Turkish prosecutors are investigating two editors at the BirGün newspaper on allegations of insulting President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in an article that quoted a student group criticizing pressure on university students, the Media and Law Studies Association (MLSA) reported.
Sefer Selçuk Özbek, the managing editor responsible for legal affairs for BirGün’s website, and Gökay Başcan, the managing editor responsible for legal affairs for its print edition, were questioned by the press crimes bureau of the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office.
Thousands of people in Turkey are investigated, prosecuted or convicted on charges of insulting the president on the basis of the controversial Article 299 of the Turkish Penal Code (TCK).
The investigation concerns an August 24, 2025, article headlined “You cannot intimidate us with punishment and pressure.” The article reported on disciplinary investigations, scholarship cancellations and dormitory expulsions targeting university students who attended protests linked to the detention and jailing of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu.
İmamoğlu was detained on March 19, 2025, a day after Istanbul University annulled his diploma and days before the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) was set to formalize him as its presidential candidate. He was jailed pending trial on corruption charges four days later, allegations he and the CHP deny.
The passages cited by prosecutors were direct quotations from statements by the Middle East Technical University Alumni Association and Left Youth (Sol Genç), a left-wing youth organization.
Özbek denied the accusation, saying the disputed remarks were not written by BirGün.
“The expressions in the article were not written by us,” Özbek said. “The statement by Sol Genç was quoted directly.” Başcan also rejected the accusation, saying the newspaper had directly quoted Sol Genç’s statement.
Their lawyer, Tolgay Güvercin, said the quoted remarks were part of standard news reporting and did not meet the legal elements of the crime of insulting the president.
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 2026 World Press Freedom Index published by Reporters Without Borders (RSF), where it was ranked 163rd out of 180 nations.
