Journalists will take to the streets on Oct. 24 to urge the government to end the detentions, arrests, blockages, access bans and all kinds of pressure on media members as the crackdown escalated after the liquidation of investment funds.
At least nine have been arrested since the fund scandal broke; T24 has been blocked nationwide, and Halk TV is now run by a trustee.
“No to Censorship! Freedom for News” will be the only slogan of the press groups who will start a rally at 2 p.m. in squares across nine provinces, including Ankara, Istanbul, Izmir and Diyarbakır. The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has backed journalists’ demands for press freedom, editorial independence and the public’s right to information.
The fund crisis began in the middle of September, when some portfolio management companies struggled to meet a wave of withdrawal requests. More than 500,000 people have been unable to get back the money they invested.
At least nine journalists have been formally arrested since then, though not all cases relate to the fund scandal.
According to the Journalists’ Union of Turkey (TGS), 19 journalists were in prison as of Oct. 21. Expression Interrupted, the website of the Punto24 Independent Journalism Platform, puts the number at 26.
The Media and Law Studies Association (MLSA) puts it at 30. The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) counts 17.
T24’s website and social media accounts were blocked on Sept. 29, as part of the “My Family Is Safe” operation.
A trustee took over Halk TV on the morning of Oct. 14, and the channel’s regular broadcasting was halted. The appointment came in the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office investigation into the channel’s owner, Cafer Mahiroğlu, in which 12 people were detained.
JOURNALISTS WHO REPORTED THE FUND SCANDAL
Prosecutors opened an investigation into journalists İsmail Saymaz, Murat Ağırel, Mustafa Balcı and Şaban Sevinç after they reported claims that public officials profited unlawfully from funds in liquidation.
Balcı and Sevinç were formally arrested the same day after sharing a photo of AKP spokesperson Ömer Çelik in a concert with a fugitive businessperson Osman Arıkan Nacar.
Saymaz and Ağırel were placed under house arrest after discussing Trade Minister Ömer Bolat’s role in the fund issue.
JAILED OVER A STORY HE ‘DID NOT WRITE’
Ağırel was later detained in the “Sarıgül investigation” on Oct. 16 while under house arrest with an electronic ankle monitor. He was formally arrested on Oct. 19 with 14 other suspects. The charge was “knowingly and willingly aiding a criminal organization.”
Yet, his arrest is one of the first examples in which a journalist is accused of not writing the report since the documents sent to him do not prove their truthfulness.
The case rests on complaints by two German nationals, Kai Precat and Marc Baeriswyl, and testimony from their business partner Sinan Çampınar, a Turkish businessperson living in Germany. They said they had passed claims to Ağırel that Yeni Party lawmaker Mustafa Sarıgül and his family laundered money. They also alleged that Ağırel leaked the information to Sarıgül, and that they then received threats.
Ağırel, known to be at odds with Sarıgül, said he had only got in touch with his lawyer.
The accusers themselves admitted to laundering money, according to Ağırel’s testimony. In his statement to police, Ağırel said that in a recorded phone call he asked Çampınar whether they had in fact been laundering money, and Çampınar said “yes”. Ağırel submitted the recording to police.
Police put the accusers’ statements to Ağırel, according to a report shared on Onlar TV’s X account.
“I read the statements. I still do not understand why I am here. At most, I should have been someone consulted for information in this investigation. Yet even though I had an electronic monitor on my ankle, police raided my home at 6 a.m.,” Ağırel said.
Ağırel said he first heard of Çampınar from a lawyer while researching properties the former Ankara Mayor Melih Gökçek family bought in Germany. He said he did not find Çampınar’s account convincing. Ağırel made headlines by revealing the recent investments of the Gökçek family in Germany.
“He didn’t know me. I asked whether he had papers or documents and requested them. He said there was a bigger scandal than the person named Osman Gökçek. He made claims about Mustafa Sarıgül. I said that if there were documents and it had news value, I would look into it,” Ağırel said.
