NATO has denied accreditation to several Turkish media outlets seeking to cover its 2026 summit in Ankara, saying the decision is final and that it cannot discuss the reasons behind it, Turkish Minute reported.
The outlets whose applications were rejected include İlke TV, the Cumhuriyet daily, NOW TV and Medyascope, İlke TV reported on Wednesday.
The NATO Summit is scheduled to take place in Ankara on July 7-8.
The rejection notices were sent by email by NATO Accreditations, part of the alliance’s Office of Strategic Communications.
The message, which was shared online, did not provide a reason for the refusal.
“I regret to say that your request for media accreditation cannot be granted this time. I cannot discuss the reasons for this decision, which is final,” the email said.
The message told the rejected applicants they could follow the public parts of the meeting on NATO’s website and contact the alliance through the website’s contact form with questions about NATO’s work.
Turkish journalist Duygu Güvenç said on X that she had previously covered NATO summits in İstanbul, Strasbourg/Kehl, Lisbon, Chicago and Brussels as well as numerous NATO foreign and defense ministers’ meetings and NATO missions, but would not be able to cover the upcoming summit in Ankara, the city where she lives.
Defense and security journalist Levent Kemal also criticized the decision on X, saying NATO appeared to be “drawing names from a hat” for accreditation.
“Experienced Turkish security and defense journalists are being rejected without explanation,” he wrote.
“If NATO wants these decisions to be respected, it should at least explain the criteria behind them.”
NATO has not publicly announced why the accreditation requests were denied.
The decision drew attention because the rejected outlets include several media organizations known for critical or independent coverage in Turkey, where press freedom groups have long warned of pressure on journalists and media organizations.
The refusals also come against the backdrop of Turkey’s long-disputed accreditation practices.
The government of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has for years been accused of using press accreditation as a tool to restrict access for journalists and media outlets seen as critical of the government.
Reporters for opposition and independent outlets have frequently been excluded from official events, presidential programs and government briefings, while press cards have been denied, canceled or left pending for long periods of time.
Press freedom groups say such practices have contributed to an already difficult media environment in Turkey, where most mainstream outlets are owned by companies close to the government and independent journalists face lawsuits, arrests and pressure over their reporting.
The government denies that it targets journalists for their work and says accreditation decisions are made in line with security and administrative rules.
Turkey ranked 163rd out of 180 countries in the 2026 World Press Freedom Index published by Reporters Without Borders (RSF), down from 159th place the previous year, with RSF warning that media pluralism in the country is increasingly under threat.
