminals on the run, according to a CPJ review. All three journalists are wanted by Turkish authorities on terrorism-related charges, such as ties to the Fethullah Gülen religious movement, a former ally of Turkey’s leading Justice and Development Party (AKP) that the government now accuses of plotting the 2016 coup attempt.

“The publishing of the physical locations of Turkish journalists in exile by pro-government media is an unethical and irresponsible act that could lead to serious harm,” said Gulnoza Said, CPJ’s Europe and Central Asia program coordinator. “Making journalists targets via the use of pro-government media is an unacceptable move that puts lives at great risk, especially given the history of physical attacks on several Turkish journalists living in exile.”

Sabah published a critical story about exiled Turkish journalist Cevheri Güven in late September, which did not feature the street address of his apartment in Germany but mentioned the city and area where the building is located. In the story, Güven was accused of making propaganda videos to criticize the government and it featured photos of the building alongside photos of Güven, taken near his home. Freelance online journalist Güven frequently shares content on Turkey’s political agenda via social media to his 546,000 followers on YouTube and more than 387,000 followers on Twitter. Turkish authorities asked their German counterparts this month to return Güven to Turkey for prosecution.

In another critical story published in early October, Sabah revealed the street address of exiled Turkish journalist Abdullah Bozkurt, who is living in Sweden. The article accused Bozkurt of being the “planner” of the 2016 assassination in Ankara of AndreyKarlov, the Russian ambassador to Turkey, and claimed the journalist is fleeing from Russian intelligence. The story featured details about where Bozkurt lives and shops alongside photos of him taken in the street. Bozkurt said he has never been a suspect in the assassination case, which ended in September 2021. Bozkurt, executive director of Sweden-based news website Nordic Monitor, was physically attacked in Sweden in September 2020.

Last week, Sabah published another critical story that featured the street address of exiled Turkish journalist Bülent Keneş, former chief editor of the shuttered English-language Turkish daily newspaper Today’s Zaman, which featured photos of him in the street and details about where “he frequently shops.” The Sabah story accused Keneş of being a coup plotter and added that he lives a “life of luxury” in Sweden. Keneş denied any involvement in the 2016 coup attempt and living lavishly in Sweden.

These stories also were featured in other prominent pro-government media outlets, such as A Haber and the English-language version of the daily Sabah, according to CPJ’s review.

On July 7, 2021, Erk Acarer, an exiled Turkish journalist who is a columnist for the Turkish leftist daily BirGün, was attacked outside his home in Berlin by three assailants.

CPJ sent an email to Sabah for comment but didn’t receive any reply.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

On Tuesday evening, at least six journalists were detained by Istanbul police while covering a public gathering commemorating the 2013 Gezi Park protests near Taksim Square in the Beyoğlu district, according to multiple news reports, tweets from news outlets, and journalists at the scene. The police detained the journalists and others in attendance while attempting to break up the gathering.

The six were released from police custody on Wednesday morning, according to those sources. Those journalists, along with at least five others covering the gathering, were also pushed, beaten, or teargassed by police at the event.

“Police violence toward field reporters in Turkey is unacceptably routine. It is way past time to take concrete steps to end it,” said Gulnoza Said, CPJ’s Europe and Central Asia program coordinator, in New York. “Turkey’s Interior Ministry, which oversees the police, can easily stop this abnormally hostile behavior toward members of the press and should do it immediately, instead of turning a blind eye to lawlessness.”

CPJ emailed the Istanbul Police and Interior Ministry of Turkey for comment but did not receive a reply.

Meltem Akyol, a reporter for the leftist daily Evrensel, told CPJ via messaging app that she and the five other journalists taken into custody were manhandled by officers and handcuffed from behind, adding that the six plan to file a joint criminal complaint on Friday. Akyol tweeted that while she was detained, a police officer told her, “You are not my journalist.”

The five other journalists who were detained were:

• Gökay Başcan, a reporter for the leftist daily BirGün, who tweeted and told CPJ via messaging app that officers tightly restrained his hands behind his back with plastic handcuffs for two hours in a police van. In the following tweet, Başcan shared photographs of his injured wrists.
• Ozan Demiriz, a reporter for the pro-opposition Halk TV, who tweeted and told CPJ via messaging app that officers hit and kicked him while he was detained, resulting in fingernail marks on his arm and handcuff marks on his wrists. Demiriz also said that when he identified himself as a journalist, an officer replied, “You are not our journalist.”
• Dilan Polat, Sevda Doğan, and Derin Aydoğdu from independent Flash TV, according to independent news website Bianet. CPJ could not find contact information for the Flash TV journalists, calls to the outlet were unanswered, and CPJ was unable to confirm what role the three have at the outlet.

In addition, the following attacks on journalists covering the Tuesday gathering were reported:

• Police officers hit Erdinç Yılmaz, a reporter for Halk TV, in the head with a shield while he was on the air covering the gathering, according to a video by the outlet. CPJ could not find contact information for Yılmaz, and calls to Halk TV were unanswered.
• Reporter Engin Açar and camera operator Umutcan Yitük for the independent channel TV TELE1 went to a hospital after officers beat and used tear gas on Açar and kicked and threw Yitük to the ground, as the outlet reported and Açar tweeted. Yitük told CPJ via messaging app that he and Açar were injured but not seriously wounded, and they filed a criminal complaint.
• Police officers used tear gas on freelance journalist Hayri Tunç and AFP photojournalist Bülent Kılıç at close range, according to Tunç, who spoke to CPJ via messaging app and Bianet. Istanbul police also assaulted and detained Kılıç in June 2021, as CPJ documented. CPJ was unable to find contact information for Kılıç.

