Ayşe Barım, a prominent talent manager in Turkey, faced a significant legal setback yesterday when an Istanbul court reversed an earlier ruling that had granted her release from detention. Initially arrested on January 27, Barım is charged with attempts to undermine the government amid ongoing scrutiny regarding her links to the infamous Gezi Park protests from 2013. After a series of legal maneuvers, including appeals from her lawyers and subsequent challenges from the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office, Barım remains in custody as investigations into her activities continue. Article Subheadings 1) Charges and Background of Ayşe Barım 2) Legal Proceedings…
Author: Serdar Imren
Serdar Imren
Serdar Imren is a distinguished journalist with an extensive background as a News Director for major Turkish media outlets. His work has consistently focused on upholding the core principles of journalistic integrity: accuracy, impartiality, and a commitment to the truth. In response to the growing restrictions on press freedom in Turkey, he established News Journos to create a platform for independent and critical journalism. His reporting and analysis cover Turkish politics, human rights, and the challenges facing a free press in an increasingly authoritarian environment.
In a widespread crackdown, Turkish authorities have detained 282 individuals allegedly linked to the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), a designated terrorist organization, as part of ongoing efforts to address militant threats within the country. The detentions, which took place over a five-day period, included journalists, politicians, and academics, raising concerns about the erosion of civil liberties and democratic governance. This operation coincides with a broader crackdown on pro-Kurdish political representatives and comes amid hopes of a potential resolution to the longstanding conflict between the PKK and the Turkish government. Article Subheadings 1) Overview of the Detentions 2) Background on the…
In the sprawling, cold expanse of Silivri Prison, a man has become the living symbol of a state’s complete collapse into personal vengeance. That man is Osman Kavala. Detained since 2017 and now facing a life sentence, the 64-year-old philanthropist and intellectual is not a criminal; he is a political hostage, held captive not by evidence or law, but by the unyielding wrath of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Kavala’s case is the grotesque centerpiece of the Erdoğan regime’s efforts to rewrite history. To understand his imprisonment, one must understand Erdoğan’s deepest political wound: the 2013 Gezi Park protests. When millions…
The long arm of the Turkish state’s repressive apparatus has found its newest target: Clubhouse. The audio-chat app, which briefly emerged as a rare space for open political debate in Turkey, has been swiftly turned into a hunting ground by pro-government mobs who are systematically blacklisting, doxxing, and threatening citizens for the simple act of criticizing the government. This is not random online trolling. It is a coordinated and chilling campaign of intimidation openly championed by figures within the ruling party itself. In a tactic reminiscent of totalitarian regimes, AKP deputy Mehmet Cihat Sezai publicly called on his followers to…
A new report from the International Press Institute (IPI) has delivered a damning verdict on Turkey’s justice system, confirming what journalists have known for years: the country’s courtrooms are no longer places of law, but assembly lines for political repression, systematically designed to silence and punish critical voices. The joint report with Turkey’s Media and Law Studies Association (MLSA), which monitored 38 separate cases involving 159 journalists, reveals a chilling landscape where the very act of journalism is treated as terrorism. An overwhelming 85 percent of the hearings involved dubious terrorism-related offenses. The “evidence” presented in these show trials consists…
Intro Media Penalized Amid Sustained Pressure Against Critical Journalism
The physical “caliphate” of the Islamic State (ISIS), the most barbaric terrorist organization of our time, may lie in ruins across the blood-soaked lands of Syria and Iraq, but its ghosts refuse to be exorcised. And now, one of those ghosts has returned to deliver a confession that threatens to implicate the highest office of a NATO member state in a pact with the devil. In an explosive testimony obtained by researchers from the International Center for the Study of Violent Extremism (ICSVE), a high-ranking ISIS militant, described as the group’s “ambassador to Turkey,” has laid bare the details of…
The Erdoğan government’s systematic effort to control the public narrative and silence dissent reached staggering new heights in 2018, with Turkish authorities censoring at least 2,950 online news articles, effectively erasing them from the digital record, according to a comprehensive new media monitoring report. This alarming figure reveals only a fraction of a multi-front assault on the free flow of information. The state’s censorship machine worked relentlessly throughout the year, also blocking access to 77 tweets, 22 Facebook posts, and 10 entire websites. Major platforms that served as a source of independent knowledge, most notably Wikipedia, remained entirely banned, plunging…
The Turkish government’s sweeping campaign to criminalize criticism has claimed two more victims, as gendarmerie forces raided the homes of two men in Tekirdağ province and a court ordered their immediate arrest. Their alleged crime, now a routine charge used to silence dissent across the country, was “insulting President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan” in posts made on social media. This incident is a stark illustration of the systematic nature of the state’s assault on free expression. The pre-dawn raids and the swiftness of the court’s decision to imprison the men underscore a chilling reality: the judicial process is no longer about…
In a staggering display of autocratic overreach on foreign soil, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan used a state visit to Germany to personally defame one of Turkey’s most celebrated journalists, Can Dündar, labeling him a “convicted spy” before the world’s press. But from his exile in Berlin, Dündar refused to be silenced, issuing a powerful ultimatum that laid bare the president’s lies: “Prove I am a spy, and I will quit my profession forever.” The dramatic confrontation unfolded during a joint press conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Erdoğan, hoping to use the international stage to legitimize his domestic war on…