October 2026 Highlights
October was marked by intensifying pressure on the press. A trustee was appointed to Halk TV and its broadcasts were suspended, journalists including İsmail Arı and Murat Ağırel were jailed, and access blocks on journalists' and news outlets' X accounts continued week after week. MLSA's own X account has been blocked since September. Against this backdrop, MLSA's Legal Unit took five cases to the Constitutional Court and the European Court of Human Rights, and our observers followed 19 hearings across five cities.
Five applications in one month
MLSA's Legal Unit filed five applications with domestic and international courts in October: two with the European Court of Human Rights on behalf of journalist Yıldız Tar and lawyer Nurcan Kaya, and three with Turkey's Constitutional Court concerning journalist Tuğba Tekerek, MLSA's own X account and the film “Rojbash.” Each is set out under Strategic Litigation below.
The Legal Unit also continued to follow the case of Tuğba Tekerek, arrested in the “My Family Is Safe” operation on the allegation that she operated the “kaosgl” Instagram account, although she had published only one news report on Kaos GL's website. The claim appears on page 53 of the police investigation report, but the case file contains no information, documents or technical analysis to support it. Three pages of the documents cited as grounds for her detention are missing from the file, and her lawyers' request to have them added has gone unanswered. Tekerek is held in the judicial ward of Sincan Women's Closed Prison in Ankara, where overcrowding has forced her to sleep on the floor in front of a toilet. Read more →
19 hearings, 108 defendants, five cities
MLSA monitored 19 hearings in five cities (Istanbul, Ankara, Mardin, İzmir and Görele in Giresun) between Oct. 1 and 23. Eighteen were freedom-of-expression cases involving 106 defendants: 42 students, 23 lawyers and rights defenders, 14 journalists, seven cartoonists and magazine staff, and 20 others, including academics, politicians, YouTubers and documentary filmmakers. The 19th hearing was in the trial over the killing of journalist Hakan Tosun, where the court sentenced the two defendants to life in prison. Read more →
In the freedom-of-expression cases, courts adjourned 12 hearings and acquitted journalists Ali Çağatay and Sibel Gürcihan. The case against journalist Tuğçe Yılmaz was dismissed because the charges were not filed within the Press Law's four-month deadline, and Sedef Kabaş's case was referred to the regional appeals court over a jurisdictional dispute. Three defendants were sentenced to prison in two cases: journalists Öznur Değer and Osman Akın over a news report on torture allegations, and LeMan cartoonist Doğan Pehlevan over a post from an X account that, according to his defense, did not belong to him. Lawyer Doğa İncesu of the Progressive Lawyers Association (ÇHD) was released.
Fair-trial violations recorded by our observers:
Fourteen of the 19 hearings started late, mostly because of courts' workloads, and in some cases because the panel arrived late or other files were taken first.
Observers were barred from three hearings, including the Tosun and ÇHD trials. No observers were admitted to the ÇHD hearing at all. Read more →
In three hearings, judges addressed defendants with the informal “sen.”
In three hearings, defendants' statements were entered into the record only in summary, and in two of them the judge interrupted the defendant.
Four hearings were held in small or poorly ventilated courtrooms, and three took place under heavy police presence.
