The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) on Monday urged Turkish authorities to free editor-in-chief of the pro-opposition TELE1 TV station Merdan Yanardağ and rescind the appointment of a trustee to take control of the outlet.
Yanardağ was detained on October 24 as part of an investigation launched by the İstanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office. A criminal court in İstanbul issued an arrest order on Sunday for Yanardağ and İstanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu’s former campaign manager, Necati Özkan, on charges of “political espionage.” İmamoğlu, already in pretrial detention in another case, was also charged with the same crime.
“Seizing one of the few remaining critical broadcasters in Turkey and arraigning journalist Merdan Yanardağ over vague accusations of espionage is a tremendous blow to the country’s press freedom record,” said Özgür Öğret, CPJ’s Turkey representative. “Turkish authorities should immediately release Yanardağ and return control of the broadcaster back to TELE1 executives.”
Following Yanardağ’s detention early Friday morning, an İstanbul court had placed TELE1’s parent company, ABC Radio Television and Digital Broadcasting Inc., under the control of the Savings Deposit Insurance Fund (TMSF), which will act as trustee. After the takeover TELE1’s YouTube channel was shut down.
The prosecutor’s office stated that a businessman named Hüseyin Gün, alleged to have links to “foreign intelligence agents,” had communicated with Özkan “in a manner suggesting instructions.” Yanardağ was also accused of “collaborating with foreign intelligence services to manipulate the 2019 local elections,” in which İmamoğlu was first elected mayor.
Yanardağ denied the allegations, calling the accusations “a poorly fabricated plot” and “a fifth-grade conspiracy.”
CPJ said it had requested comment from the prosecutor’s office but received no response.
According to Expression Interrupted, a press freedom monitoring group, 28 journalists are currently behind bars in Turkey. The country’s deteriorating media landscape was further pointed out in the 2025 World Press Freedom Index published by Reporters Without Borders (RSF), where it was ranked 159th out of 180 nations.
