Twelve women journalists were on trial in Turkey in November, with two new cases filed that month on charges related to their professional activities, according to a monthly report released on Wednesday by the Mezopotamya Female Journalists Association (MKG).
Five others were sentenced during the month, including two who received suspended sentences totaling nearly three years. Three journalists remained behind bars.
MKG said one of November’s most notable developments was “a marked increase in pressure on freedom of expression,” pointing to a series of new investigations into journalists and “a continued punitive approach in ongoing trials.”
According to the report, in periods of heightened political tension in Turkey, journalists’ reporting and social media posts are increasingly treated as criminal acts. Professional activities that should fall under freedom of expression are instead met with detention, investigations, prosecutions and threats, MKG said.
Among the cases highlighted, Turkish courts handed down a suspended 10-month sentence to Sedef Kabaş for “publicly disseminating misleading information” and a suspended sentence of more than two years to Rahime Karvar, who was convicted of “aiding a terrorist organization.”
Journalist Öznur Değer was indicted for “targeting a public official” after reporting on torture allegations. The trial of Tuğçe Yılmaz, who is accused of “insulting the Turkish nation and the Republic of Turkey,” in an article featuring interviews with Armenian youths, began in November.
According to Expression Interrupted, a press freedom monitoring group, 27 journalists are currently behind bars in Turkey. The country’s deteriorating media landscape was further pointed out in the 2025 World Press Freedom Index published by Reporters Without Borders (RSF), where it was ranked 159th out of 180 nations.
