A Turkish court in the southeastern province of Van on Thursday sentenced Kurdish journalist Reyhan Hacıoğlu to four years, two months in prison for allegedly aiding a terrorist organization, the Bianet news website reported.
During the final hearing on Thursday, prosecutors repeated their request for punishment on terrorism-related charges, while defense lawyer Resul Temur told the court that the case file contained no evidence of criminal conduct and said Hacıoğlu was effectively being prosecuted for her journalism.
In Turkey the charge of “aiding a terrorist organization” is commonly used in cases linked to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which Turkey and its Western allies designate as a terrorist organization.
After the ruling, Hacıoğlu defended her work in a statement posted on X.
“I stand behind every news story I have written and every word I have spoken,” she wrote. “You cannot cover up the truth with sentences. Journalism is not a crime.”
According to court reports from earlier hearings, prosecutors used Hacıoğlu’s television broadcasts, interviews and contacts with news sources as evidence against her. The indictment focused in part on episodes of a political talk program she hosted on Medya Haber, a Kurdish-language satellite channel frequently accused by Turkish authorities of links to the PKK.
Prosecutors cited discussions on Kurdish politics, prison conditions, hunger strikes and the arrest of journalists as evidence of alleged support for the PKK.
Hacıoğlu has worked for Kurdish-focused media outlets, including the now-closed Özgür Gündem and Özgürlükçü Demokrasi newspapers. Turkish authorities shut down both outlets as part of broader crackdowns on Kurdish and opposition media, accusing them of links to the PKK, which has waged an armed insurgency against the Turkish state since 1984. The conflict has killed tens of thousands of people.
She was detained January 17, 2025, during a police raid on her home as part of an Istanbul-based investigation and was jailed three days later on charges of membership in a terrorist organization before being released pending trial in June.
Turkey has long drawn criticism from international rights groups over its use of broadly worded counterterrorism legislation against journalists, political activists, lawyers and Kurdish politicians.
Human Rights Watch said in its 2025 report on Turkey that journalists “regularly face prosecution” under the country’s anti-terror legislation and that Kurdish journalists are “disproportionately targeted.”
