The International Press Institute (IPI) condemns the escalating crackdown on journalists, media organisations, and civil society groups in Turkey, following a wave of access-blocking orders, detentions, and arrests targeting LGBTQ+ organisations and individuals in the country.
Journalist Tuğba Tekerek was detained on September 13 over her reporting. Police also detained members of Kaos GL, which runs the news site where Tekerek’s work was published. The investigations have reached well beyond LGBTQ+ organisations and activists to also target journalists, news organisations, and established human rights and freedom of expression groups.
Since the crackdown began on September 12, authorities have imposed access restrictions on hundreds of social media accounts, with Justice Minister Akın Gürlek saying the operations covered 15 provinces and targeted 162 people, nine associations, and 13 businesses.
Prosecutor-led operations, hundreds of accounts blocked
The campaign is linked to the Turkish authorities’ “Ailem Güvende” (My Family Is Safe) operations, a coordinated criminal investigation into LGBTQ+ associations, venues, and individuals. Gürlek said the chief public prosecutors’ offices in Istanbul, Ankara, İzmir, Aydın, and Mersin are coordinating the operations, with police and gendarmerie carrying them out.
Separate court orders from two separate courts in Istanbul and Mersin further escalated the crackdown, ordering access blocks on numerous X and Instagram accounts, including those belonging to Evrensel newspaper, Amnesty International Türkiye, and the Media and Law Studies Association (MLSA). The restrictions also affected several journalists, including Fırat Fıstık, Özlem Akarsu Çelik, İrem Afşin, and Alex Crawford.
Three of the decisions cited Article 8/A of Turkey’s Internet Law No. 5651, a provision that allows content to be blocked or removed in cases involving threats to public order, security, or other pressing and immediate dangers. Another decision to remove content cited allegations of “obscenity”.
IPI has repeatedly condemned the growing use of arbitrary court orders to censor independent journalism, citing vague “national security” and “public order” grounds, and has demanded reform to Law No. 5651, particularly Article 8/A, in order to eliminate open-ended formulations that allow courts to suppress journalism.
Journalist Tuğba Tekerek and Kaos GL members jailed
Police detained Tekerek on September 13 and took her to Ankara over a report she prepared for Kaos GL in 2024 on the situation of LGBTQ+ people around elections in neighbouring Georgia, according to the organisation’s editor-in-chief, Yıldız Tar. On September 15, a court remanded Tekerek and seven members of Kaos GL’s management and supervisory boards in pre-trial detention, and released seven substitute board members under judicial control.
Prosecutors are pursuing the Ankara investigation on charges of obscenity and violating public morality. In police questioning, officers asked detained activists about articles published on the Kaos GL website, social media posts, and the association’s funding and grants.
Journalists detained while covering protests
The pressure has also reached journalists covering public demonstrations against the operations. On September 15, police broke up a protest held outside Istanbul’s Çağlayan Courthouse and detained 106 people. They included BirGün reporter Sarya Toprak and ARD correspondent Şener Azak. Both were detained while covering the events. As of September 16, their detention had been extended by another 24 hours.
These developments come amid a broader pattern of restrictions on independent journalism and freedom of expression in Turkey. Using access blocking, police operations and criminal proceedings together risks creating an environment in which journalists and civil society organisations cannot report on or discuss issues of clear public interest.
IPI calls on Turkish authorities to:
- Immediately release journalists detained solely in connection with their journalistic work, and drop proceedings against them where their only alleged offence is legitimate reporting
- Immediately lift access-blocking orders targeting media organisations, journalists, human rights organisations, and civil society groups
- Stop using criminal investigations, detention, and access restrictions to suppress reporting, advocacy, and public discussion concerning LGBTQ+ people and LGBTQ+ rights
- Ensure that any criminal investigation involving journalists or civil society organisations complies fully with Turkey’s constitutional and international obligations on freedom of expression and press freedom
Authorities must ensure that measures purportedly aimed at protecting public morality or public order are not used to suppress legitimate journalism, restrict LGBTQ+ organisations and activists, or prevent the public from accessing information about issues of clear public interest.
This statement was produced by IPI as part of the Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR), a Europe-wide mechanism which tracks, monitors and responds to violations of press and media freedom in EU Member States and candidate countries, funded by the European Commission.
