Turkish police questioned journalist İdris Yılmaz on Monday over his reporting on alleged corruption at a government-funded social assistance foundation in Van province, the Media and Law Studies Association (MLSA) reported.
Yılmaz was summoned to a police station in Erciş on November 9 over a November 6 Instagram post reporting that an inspector had been assigned to investigate alleged irregularities at the local Social Assistance and Solidarity Foundation, which distributes aid to people in need under the district governor’s supervision.
Yılmaz was questioned on suspicion of violating the confidentiality of communications. He denied wrongdoing, saying he had not been informed of any confidentiality order concerning the investigation and had no obligation to reveal his sources.
Yılmaz also said the Erciş district governor’s office had contacted him through Instagram, called his report misinformation and asked him to delete the post. He said he refused and provided police with screenshots of the exchange.
Six people, including the foundation’s director, were detained as part of the corruption investigation, which involves allegations of bid rigging, bribery and embezzlement. Investigators are examining alleged irregularities in purchases and payments related to social assistance, including coal and heating fuel.
Yılmaz has previously faced legal proceedings related to his reporting. In June 2023 a court gave him a suspended sentence of more than four months for intentional injury after he and another journalist were attacked by a contractor and his associates while investigating alleged corruption in a municipal road project in 2017. The court treated the camera he used to defend himself as a weapon.
In a separate case, the MLSA said in August that it had filed an application with Turkey’s Constitutional Court challenging a fine imposed on Yılmaz for insulting police officers during a 2015 encounter in Erciş while he was reporting. The application alleged violations of his rights to a fair trial and freedom of expression.
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.
