Turkey’s takeover of pro-opposition broadcaster Halk TV drew condemnation from press unions, opposition politicians and international rights figures on Wednesday, with critics warning that the seizure threatens the public’s access to independent news and leaves media outlets without legal protection.
Police raided the station’s İstanbul headquarters early Wednesday as state-appointed trustees took control and halted its live broadcasts. Employees were prevented from entering the building while officers conducted searches, Halk TV reported.
The İstanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office said the operation was part of an investigation into the station’s owner, Cafer Mahiroğlu, over allegations of bribery, bid rigging and money laundering.
The state-run Savings Deposit Insurance Fund (TMSF) was appointed to manage Halk TV and companies linked to Mahiroğlu.
“Today is a dark day for Turkey. The public’s right to information is being seized for political reasons,” Mahiroğlu said in a video on X, adding that seven members of his family were among those detained.
The Turkish Journalists’ Union (TGS), DİSK Basın-İş and the Progressive Journalists Association (ÇGD) condemned the takeover as an attack on press freedom and the public’s right to information.
DİSK Basın-İş said the intervention demonstrated that media outlets in Turkey no longer had legal protection. It warned that the decision threatened not only the channel’s broadcasts but also the jobs and futures of hundreds of employees.
The ÇGD pointed to the takeover of TELE1 a year earlier, saying the latest intervention showed that no media organization had guarantees that it could continue broadcasting. The TGS described the raid as arbitrary and rejected the use of police to interfere with journalism.
The pro-opposition station was placed under TMSF control in October 2025 after its editor-in-chief, Merdan Yanardağ, was detained in an espionage investigation that also targeted jailed İstanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu.
Yanardağ denied the allegations. The TGS described Wednesday’s Halk TV raid as arbitrary and rejected the use of police to interfere with journalism.
The criticism comes amid mounting restrictions on independent news outlets and online expression. An İstanbul court blocked access to T24’s website and social media accounts in September over coverage prosecutors described as “LGBT propaganda.” The Freedom of Expression Association said at least 1,270 X accounts were subject to blocking orders that month, with the platform subsequently withholding about 90 percent of them in Turkey.
Nacho Sánchez Amor, the European Parliament’s rapporteur on Turkey, said the government was seeking complete control of the media after the takeovers of TELE1 and Halk TV.
“Amidst detentions of journalists & broad online censorship, freedom of media & expression will soon be just a memory,” he wrote on X.
Emma Sinclair-Webb, Human Rights Watch’s Turkey director, highlighted the timing of the raid.
She said that Halk TV’s final interview before its live broadcasts were halted concerned the investment fund crisis embroiling the government and that İmamoğlu was beginning his defense in court that day.
The fund scandal, which erupted in mid-September, involves allegations of market manipulation and political connections, with investors unable to recover savings after regulators suspended trading in affected funds.
Opposition politicians have demanded scrutiny of the scandal’s political links.
İmamoğlu began his defense Wednesday in a corruption trial involving alleged bribery, bid rigging and money laundering at the İstanbul Metropolitan Municipality. His defense was scheduled to extend over four days.
The jailed mayor also condemned the takeover during his defense in court, dismissing the allegations used to justify it as lies and questioned the operation’s timing.
“Our 87 million citizens wake up to a dawn raid every morning. You turn on the television: breaking news. Sometimes the alerts come one after another, leaving you confused. The Republic of Turkey has become the Republic of Raids,” he said.
Amnesty International condemned the takeover as “a brutal blow to media freedom” and demanded the immediate restoration of Halk TV’s independent operations.
“This alarming move is a brutal blow to media freedom in what appears to be the latest attempt by Turkish authorities to silence opposition voices,” said Esther Major, Amnesty’s deputy regional director for Europe.
Turkish-German journalist Deniz Yücel described the Halk TV operation as an expropriation rather than merely a raid.
He also pointed to the timing of İmamoğlu’s defense, warning that Turkey was moving from autocracy toward dictatorship.
The İstanbul Bar Association called for broadcasts to resume and the seizure to be reversed, saying the operation violated constitutional protections for expression, press freedom, employment and property.
It urged the TMSF not to facilitate the unlawful seizure of property and said silencing a broadcaster on the day İmamoğlu’s defense was expected to be heard was incompatible with democratic principles.
Özgür Özel, leader of the opposition New Party, condemned the takeover, saying a dawn police raid and trustee appointment at a television station were actions only dictators would take.
He questioned the timing amid demands for accountability over the fund scandal and the start of İmamoğlu’s defense.
Özel established the New Party in July after he and 90 other lawmakers left the Republican People’s Party (CHP) following a court decision that removed him as CHP leader and reinstated Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu.
Ankara Mayor Mansur Yavaş called the Halk TV takeover an explicit intervention against press freedom and the public’s right to information.
Pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) co-leaders Tülay Hatimoğulları and Tuncer Bakırhan also condemned the decision, with Hatimoğulları demanding its immediate reversal.
İYİ (Good) Party leader Müsavat Dervişoğlu said the government’s actions had ceased to be legal measures, accusing it of trying to prevent the public from learning the truth about the fund scandal.
At least 10 TV stations placed under trustees since March 2025
Halk TV’s takeover brings to at least 10 the number of television stations put under state-appointed trustees since March 2025, the Cumhuriyet news website reported.
Flash TV was seized in March 2025 in an investigation into alleged illegal betting and money laundering. Ekotürk followed in August as part of an investigation into payment platform Papara.
In September 2025 the TMSF took control of 121 Can Holding companies, including six television stations: Habertürk TV, Show TV, Bloomberg HT, HT Spor, Show Türk and Show Max.
TELE1, whose takeover prompted similar condemnation last year, was among the stations placed under state-appointed trustees before Wednesday’s intervention against Halk TV.
Turkey’s media crackdown intensified after a failed coup in July 2016, when the government used emergency decrees to shut down newspapers, television stations, radio stations and publishers. By the end of 2017, some 166 media outlets and publishing houses had been closed and their assets confiscated without compensation, the UN human rights office reported.
Turkey ranked 163rd among 180 countries and territories in Reporters Without Borders’ 2026 World Press Freedom Index, down from 159th in 2025. The group estimates that 90 percent of national media outlets are under government control.
This article is republished from Turkish Minute.
