In Türkiye, during the week of Sept. 21-27, journalist Ali Tarakçı was arrested on a charge of “publicly disseminating misleading information” over a social media post, while access to the X accounts of at least eight journalists was blocked, according to monitoring data from Free Web. During the same period, access to at least nine news reports was also blocked.
According to the EngelliWeb project of the Freedom of Expression Association (İFÖD), access to at least 250 X accounts was blocked on Sept. 24 alone by decisions from various Criminal Judgeships of Peace. On Sept. 26, access was blocked to at least 80 more accounts, including those of journalists and independent news organizations. A significant number of the decisions cited “the protection of national security and public order” under Article 8/A of Law No. 5651. Following the decisions, X made numerous accounts unavailable to users in Türkiye.
Journalist, writer and television host Ali Tarakçı was arrested after posting on X on Sept. 23 that “a very important minister will resign on Friday (Sept. 25).” Tarakçı previously founded Gerçek TV and produced and hosted the program “Sesli Düşünceler.”
The Press Crimes Investigation Bureau of the Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office launched an investigation into Tarakçı over the post on a charge of “publicly disseminating misleading information” under Article 217/A of the Turkish Penal Code. Tarakçı was detained on Sept. 26 and was arrested the same day by the Ankara 8th Criminal Judgeship of Peace, where he was referred.
Tarakçı did not specify which minister he was referring to in his post. No ministerial resignation matching the prediction in the post was announced on Sept. 25. Treasury and Finance Minister Mehmet Şimşek had also said that reports of his resignation were not true.
Tarakçı’s X account was also blocked under a Sept. 26 decision by the Ankara 7th Criminal Judgeship of Peace as part of the investigation conducted by the Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office. The decision cited “the protection of national security and public order” and “the prevention of crime” as grounds. X made the account unavailable in Türkiye.
According to Free Web’s weekly monitoring, X accounts belonging to Tarakçı as well as journalist and presenter Naz Yavuzarslan, Halk TV editor Dinçer Gökçe, Medya Koridoru founder and journalist Canan Kaya, journalist Hilmi Hacaloğlu, journalist and Middle East analyst Alptekin Dursunoğlu, New York-based journalist Razi Canikligil and journalist Ersin Eroğlu were blocked.
The accounts of Hacaloğlu, Dursunoğlu, Canikligil and Eroğlu were among at least 80 accounts covered by blocking decisions on Sept. 26. The X account of independent news website Kısa Dalga was also blocked under the same decisions. Kısa Dalga said it would continue publishing through a new account and said X also bore responsibility in the process by implementing the access-blocking decisions.
The X account of Freedom of Expression Association founder and internet law expert Prof. Dr. Yaman Akdeniz, which he had used for nearly 20 years to discuss internet censorship and digital rights, was also blocked that week. A Sept. 22 decision by the Bakırköy 6th Criminal Judgeship of Peace again cited “the protection of national security and public order” as the reason. X made Akdeniz’s account unavailable in Türkiye.
The EngelliWeb project of the Freedom of Expression Association, which Akdeniz helped found, regularly documents websites, news reports and social media accounts blocked in Türkiye.
While many of the blocking decisions cited broad grounds such as “national security and public order,” publicly available records did not always include detailed explanations of which specific content on each account was considered to pose such a risk. X implemented many of the decisions, making the accounts unavailable in Türkiye. No publicly available statement from the platform could be found explaining the grounds for this week’s individual access-blocking decisions.
A significant portion of the access restrictions imposed during the week involved news reports on an investigation into investment funds and developments in the markets.
The investigation, launched following an Aug. 19 letter from the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office, focuses on unusual price movements in certain stocks and transactions allegedly carried out through investment funds. The investigation drew public attention in September following developments involving several investment and portfolio management companies, particularly Pusula and Tera.
The Capital Markets Board (SPK) suspended trading in funds managed by Tera, Pusula, Hedef, Atlas, A1, Pardus and Bulls portfolio management companies on Sept. 17 and decided to liquidate 131 funds. According to an SPK statement dated Sept. 23, the funds subject to liquidation have 455,758 individual investors.
The liquidation decision does not mean investors have lost all of the money they hold in the funds. Under the procedure announced by the SPK, fund assets will be converted into cash and the resulting liquidation balance will be paid to investors in proportion to the participation shares they hold. The board later extended the maximum period envisaged for the liquidation process from three months to six months, noting that this did not necessarily mean the process would take the full six months.
A court in Ankara on Sept. 24 blocked access to news reports about the fund investigation published by Gazete Pencere, Sözcü and Evrensel. Two news reports by Nefes reporter Fatih Ergin concerning Tera Portföy and small investors, as well as an ANKA news report on a parliamentary question that brought the investigation to parliament’s agenda, were also among the pieces of content blocked during the week.
In a statement on developments in the fund market, the SPK said it had observed price movements in stocks with low free-float ratios that could not be explained by the companies’ underlying financial figures and that involved certain funds. The board said the regulations it introduced were aimed at protecting investors’ savings, limiting opportunities for manipulation through funds and increasing market transparency.
At the beginning of the week, Hatice Aksoy, the owner of Trabzon 360 Haber, and its managing editor, Muhsin Aksoy, were detained after reporting on earlier remarks by AK Party Diyarbakır lawmaker Suna Kepoğlu Ataman concerning Abdullah Öcalan and the İmralı delegation.
The Aksoys were released after giving their statements. Access was also blocked to five social media posts linked to the news report on the grounds of “protecting public order.” The restrictions applied to specific content rather than the journalists’ personal accounts in their entirety.
Access restrictions raised in parliament
The fund investigation and access restrictions imposed on news reports about it were also brought before parliament.
Workers’ Party of Türkiye (TİP) Istanbul lawmaker Ahmet Şık submitted parliamentary questions to Treasury and Finance Minister Mehmet Şimşek and Justice Minister Akın Gürlek asking about the blocking of news reports and social media posts concerning the funds. Şık also asked whether authorities had investigated if members of the judiciary who issued the access-blocking orders had traded in the funds in question.
İYİ Party parliamentary group deputy chair Turhan Çömez and Samsun lawmaker Erhan Usta also submitted a parliamentary inquiry motion to the speaker’s office of the Turkish Grand National Assembly seeking an investigation into the liquidation of 131 investment funds. The motion called for an examination of the timing of regulatory intervention, oversight processes, allegations of political and bureaucratic connections, and losses suffered by investors.