In the Canan Coşkun and Kazım Kızıl trial, the judge asked the complainant leading questions, which the observer recorded as a breach of impartiality. Read more →
From Ankara to Strasbourg
On Oct. 2, MLSA filed two applications with the European Court of Human Rights from the investigation launched in February 2025. Journalist Yıldız Tar was held in pretrial detention from Feb. 22 to May 30, 2025, on a charge of “membership in an armed terrorist organization.” The application argues that old communications records and peaceful activities were not enough to support the charge, and that his journalism and his participation in meetings were used as grounds for depriving him of his liberty. It cites Articles 5, 8, 10, 11 and 18 of the Convention. Read more →
Lawyer and human rights defender Nurcan Kaya was held under house arrest with electronic monitoring for nearly three months and then placed under a travel ban, although the Constitutional Court had found a similar ban against her a violation of freedom of expression in 2024. She was sentenced to 6 years and 3 months in April 2026, on evidence that included a 100-lira donation made in 2015. MLSA argues that her legal, academic and human rights work was treated as evidence of terrorism membership. Read more →
At the Constitutional Court, MLSA applied on Oct. 13 on behalf of Tuğba Tekerek, arguing that her detention without concrete evidence violated her right to liberty and security, her freedom of expression and of the press, and her right to a fair trial. MLSA asked for an interim measure securing her release. Read more →
On Oct. 28, MLSA challenged the Sept. 14 order of the Mersin 3rd Criminal Judgeship of Peace blocking its own X account. The order did not identify a single unlawful post, and blocking the entire account made hundreds of news reports and announcements inaccessible. Read more →
The same day, MLSA applied over the ban on director Özkan Küçük's film “Rojbash,” which explores the repression of Kurdish-language theater. An Ankara administrative court annulled the ban in January, but the decision was overturned on appeal and became final in September. MLSA argues that the film was reviewed without an interpreter although half of it is in Kurdish, and that the ban amounts to language-based discrimination. Read more →
Training young journalists, acting against censorship
Young journalists at the GazeteMLSA news workshop in Aliağa, İzmir.
GazeteMLSA news workshop in İzmir. GazeteMLSA, MLSA's journalism training programme, held a news workshop for young journalists in Aliağa, İzmir, from Oct. 29 to Nov. 1, in collaboration with the Friedrich Naumann Foundation's Turkey office. The workshop was coordinated by Banu Tuna, secretary-general of the Journalists' Union of Turkey (TGS), and Gökçer Tahincioğlu, Ankara bureau chief of T24. Tuna led a session on pitching and planning news stories, and Tahincioğlu covered structuring news reports as narratives and storytelling techniques. MLSA Trial Coordinator Semra Pelek spoke on editing in the digital age and on court reporting and following up on ongoing cases.
Participants also worked on finding the focus of a news story and closed the workshop with an editorial meeting, where they presented and discussed their pitches for the upcoming issue of GazeteMLSA. Read more →
On Oct. 1, MLSA and 12 other journalism organizations issued a joint statement against the court order blocking access to T24. The statement said the order violated press freedom and drew attention to measures against journalists and news websites in the “My Family Is Safe” investigation.
On Oct. 14, the Media Solidarity Group, of which MLSA is a member, condemned the appointment of a trustee to Halk TV and the suspension of its broadcasts. The group said the move undermined journalists' freedom to work and the public's right to information, and called for the trustee to be removed. Read more →
Press organizations also held simultaneous protests in 10 cities on Oct. 24, the first anniversary of the trustee appointment at TELE 1, under the slogan “No to censorship, freedom for news reporting.” Read more →
Weekly monitoring and in-depth reporting
MLSA continued its weekly monitoring publications in October: the Free Web censorship bulletins, the journalism and freedom of expression bulletins, the weekly trial calendars and the weekly update of our list of imprisoned journalists and media workers. The censorship bulletins recorded at least 88 X accounts blocked between Oct. 5 and 11 alone, on grounds of “protecting national security and public order.” In the week of Oct. 12, Halk TV's accounts on six platforms were blocked hours after the trustee appointment.
Censorship bulletins: Sept. 28–Oct. 4 · Oct. 5–11 · Oct. 12–18 · Oct. 19–25
MLSA's in-depth reporting looked at how the blocking of more than 1,200 X accounts in September has affected journalists' daily work, at the journalists who founded Tele2 after the trustee takeover of Tele1 and now broadcast as Tele3 after failing to pay RTÜK licensing fees, and at the NATO summit detainees still in prison more than three months later.
“They're taking away your livelihood.” Read more →
“We could wake up stranded in a desert without water.” Read more →
A 12-hour journey for a 45-minute prison visit. Read more →
MLSA in the media
MLSA Co-Director Veysel Ok told AFP that the takeover of Halk TV was one of the most significant steps in the government's efforts to monopolize the flow of information, and that it targeted the public's right to access news from diverse sources. JURIST also covered MLSA's Constitutional Court application on behalf of Tuğba Tekerek. JURIST →
Lawyers are doing their job. They file objections, apply to the Constitutional Court and the European Court of Human Rights and obtain rulings, but implementing them is a political matter.
Veysel Ok, MLSA Co-Director, speaking to Mezopotamya Agency
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