Press Release, 14 October 2026
Expropriation of Turkish Broadcaster Halk TV: Giant Steps towards Dictatorship
The storming of the news broadcaster Halk TV by Turkish police in Istanbul early on Wednesday morning was far more than a »raid«, as initial German-language news agency reports described it. In fact, the broadcaster was placed under compulsory state administration, amounting to de facto expropriation. Police prevented employees from entering the building, and broadcasting was suspended. »With this move, the Erdoğan regime is bringing the country’s most widely watched government-critical broadcaster under its control«, said PEN Berlin spokesperson Deniz Yücel. »This is another devastating blow to what remains of press freedom in Turkey, carried out under the flimsy pretexts of bribery and procurement fraud.«
Halk TV, which still had a distinctly amateurish feel at the time, rose to prominence in 2013 when it became the only Turkish television broadcaster to provide live coverage of the Gezi Park protests. Since then, Halk TV had grown from a niche channel into an influential news broadcaster, gradually distancing itself from its initially close ties to the Republican People’s Party (CHP).
Halk TV was also available via satellite, enabling it to reach older generations less accustomed to using the internet. Another major government-critical broadcaster, Tele 1, was already seized in October 2025; its editor-in-chief, Merdan Yanardağ, has been imprisoned ever since on absurd espionage charges. At the end of September, the website and social media accounts of T24, Turkey’s largest independent news portal, were also blocked.
Meanwhile, Turkey is being rocked by a stock market scandal of enormous proportions. There are well-founded suspicions that the authorities not only failed in their regulatory duties, but that senior politicians from the ruling AKP may also have been involved in the criminal manipulation of share prices. Halk TV was among the few media outlets to report critically on the scandal. The wave of arrests targeting opposition municipal politicians continues unabated. This Wednesday, Istanbul’s mayor Ekrem Imamoğlu, who has been imprisoned for a year and a half, is due to testify in court. Halk TV is one of the few broadcasters that regularly cover the proceedings.
Just on Tuesday, Halk TV’s Washington correspondent asked US President Donald Trump whether he would ask Turkey to participate in military operations against the Houthi militia in Yemen. His response: »I might do that. I have great respect for the President of Turkey. I think President Erdoğan would do what I ask him to do. I have great respect for him.«
PEN Berlin spokesperson Deniz Yücel: »Turkey is moving rapidly from autocracy towards dictatorship. And Trump’s response offers part of the explanation for why Erdoğan can get away with it: because no one is stopping him – neither the Turkish judiciary, which he has long since transformed into a compliant instrument of repression, nor Western governments. And this applies not only to the United States. On the very day that T24 was blocked, Hendrik Wüst, the politically ambitious Minister-President of North Rhine-Westphalia, visited Turkey, was received by President Erdoğan and declared that they would ›open a new chapter in relations with Turkey through economic cooperation‹.«
PEN Berlin calls on the German federal government to at least pretend that it cares about human rights and fundamental freedoms in Turkey, a NATO member state and nominal candidate for EU membership.
PEN Berlin. We stand by our word.