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Tuesday, September 29
Global Free Speech

Turkey arrests 2 more journalists as authorities ramp up use of disinformation law to silence the press

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Turkey arrests 2 more journalists as authorities ramp up use of disinformation law to silence the press

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Istanbul, September 29, 2026—Turkey is blatantly using its disinformation law to detain and arrest journalists, with two more reporters arrested in recent days. The Committee to Protect Journalists calls urgently on authorities to repeal this poorly conceived legislation and release all those unjustly held. 

Ali Tarakçı, a journalist who broadcasts on YouTube, was arrested on September 26 and Fatih Ergin, news coordinator for the left-wing nationalist daily Nefes, was arrested on September 28, both on suspicion of spreading disinformation.

“When the disinformation law came into force in 2022, Turkish authorities promised it would not target journalists, but today we see it being used with alarming regularity to silence journalists and prevent them from doing their jobs,” said Özgür Öğret, CPJ’s Turkey representative. 

“Since the beginning of 2026 alone, more than a dozen journalists have been detained or arrested under this legislation. This must stop. Ali Tarakçı, Fatih Ergin and all journalists harassed, detained and arrested under this law must be freed and the law itself should be abolished at once.” 

Tarakçı was taken into custody at his house around midnight on September 25 and arrested pending trial by Ankara’s 8th Criminal Court the next day on suspicion of “publicly spreading disinformation.” 

Ali Tarakçı (left) (Screenshot: Ali Tarakçı/YouTube) Fatih Ergin (Screenshot: Meltem TV/YouTube)

His detention came after he posted on X on September 23 that “a very important minister will resign on Friday”; local media linked his arrest to this post. Tarakçı’s X account has since been blocked in Turkey.

Ergin was taken into police custody in Istanbul on September 27, his lawyer posted on X.  Local media said his arrest was related to a post on X referring to the death of Turgay Tamer, a doctor who  was briefly detained this month as part of a reopened investigation into the 2011 death in custody of former Turkish intelligence operative Kaşif Kozinoğlu.

Ergin identified Tamer as a forensic expert in his post on X but later corrected himself, and said he was a prison campus doctor.

This is the second arrest in recent weeks of a journalist in relation to the reopened Kozinoğlu investigation. On September 12, Selahattin Günday, a former broadcast reporter for the now closed Doğan News Agency (DHA), was arrested on suspicion of exposing an intelligence operative and illegally obtaining personal data while reporting on Kozinoğlu in 2011.

CPJ emailed Turkey’s Justice Ministry for comment but did not receive a reply.

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