14 Journalists To Appear İn Court

News Centre

The crackdown on the media continues unabated. Over the past year, at least 21 journalists have been arrested, whilst 10 remain in prison. Thousands of social media accounts have been unlawfully closed, access to the T24 website has been blocked, and administrators have been appointed to TELE1 and Halk TV. Furthermore, 14 journalists are due to appear in court this week.

During the week of 19 October, journalists, documentary-makers and politicians will appear in court on various charges. Among the trials to be held in Istanbul, Ankara, Diyarbakır, Tunceli and Görele are cases involving allegations of insult and defamation against journalists, charges of organisational propaganda and membership, and trials linked to protests.

Today, the hearing in the case against journalist Tuğçe Yılmaz, charged with “publicly insulting the Republic of Turkey”, will take place at the Istanbul 2nd Criminal Court of First Instance. The hearing in the case against journalist Bircan Değirmenci, charged with “repeated organisation propaganda” due to posts she made on X in 2015, will take place at the Diyarbakır 4th High Criminal Court.

The hearing in the case against journalists Gözde Şeker and İbrahim Kahveci, brought following a complaint by MHP Leader Devlet Bahçeli, will be held at the Ankara 52nd Criminal Court of First Instance. The journalists are on trial on charges of “insult” and “defamation”. The hearing in the case against journalists İsmail Arı and Yaşar Gökdemir, brought on charges of “defamation”, will take place at the Istanbul 2nd Criminal Court of First Instance.

The hearing in the case in which journalist Fatoş Erdoğan and 19 others are on trial on charges of “public incitement to commit a crime” will take place at the Istanbul 9th Criminal Court of First Instance. The trial of journalist and television presenter Rüstem Batum, who is being defended by MLSA and is on trial on charges of “insulting the President” due to his social media posts, will be held at the Istanbul 76th Criminal Court of First Instance. The hearing in the case against journalist Yusuf Çelik, who faces charges of “aiding an organisation”, will take place at the Tunceli 1st High Criminal Court.

The hearing in the case against journalist Fatma Sibel Gürcihan, who faces charges of “disseminating misleading information” over a social media post concerning former Minister of Treasury and Finance Berat Albayrak, will be held at the 78th Anatolia Criminal Court of First Instance. The case in which lawyer Seda Şaraldı, a member of the Association of Contemporary Lawyers (ÇHD), and 11 others are on trial on charges of “membership of an organisation” will be heard at the Istanbul 32nd High Criminal Court.

The first hearing in the case brought against Rabia Naz’s father, Şaban Vatan, journalist Canan Coşkun and documentary filmmaker Kazım Kızıl – in connection with their investigation into Rabia Naz’s suspicious death – will take place at the Görele 1st Criminal Court of First Instance.

The hearing in the case for non-pecuniary damages brought against journalist Faruk Arhan – for whom MLSA acts as legal representative – by former AKP MP Zehra Taşkesenlioğlu over a social media post will take place at the Gölbaşı (Ankara) 3rd Civil Court of First Instance.

The hearing in the case against journalist Can Öztürk, for whom MLSA is acting as defence counsel, who is on trial on charges of “violation of the Law No. 2911 on Meetings and Demonstrations” in connection with the Boğaziçi protests, will be held at the Istanbul 69th Criminal Court of First Instance.

Following the appointment of an external administrator to Halk TV, the channel’s broadcasts were suspended. Whilst the channel’s staff continued their broadcasts via YouTube, a decision was issued to block access to their social media accounts. Meanwhile, Cafer Mahiroğlu, the owner of Halk TV, stated that he had had an incident with Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu – who was appointed leader of the CHP by court order – four years ago, and that he had suspended his relationship with him ever since. Mahiroğlu said that he would wait for Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu to make a statement regarding the events; if he did not, he would recount all the details himself.

Fifteen people, including journalist Murat Ağırel, who had been taken into custody as part of an investigation conducted by the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office into allegations of ‘laundering assets derived from crime’, were arrested yesterday.

Following the arrest decision, journalist Barış Pehlivan shared a post on his social media account relaying the first words spoken by Murat Ağırel after the decision. In his post, Pehlivan wrote: “Murat’s words after his arrest were: ‘Look after my daughter; she is in your care.’ May you drown in Ada’s tears!”

Note: This article is translated from the original article titled 14 gazeteci hakim karşısına çıkacak, published in BirGün newspaper on October 20, 2026.