Istanbul, October 5, 2026—Turkish authorities have weaponized the country’s disinformation law to stifle independent reporting by repeatedly
detaining and arresting journalists
on charges of spreading false information based on the vague tenets of this poorly conceived legislation.
This tactic fits into a global pattern of using legal systems and institutions to criminalize legitimate journalism and silence reporting – a practice known as lawfare.
CPJ has
called
for the law – Article 217/A of the
Turkish Penal Code
– to be repealed and for all journalists arrested under its auspices to be released.
“The disinformation law was designed to be a one-size-fits-all tool to prosecute journalists for reporting information that the authorities would rather the public did not know. We have long seen Turkey’s authorities use anti-terrorism legislation and other laws to unjustly target journalists but this new disinformation legislation – which is broad and vaguely worded – allows them to do this on an even larger scale,” said Özgür Öğret, CPJ’s Turkish representative.
“As such, it fits into the global trend of authoritarian governments criminalizing news they dislike by labelling it ‘disinformation’ and prosecuting the journalists who report it,” he said.
As of September 4, CPJ had documented 16 arrests and detentions for publicly spreading disinformation this year alone; these cases involved 14 journalists – two were detained or arrested twice – and two journalists remained in jail as of mid-September.
Independent data journalism platform Veriler Ne Diyor
estimated
in April that at least 83 journalists had been charged 114 times over disinformation since the disinformation law came into effect on
October 18, 2022
.
What does the law say?
The law against publicly spreading disinformation is just one of a suite of legal measures used to target journalists, who can also face charges under other legislation that criminalizes “
provoking
the people
… [more]
