At the end of September, Turkey blocked the entire website of the news outlet T24, as well as its profile on the X platform, by court order. The independent newspaper has been reporting on events in Turkey for 17 years, including criticism of the government, writes German public broadcaster ARD. "With constant repression, they want to make us get used to the dominant position and stop resisting," T24 journalist Candan Yildiz told ARD. According to her, blocking the site is tantamount to shutting down the media.
Internet is particularly important for Turkish media
Websites and social media are extremely important for independent journalists in Turkey, because the media environment there has long been dominated by concerns close to the government. And the few remaining critical media outlets have been punished with fines and broadcast bans for years, ARD recalls.
Therefore, the Internet is the place where independent Turkish media can publish their content and maintain direct contact with readers, and in X journalists can offer links to their investigations. When the government blocks these profiles, the number of readers inevitably drops. According to data from the Turkish organization for freedom of opinion İFÖD, nearly 1,300 profiles on X were blocked in September alone, including many profiles of journalists, media outlets and human rights organizations.
Accusations of LGBTI propaganda
The Turkish prosecutor's office accuses T24 of LGBTI propaganda that could threaten Turkish families, the development of young people and their sexual orientation, and cites 118 materials as evidence, claiming that they were published within a year. This court's reasoning is strongly reminiscent of President Erdogan's accusations from November 2025, when he announced measures against the LGBTI community, claiming that they are – perverted organizations –.
However, T24's lawyers protest against the media blockade and say that the court has not indicated specific texts that could threaten Turkish society and family structures. In addition, the materials presented as evidence are not from the last year, but from different years back in time, in some cases from 15 years ago.
Why was HalkTV blocked?
The blocking of media does not only apply to T24. This morning, Turkish police raided one of the few television stations that are critical of the ruling party - law enforcement agencies entered the editorial offices during a live broadcast of Halk TV and blocked it. An old program was broadcast in its place.
Halk TV is one of the most popular news channels in Turkey, which expresses opposition positions. The official reason for the raid is an indictment by the Istanbul prosecutor's office against the chairman of the media board, Cafer Mahiroglu, and an order to confiscate his companies for – "bribery, public procurement fraud and money laundering".
In a video on X, Mahiroglu rejects all the accusations as groundless and says that using the judiciary as a weapon causes Turkey the greatest damage that is possible.
The timing of the action against Halk TV is politically particularly explosive: on the very day that the detained mayor of Istanbul, Ekrem Imamoglu, was to begin his defense in a large-scale criminal case, one of the most important opposition news channels in the country was taken over by the authorities. For many people who wanted to follow the trial of the mayor of Istanbul, Halk TV is an important source of information.
Source: www.dw.com