Turkish prosecutors have reached opposing decisions over the same investigative report on corruption, with İstanbul indicting journalist İsmail Arı on insult and defamation charges while the Ankara prosecutor declined to prosecute, saying the reporting served the public interest.
According to the Birgün daily, Arı’s August 30 article examined allegations of corruption at the government-affiliated Yunus Emre Foundation, which had allegedly made payments to several companies using fake invoices. The report also questioned why no investigation had been launched into payments by Turkey’s broadcast regulator, the Radio and Television Supreme Council (RTÜK), made to the same companies for services such as organizing several workshops and producing documentaries.
After publication of the report, Ebubekir Şahin, the then-chairman of RTÜK, filed a complaint with the Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office, while RTÜK submitted a separate complaint to the İstanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office.
The İstanbul 2nd Court of First Instance accepted the indictment and added the charge of “public dissemination of misleading information” to the preliminary court order. The first hearing is scheduled for June 9, 2026.
The Ankara Public Prosecutor’s Office, however, issued a decision of non-prosecution on October 17, finding that Arı’s reporting aimed to inform the public.
The contradictory decisions, coupled with the involvement of officials from state-affiliated institutions, have raised questions among observers about whether political factors influence prosecutorial decisions in such cases.
Arı had previously faced five investigations over a critical report following complaints filed by Levent Uysal, a lawmaker from the far-right Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), an ally of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, and former justice minister Abdulhamit Gül.
According to Expression Interrupted, a press freedom monitoring group, 27 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.