Police violence toward journalists in Istanbul is frequent, according to CPJ documentation. In June 2021, a mob attacked Turkish journalists in Istanbul, and police officers beat at least two reporters. Istanbul police fired rubber bullets and tear gas into a group of journalists in July 2021, and a similar incident occurred in February of that year.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

On December 31, 2021, the 29th Istanbul Court of Serious Crimes convicted the five of “illegally obtaining personal data” in relation to their outlets’ coverage of the emails of Berat Albayrak, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s son-in-law and then Turkey’s energy minister, which were leaked in 2016 by a group identifying itself as Redhack, according to news reports.

The court sentenced Ömer Çelik, former news editor for the shuttered pro-Kurdish Dihaber news agency; former Dihaber reporter Metin Yoksu; Eray Saygın, news editor for socialist news website Yolculuk; Tunca Öğreten, former editor for the news website Diken; and Mahir Kanaat, accounting director for the socialist daily BirGün, to suspended prison terms of 20 months each, according to those reports.

CPJ was unable to immediately determine whether the defendants planned to appeal the verdict.

“Turkish authorities’ years-long campaign against journalists who covered the emails of President Erdoğan’s son-in-law shows how politicized the country’s judicial system has become,” said Gulnoza Said, CPJ’s Europe and Central Asia program coordinator, in New York. “Authorities should allow the press to cover issues of public interest freely, and without fear of imprisonment and legal harassment.”

The defendants were acquitted on a charge of making terrorist propaganda, those reports said. Derya Okatan, news editor for the socialist Etkin News Agency, was also charged with propaganda and illegally obtaining personal data, but was acquitted on both charges.

Authorities arrested all six defendants in December 2016, following the email leak; Okatan, Saygın, and Yoksu were held until January 2017, Çelik until October 2017, and Öğreten and Kanaat until December 2017, as CPJ documented at the time.

The journalists denied any connection to the Redhack group beyond following it on social media, according to reports.

CPJ emailed the Istanbul prosecutor’s office for comment, but did not immediately receive any reply. CPJ was unable to find any contact information for Albayrak.

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Aydın alleges that each outlet is guilty of “tarnishing” his reputation and dignity by reporting on a lawmaker’s question in parliament in June accusing Aydın of illegally giving preference in contracting to a software company with connections to his family, according to those sources.

In a statement published by Cumhuriyet on July 23, Aydın denied that he had committed any corrupt actions, and called the paper’s coverage of those allegations “slander and defamation targeting not only myself, but also the ministry I represent.” He is seeking 100,000 Turkish liras (US $11,574) in damages from each newspaper, according to the outlets’ reports.

Aydın sued Cumhuriyet in late August at the Istanbul Court of First Instance, and sued BirGün and Evrensel in early September, those reports said.

His suits name Cumhuriyet responsible news editor Olcay Büyüktaş Akça and reporter Erdem Sevgi; BirGün publisher İbrahim Aydın and reporter Mustafa Bildircin; and Evrensel responsible news editor Görkem Kınacı, according to the outlets.

The title of “responsible news editor” is a legally required position in Turkish media outlets, and makes its officeholder responsible for the outlet’s content in court cases.

BirGün lawyer Tolgay Güvercin and Evrensel lawyer Devrim Avcı told CPJ via messaging app that they have not received notifications for any upcoming court dates. The lawyers said that the case would go to trial and a judge would only be able to dismiss or vacate the suits once that trial had concluded.

CPJ emailed Aydın for comment but did not receive any reply.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

Yesterday, police in Istanbul’s Kadıköy district disrupted a political march commemorating the victims of the 2015 Suruç bombing and shoved, hit, and fired tear gas and rubber bullets at a group of journalists, injuring at least six, according to according to news reports and posts on social media by those journalists.

“Turkish authorities must clamp down on police abuses of journalists covering protests; officers are far too willing to harass, obstruct, and fire tear gas and rubber bullets at members of the press,” said Gulnoza Said, CPJ’s Europe and Central Asia program coordinator, in New York. “Authorities must hold officers who have used unnecessary force to account, and ensure that journalists can work safely.”

In a video uploaded to Twitter by Eylem Nazlıer, a reporter at the local daily Evrensel, police can be seen firing tear gas and rubber bullets at Nazlıer and other journalists as they order members of the press to leave the area.

Freelance journalist Emre Orman tweeted a video showing police throw a journalist to the ground, and officers are seen hitting several journalists with their shields. In that tweet, Orman wrote that an officer punched him during the scuffle, and then uploaded another video showing that punch. After the incident, Orman posted photos of welts and bruises on his face, hand, arm, and leg.

Meral Danyıldız, a reporter for the daily BirGün, tweeted that the journalist thrown to the ground in Orman’s video was Fatoş Erdoğan, a reporter for the online outlet Dokuz8haber. Danyıldız also wrote that an officer had grabbed her while she was covering the clashes.

Erdoğan posted images on Twitter showing wounds to her wrist and hand.

Police also fired rubber bullets that hit Agence France-Presse photographer Yasin Akgül, according to tweets by Orman, Erdoğan, and other journalists at the scene, and Erdem Şahin, a photojournalist for the European Pressphoto Agency also tweeted that he had been shot by rubber bullets alongside the other reporters.

CPJ could not immediately determine the severity of the journalists’ injuries.

Istanbul police previously fired tear gas and rubber bullets at groups of journalists during a protest in February, as CPJ documented at the time.

CPJ emailed the Istanbul police directorate for comment, but did not immediately receive any reply.

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