The International Press Institute (IPI) strongly condemns the widespread attacks against journalists —including physical violence, mass detentions, and sweeping digital censorship measures— following the formal charging of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu with corruption on March 23. These actions represent one of the most severe crackdowns in Turkey since the Gezi Park protests in 2013.
IPI condemns the Turkish government’s systematic efforts to obstruct journalists’ work and restrict public access to information of huge public interest and demands an immediate end to this policy threatening mass censorship.
Police violence against at least 12 journalists
The most severe incident involved journalist Tansel Can, who was brutally attacked by seven police officers and hospitalized. Meanwhile, Anadolu Agency reporter Hakan Akgün suffered a broken nose, and Reuters correspondent Dilara Şenkaya sustained forehead injuries from police violence.
AFP photojournalist Yasin Akgül, Bianet reporter Ali Dinç, İlke TV reporter Eylül Deniz Yaşar, freelance photojournalists Kemal Aslan and Rojda Altıntaş, Akit TV reporter Serkan Okur, Özgür Gelecek reporter Yusuf Çelik, and BirGün reporters Ebru Çelik and Deniz Güngör were also attacked by police.
Despite clearly identifying themselves as journalists, they were indiscriminately targeted with pepper spray, rubber bullets and subjected to aggressive police tactics while performing their professional duties.
Journalist Eylül Deniz Yaşar, who was hit with pepper spray while covering the protests in İstanbul, spoke to IPI. “Despite the media crackdown, journalists here—both our imprisoned colleagues and those of us outside—continue to practice nothing but pure journalism. We, as journalists, are being targeted and punished today but will become tomorrow’s leading voices in this country,” Yaşar said.
Mass detentions and home raids against at least 11 journalists
Sendika.org reporter Zişan Gür had his nose broken while in custody after being detained while covering protests in Saraçhane on March 23.
On the morning of March 24, the police raided journalists’ homes across multiple cities and detained them for their coverage of protests in Istanbul’s Saraçhane district and other locations.
Among those detained in İstanbul were photojournalist Bülent Kılıç, Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality (İBB) photojournalist Kurtuluş Arı, AFP photojournalist Yasin Akgül, Now TV reporter Ali Onur Tosun, BirGün columnistBarış İnce, and journalists Hayri Tunç, Gökhan Kam and Zeynep Kuray. Journalist Emre Orman is sought by the police following a raid on his home. Photojournalist Murat Kocabaş was detained by the Anti-Terror Branch in İzmir. On March 25, journalist Yağız Barut was also detained while following the protests in İzmir.
According to initial reports, the journalists were detained under Law No. 2911 on Meetings and Demonstrations for documenting and reporting on the protests.
On March 25, journalists Bülent Kılıç, Kurtuluş Arı, Yasin Akgül, Ali Onur Tosun, Zeynep Kuray, Hayri Tunç, and Gökhan Kam, who were brought to the courthouse, were arrested by the 5th and 6th Criminal Courts of Peace on charges of “violating the law on meetings and demonstrations.”
Media censorship, restrictions and disinformation
Turkish authorities have implemented widespread censorship measures, blocking over 700 social media accounts including at least six news organizations, several journalists and political figures under Turkey’s internet law that allows the authorities to quickly block websites and social media accounts on national security grounds.
On March 20, Turkey’s broadcast regulator (RTÜK) issued maximum penalties to TV channels including Halk TV, Szc TV, Tele1, and Now TV for alleged violations of broadcasting principles.
On March 22, the RTÜK chair threatened to revoke broadcast licenses from TV channels, which failed to rely solely on official statements and information from the authorities and prohibited any statements or commentators discussing calls for public protests. Following this warning, pro-government channels ceased their live coverage of the protests.
Tuncay Keser, RTÜK member for the opposition CHP party, the same party as the arrested Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, filed a complaint against the national public broadcaster TRT News over its coverage of the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality (İBB) investigation. Keser accused TRT of violating broadcasting principles and press standards of impartiality, by treating the Imamoglu and the other detainees as guilty before trial.
Last week, the authorities had restricted access to social media by throttling the bandwidth of major platforms including X, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp, TikTok, Telegram, and Signal, in the days after the detention of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu and 105 others on March 19.
These coordinated attacks are a severe deterioration of media freedom in Turkey. We demand that Turkish authorities release all detained journalists, investigate police violence, hold perpetrators accountable, lift social media restrictions and uphold the fundamental right to report on all matters of public interest. Journalism is not a crime—the right to inform the public remains essential to a democratic society.
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.
