The Media and Law Studies Association (MLSA) has filed an individual application with Turkey’s Constitutional Court, alleging violations of personal liberty, security, and freedom of expression in the case of journalist Elif Akgül, who has been in pretrial detention since Feb. 21.
Akgül was detained on Feb. 18 as part of an ongoing investigation into the Peoples’ Democratic Congress (HDK), launched by the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office. She was arrested three days later, based on phone calls she made 12 to 13 years ago while covering news stories, according to her legal team. After appeals against her arrest were rejected by lower courts, the MLSA Legal Unit brought the case before Turkey’s highest court.
In its application, MLSA argued that the charges against Akgül stem directly from her work as a journalist and that treating these activities as criminal offenses constitutes a violation of her freedom of expression. The legal team further stated that the recording of phone conversations from over a decade ago, without a court order, violated both press freedom and Akgül’s right to privacy.
Akgül, who was working as a courthouse reporter at the time of the calls, has no flight risk, according to her lawyers.
The application also argued that Akgül’s detention not only infringes on her individual rights but could also have a chilling effect on other journalists, thereby threatening press freedom more broadly.
MLSA emphasized that relying on phone conversations from 13 years ago as grounds for detention breaches the principle of legal foreseeability, a core requirement of due process. The association called on the Constitutional Court to grant an injunction for Akgül’s immediate release, pending the final judgment on the matter.
