Freedom of the press and freedom of expression have continued to deteriorate in Turkey over the past year, with 1,696 people put on trial and pretrial detentions rising by 560 percent, according to a new report by the Media and Law Studies Association (MLSA).
The majority of those prosecuted were activists, journalists and students, the report found, with 52 percent of the cases brought under Turkey’s controversial Counterterrorism Law (TMK).
Among those targeted, 56 journalists were accused of “membership in a terrorist organization” or “disseminating terrorist propaganda,” charges frequently used to criminalize reporting on Kurdish issues and state security operations.
Monitoring 275 court cases between September 1, 2024 and August 31, 2025, the MLSA found that activists constituted the largest group of defendants (52.1 percent) followed by journalists (18.1 percent), students (15 percent), politicians (5.5 percent) and lawyers (5.4 percent).
Pretrial detentions also rose sharply, with 66 individuals held pending trial over the past year, up from just 10 the previous year.
The eighth annual report published by the MLSA warns that repression of journalists and activists continues to intensify in Turkey, with legal norms and constitutional protections increasingly undermined.
Press freedom organizations and human rights advocates have been urging Turkish authorities to end the judicial harassment of journalists and to comply with Constitutional Court decisions on freedom of expression. They have also called for revising overly broad criminal and counterterrorism provisions that are routinely used to suppress dissent.
According to the report the most common charges were “membership in a terrorist organization” (31.5 percent) and “disseminating terrorist propaganda” (18.2 percent), primarily targeting journalists, human rights defenders and activists. These accusations were often based on news content, social media posts, association memberships or participation in peaceful demonstrations.
Other notable charges included “insulting a public official or individual” (10.8 percent of cases) and “insulting the president” (8.3 percent), mainly in trials of journalists, politicians and social media users.
More than half of the trials were in İstanbul (51.8 percent), followed by Diyarbakır (17.3 percent) in Turkey’s predominantly Kurdish southeast. In total courts handed down 197 years and two months of prison sentences along with fines totaling 95,000 Turkish lira.
MLSA is an İstanbul-based freedom of expression watchdog that has been active since 2018, providing legal assistance to individuals whose rights have been violated and representing them in national and international legal proceedings.
