Inside Turkey’s Lawfare: How Turkey uses its disinformation law against journalists

The sentence can be increased by half for those who run anonymous social media accounts or act under the orders of criminal groups.

How is the disinformation law being used to target journalists? 

Journalists are regularly detained under this law because of information they have disclosed in videos, articles or on social media – information that constitutes the normal work of journalism, but which authorities deem to be false or liable to disturb the peace. Often this reporting focuses on the actions of the government, leading many journalists to describe the disinformation legislation as “a censorship law.” None of the reporting by the detained or prosecuted journalists caused fear or panic among the public, according to CPJ’s monitoring. 

Some journalists are released quickly, while others are arrested and taken to prison as investigations continue or pending trial. Those arrested can spend months in pre-trial detention but even if they are released pending trial, they may wait months for their trial to begin, leaving them stuck in legal limbo. If they appeal the eventual judgment, they could have to wait months for a final ruling as the case ping pongs between local and appeal courts.

Even if cases are dropped during investigation or end in acquittal, the targeted journalists will have experienced months of worry and fear.

Several prominent journalists have been repeatedly detained for allegedly flouting this law, locking them into drawn-out legal processes that stop them from doing their jobs while discouraging others from reporting freely. 

This crackdown is happening against the background of a marked decline in press freedom, with a sharp escalation of political pressure, judicial harassment and censorship targeting the press. Journalists also continue to face assault, threats, and intimidation.

And although the number of jailed journalists has fallen from a peak of 84 in 2016 to 14 in September 2026, this figure does not capture the fact that many journalists are moving in and out of jail or spending months in pre-trial detention.

What does the government say?

When the legislation was first proposed in April 2022, there were already concerns that the vagueness of language around what constituted false information could be used against journalists. 

The ruling AK Party dismissed these concerns, saying disinformation could destabilise society. 

In a speech in May 2022, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said “digital fascism” was a threat preventing people from accessing accurate and unbiased news. 

“In particular, social media platforms, devoid of any self-regulation, oversight, rules, and ethical values pose serious risks to all societies,” he said.

The bill’s authors wrote in the introduction to the bill that the change to the penal code was designed to protect Turkish citizens’ rights online while combating “disinformation” and “illegal content” produced by “false names and accounts;” they argued that this action fell in line with regulations in the United States and European countries, including Germany, France, and the United Kingdom.

The day after the bill passed, on October 14, Hakan Çavuşoğlu, chair of parliament’s Committee on Human Rights Inquiry met with press freedom groups, including CPJ, and said the disinformation law would improve freedom of speech because people would be basing their opinions on verified facts. He said no journalists would be imprisoned under the law. 

What do journalists say?

Journalists, politicians, academics and lawyers have all criticised the law, saying that in practice it means that all information that does not come straight from the government can be labelled false.  

The writing was on the wall in 2022. 

After that meeting with Çavuşoğlu on October 14, 2022,  press freedom groups said: “The fact that (the law) will be implemented by the politicized Turkish judiciary will expose journalists, as well as millions of internet users, to the risk of criminal sanctions, playing a major role in increasing censorship and self-censorship in the country’s already damaged media landscape.” 

In the intervening years, these fears have played out. 

İsmail Arı, a reporter for the leftist daily BirGün, spent two and a half months in pretrial detention in 2026 on suspicion of spreading disinformation. He was eventually released in early June, pending the outcome of his trial.

Arı said authorities were using the disinformation law to pursue journalists instead of resorting to the narrower charge of “insulting the president” – punishable by up to four years in jail under Article 299 of the Turkish penal code – or the charge of “provoking the people into animosity and hatred” as defined under Article 216 of the penal code and punishable by one to three years in jail.

At his trial in June, Arı challenged the accusation that his reporting had caused “anxiety, fear, or panic,” as specified in the text of the law.

“I never saw any chaos erupting nor people succumbing to fear, panic, or anxiety regarding the news stories of myself or anyone else arrested and prosecuted due to this accusation,” he told CPJ.

He said the disinformation law particularly targeted journalists active on social media, who tend to be less pro-government than traditional media, often identifying themselves as pro-opposition.

“I believe that (the authorities) wanted to rupture this opposition influence in social media and either punish or intimidate the influential names and journalists with this law,” he said. 

Veteran parliamentary deputy and former journalist Utku Çakırözer, the deputy chair responsible for media in the opposition New Party, says the law is being “enforced maliciously,” as evidenced by the number of journalists prosecuted despite the lack of proof that their reporting has caused panic or distress. 

“What is disinformation? What does it mean to publicly spread it? According to who? These were all abstract concepts as discussed before the law was passed,” he told CPJ. 

The government is “taking steps aiming to suppress, intimidate and censor criticism at every chance,” said Çakırözer.

He said other clauses in the Turkish Penal Code can be used to combat disinformation and while he thinks the disinformation law should be repealed, any reform should prioritize “lawfulness, temperance, press freedom and the people’s right to be informed.”