An İstanbul court has shut down independent news website T24 and its social media accounts over content prosecutors described as “LGBT propaganda,” marking a significant escalation in a weekslong crackdown on LGBTQ+ rights groups, activists, journalists and online platforms across Turkey.
The İstanbul 1st Criminal Court of Peace ordered T24’s website and social media accounts closed as part of an investigation known as “My Family Is Safe,” the İstanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office said Wednesday.
T24 said the decision, dated September 29, was formally served on the outlet by the Cyber Security Presidency by email on Wednesday evening.
The access-blocking order, which was also published by Turkey’s Information and Communication Technologies Authority (BTK), cites Article 8/A of the country’s internet law and requires implementation within four hours.
Prosecutors said T24 had published 118 items over the past year that they considered to constitute “LGBT propaganda.”
The Justice Ministry circulated a file containing examples of T24’s LGBTQ-related coverage, although a full public list of the 118 items and an explanation of how each allegedly violated the law were not immediately available.
The order targets one of Turkey’s longest-running independent digital news organizations at a time of mounting pressure on critical media through arrests, criminal investigations, broadcast penalties and court-ordered restrictions on websites and social media accounts.
It also extends to T24’s social media presence, including an X account with about 1.9 million followers, a YouTube channel with some 268,000 subscribers and an Instagram account followed by approximately 238,000 people.
T24 said the decision followed what it described as a campaign of defamation and online targeting against the outlet, with multiple social media accounts circulating identical claims that it received outside funding and used LGBTQ-related coverage to target the family.
The outlet denies receiving outside funding and says repeated government tax audits have found no evidence that it did so.
“T24 has for some time been subjected to a campaign of defamation and lynching on social media,” the outlet said.
Gökçer Tahincioğlu, T24’s editorial coordinator and Ankara representative, also criticized the ruling.
“Such a harsh decision can be handed down against an institution employing dozens of media workers and journalists as a result of a carefully orchestrated smear campaign,” he wrote on X. “There is little one can say in the face of this.”
A group of Turkish and international journalism organizations also condemned the decision, calling it “a grave attack on our profession” and saying the closure violated press and freedom of expression as well as the public’s right to receive news.
The signatories, including the Journalists’ Union of Turkey (TGS), the Media and Law Studies Association (MLSA), the International Press Institute and several Turkish journalists’ associations, called for the decision to be immediately reversed.
Closure follows LGBTQ crackdown
The ruling comes less than three weeks after police launched coordinated raids under the “My Family Is Safe” investigation against LGBTQ organizations, activists and venues in several Turkish cities.
The campaign has included arrests, investigations of rights groups and extensive online censorship. Earlier this month courts blocked social media accounts belonging to the Evrensel newspaper, Amnesty International Turkey, the MLSA, academics and LGBTQ organizations, citing alleged “obscene content and LGBT propaganda.”
The İstanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office later said 419 social media accounts had been blocked as part of the operation. Among those targeted were journalists Şirin Payzın and İrfan Değirmenci and the news outlet soL.
T24 itself had extensively covered the crackdown, including raids on LGBTQ rights organizations, arrests and court orders blocking the websites and accounts of Kaos GL, Velvele and other groups.
Journalist Tuğba Tekerek was also jailed pending trial this month on an obscenity charge over an article she wrote for LGBTQ news outlet Kaos GL. The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said she had been detained simply for doing her job and called for her release.
The larger campaign has attracted international criticism. Diplomats from Germany, France, the Netherlands, Sweden, Finland and Iceland expressed “deep concern” over the operations, while UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk called for the release of people arbitrarily detained.
More than 450 civil society organizations from over 65 countries also called on Turkey to stop what they described as the criminalization of the LGBTQ movement and release those detained.
Independent outlet founded in 2009
T24 was founded by veteran journalist Doğan Akın and began publishing on September 1, 2009. The outlet says it has no affiliation with a company, political organization, association or outside fund and describes its editorial model as independent of both financial and ideological pressure.
It became an important platform for prominent journalists who had left or been pushed out of Turkey’s traditional media organizations as ownership of much of the mainstream press shifted toward companies close to the government.
Its contributors include veteran journalist Hasan Cemal, a former editor-in-chief of the Cumhuriyet daily who has written for T24 since 2013.
Cemal joined the website after leaving Milliyet following a dispute over his criticism of then-prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and media ownership.
In 2015 he became the first journalist from Turkey to receive Harvard University’s Nieman Foundation Louis M. Lyons Award for Conscience and Integrity in Journalism.
T24 says a 2018 survey of 306 journalists found it was the news website most widely known and regularly followed by journalists in Turkey.
Press freedom deteriorates
The closure order comes amid worsening conditions for journalists and independent media in Turkey.
Reporters Without Borders ranked Turkey 163rd out of 180 countries in its 2026 World Press Freedom Index, down from 159th in 2025. The organization said media pluralism was being undermined and that independent and critical outlets were subject to legal, political and economic pressure.
Freedom House also rates Turkey “Not Free” and says independent outlets face heavy political pressure, prosecution and censorship, while media organizations are frequently fined, blocked or shut down.
The court order against T24 follows a series of arrests of journalists this month. YouTube journalist Ali Tarakçı and Nefes news coordinator Fatih Ergin were jailed under Turkey’s controversial “disinformation” law in recent days, prompting CPJ to accuse the government of using the legislation with increasing frequency to silence the press.
The government says restrictions and prosecutions involving media and online content are intended to enforce criminal law, protect public order and shield children and families from harmful material.
Press freedom and rights groups say broadly worded laws and sweeping court orders are increasingly being used to suppress journalism and legitimate public debate.
This article is republished from Turkish Minute.
