A Turkish court on Tuesday sentenced journalist and news editor Öznur Değer to more than three years in prison over social media posts about two Kurdish journalists who were killed in a Turkish drone attack in Syria, Turkish media reported.
The Mardin 2nd High Criminal Court convicted Değer, a news editor of the pro-Kurdish JINNEWS agency, of “repeatedly disseminating propaganda for a terrorist organization.”
Değer was arrested on February 7 in the southeastern province of Mardin for her posts about Cihan Bilgin and Nazım Daştan, two Kurdish journalists who were killed in the attack in northern Syria in December 2024. Police reportedly broke down the door of the Değer family home, handcuffed her behind her back and beat her before taking her into custody.
She was initially sent to Mardin Type E Prison and later transferred to Erzincan Prison in eastern Turkey. Değer was released on May 22 pending trial.
The indictment also referred to an incident during her condolence visit for Daştan and Bilgin, in which her verbal exchange with a police officer was cited among the charges.
The Turkish government has intensified its crackdown on the pro-Kurdish media in recent years, blocking access to news outlets and arresting journalists on charges of terrorism. Press freedom advocates say these measures aim to silence independent reporting on Kurdish issues and military operations in Syria.
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.
