Twenty-five international and local press freedom organizations have strongly condemned Turkey’s intensified use of its disinformation law to systematically prosecute journalists, calling for the repeal of the legislation and the immediate release of all journalists held under it.
In a joint statement issued Tuesday, the groups said authorities have used Article 217/A of the Turkish Penal Code, known as the disinformation law, “as part of a wider pattern of the weaponization of legislation to criminalize legitimate journalism and silence reporting in Turkey.”
They said the law, which entered into force in October 2022, has since been used to charge at least 83 journalists in 114 separate cases on allegations of spreading disinformation.
The organizations cited several recent cases, including the February arrest of journalist Alican Uludağ on charges of spreading disinformation and insulting the president and the March detentions of Bilal Özcan over his reporting on an influencer’s death and İsmail Arı over his reporting on alleged financial mismanagement of public foundations.
The statement said the crackdown intensified in April, when journalists Murat Ağırel and Barış Pehlivan were sentenced to prison over commentary and Zafer Arapkirli was convicted for his social media posts about attacks in Syria. Turgay Kılıç was detained for sharing information about school threats and Mehmet Yetim was put in pretrial detention over a social media post.
The organizations said the disinformation law is incompatible with international standards and has created a hostile environment for independent journalism in Turkey.
“A free and independent press is itself the most durable safeguard against the spread of false information. Criminalising journalism is neither a lawful nor an effective response to it,” the groups said.
They called for the repeal of the law and other legislation restricting freedom of expression to bring Turkey into compliance with its international obligations, as well as the immediate release of journalists held under the disinformation law.
Signatories included the European Centre for Press and Media Freedom (ECPMF), the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ), Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR), the International Press Institute (IPI), the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), Osservatorio Balcani e Caucaso Transeuropa (OBCT), the Media and Law Studies Association (MLSA), PEN International, the Progressive Journalists Association (PJA), the P24 Platform for Independent Journalism, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) and the Journalists’ Union of Turkey (TGS).
According to Expression Interrupted, a press freedom monitoring group, 26 journalists are currently behind bars in Turkey. The country’s deteriorating media landscape was underscored in the 2025 World Press Freedom Index published by Reporters Without Borders (RSF), where it was ranked 159th out of 180 nations.
