Turkey’s telecommunications authority has blocked dozens of articles on corruption as well as politically sensitive reporting on the independent Kısa Dalga news website.
According to Kısa Dalga, the blocks were ordered by Turkey’s Information and Communication Technologies Authority (BTK), which told the news outlet to remove or disable access to articles ranging from reports on money laundering and corruption allegations to investigations linked to Istanbul’s main opposition-run municipality as well as stories involving politically connected business figures and public personalities.
Kısa Dalga said the restrictions cut off public access to reporting on matters of significant public interest, including corruption, the use of state power and the activities of politically connected business and political figures.
Among the blocked material were reports and columns about a high-profile criminal investigation into alleged organized crime, usury and money laundering involving Turkish businessmen, including Cihan Ekşioğlu and Sezgin Baran Korkmaz. The reporting examined detention, search and seizure orders and allegations that the suspects had used the financial distress of a tourism company to gain control of a luxury hotel in the resort town of Bodrum in what prosecutors say was a scheme to launder money.
Korkmaz is a controversial business figure who has faced money-laundering and fraud charges in multiple jurisdictions, including the United States, while Ekşioğlu has also been a frequent subject of criminal probes and media scrutiny in Turkey.
Other blocked stories focused on an investigation involving the Istanbul Municipality, which is run by the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP). Those articles included reporting on statements by former ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) lawmaker Şamil Tayyar about who was being targeted in the probe.
Turkey has become one of the world’s most frequent users of court-ordered internet censorship, with thousands of news articles, social media posts and websites blocked each year, often at the request of government bodies or powerful individuals claiming that coverage harms their reputation or private life. Turkish courts routinely issue the orders that allow regulators to enforce the blocks.
In the first seven months of 2025 alone, 3,330 URLs linked to 1,306 pieces of online content were blocked.
The country’s Constitutional Court has repeatedly ruled that this legal framework violates freedom of expression and press freedom. In a 2024 decision the court struck down a provision that allowed news and online content to be blocked on the grounds that it harmed an individual’s reputation or private life, saying the law was too vague and enabled arbitrary censorship.
In a 2021 ruling the court also found that blocking news reports under the same provision violated free expression and required legislative change. The court has also stripped the head of the BTK of the authority to independently order content removals and access blocks.