In a column sent from prison to Cumhuriyet, Ağırel wrote: “I was arrested over a story I did not write. By not writing a story, and by not being a member of the organization, I have supposedly aided the organization.”
SARIGÜL FAMILY BEHIND BARS, EXCEPT THE LAWMAKER
The Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office announced the investigation on Oct. 16. The complainants allege that large sums were laundered through companies set up in Turkey and abroad.
Every family member named in the case is now in jail except lawmaker Mustafa Sarıgül himself. His sons Ömer and Emir Sarıgül and former wife Aylin Kotil were arrested.
Sarıgül initially described the case as a commercial dispute linked to Germany, and said Ağırel had become involved only to report on it. After the arrests, he said the evidence was forged.
“The documents presented by those making the accusations are forged to such an extent that they should not even have warranted opening an investigation. We will resolutely continue our legal fight to prove the innocence and rightfulness of my family members and friends,” Sarıgül said.
JOURNALIST WENT TO GIVE A STATEMENT, WAS ARRESTED
BirGün reporter İsmail Arı was arrested on Oct. 21 on charges of “publicly disseminating misleading information.” The case followed a complaint by former Radio and Television Supreme Council (RTÜK) chair Ebubekir Şahin.
Arı had been invited to police headquarters to give a statement, where he was served with a detention order. He was accused over a social media post he allegedly made about claims that former bureaucrat Osman Arıkan Nacar, named in the fund investigation, knew Şahin.
“I don’t remember making such a post. I don’t know whether Ebubekir Şahin’s name came up in the fund investigation. I did not write a story on this subject either,” Arı said.
Arı was previously formally arrested in Ankara on March 22, on the same charge, and released after 75 days.
MORE DETENTIONS AND ARRESTS
Halk TV columnist Bahadır Özgür was detained on Oct. 15 on charges of violating the confidentiality of an investigation over an Oct. 13 post about the fund scandal. He was released on Oct. 16 under a travel ban and an obligation to report to police.
Journalist Ali Tarakçı was arrested on Sept. 26 after posting that “a very important minister will resign on Friday.”
Hasan Güraksu, owner of a local news site in Burdur, was arrested on Oct. 6 over a report alleging that patients at a state hospital were served spoiled meat. Journalist Derya Okatan was arrested on Oct. 3 while Tuğba Tekerek has been behind bars since Sept. 15 following the “My Family Is Safe” investigation. Selahattin Günday and Fatih Ergin were put in jail in September in the investigation into the death of former National Intelligence Organization (MİT) official Kaşif Kozinoğlu.
Tele1’s editor-in-chief, Merdan Yanardağ, has been in jail since the channel was placed under a trustee leadership on Oct. 24, 2025.
1,270 ACCOUNTS BLOCKED IN ONE MONTH
Authorities and courts blocked access to at least 1,270 X accounts in September, according to the Freedom of Expression Association (İFÖD). X made 90% of them invisible in Turkey.
The Bakırköy 7th Criminal Judgeship of Peace blocked about 200 accounts on Sept. 30. For five accounts belonging to journalists Esra Tokat, İrfan Değirmenci, Sarya Toprak and Şirin Payzın, the court also blocked the permanent ID numbers X assigns to each account. That means changing the username can no longer get around the block.
CUTTING OFF OPPOSITION’S VOICE
Yeni Party Chair Özgür Özel protested the trustee appointment outside the Halk TV’s Istanbul headquarters on Oct. 21.
“The trustee had two short-term goals. One was to prevent [Istanbul Mayor] Ekrem İmamoğlu’s defense from being heard. The other was to silence the most-watched news channel, which was pursuing the fund fraud, the fraud of the century. The medium- and long-term calculations are much darker. They intend to cut off the opposition’s voice entirely. That is why an attack on the press cannot be separated from an attack on the opposition,” Özel said.
