The IPI global network of journalists, editors, and publishers strongly condemns the decision by Turkey’s broadcast regulator to fine four critical TV stations for airing corruption allegations involving President Erdoğan and his family. We call on the government and state bodies to cease their harassment of the independent press in Turkey. 

The Turkish Radio and Television Supreme Council (RTÜK) on May 30 imposed a fine on four channels — Tele1, Halk TV, KRT TV, and Flash TV — for airing a speech of the main opposition Republican Peoples’ Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, in which he claimed that President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan had plans to flee the country if Erdoğan lost the general elections in 2023. Kılıçdaroğlu alleged that Erdoğan and his family are involved in corrupt business deals through various investments and assets abroad.

“IPI has been voicing serious concerns about RTÜK’s role in protecting press freedom in Turkey for several years now”,  IPI Turkey Programme Coordinator Renan Akyavaş said. “We call upon Turkish authorities to take concrete steps to reinstate the original purpose of this body, which is to monitor harmful content rather than instrumentalizing its power to silence critical media.”