Access blocked to X accounts of Fırat Fıstık, Nasuh Bektaş and Mezopotamya Agency; Ruşen Çakır presents defense in Istanbul Municipality trial

Access blocked to X accounts of journalists Fırat Fıstık and Nasuh Bektaş and Mezopotamya Agency

Access has been blocked to the X accounts of Medyascope reporter Fırat Fıstık, journalist Nasuh Bektaş and Mezopotamya Agency on the grounds of “protecting national security and public order” under Article 8/A of Law No. 5651.

All three accounts were withheld in Turkey. In a statement posted from his new X account, Fıstık said his account had been closed over his posts about the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality (İBB) case: “This is troubling. No prior notification, no court decision is even served. The account suddenly disappears. It is unclear how or where you are supposed to object. The posts were about the İBB case.”

Journalist Ruşen Çakır presents defense in Istanbul Municipality trial

The second hearing in the İBB case, in which 414 defendants, including jailed Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu and journalists Ruşen Çakır, Soner Yalçın, Yavuz Oğhan and Şaban Sevinç, are on trial, was held on 20 August 2026.

At the hearing, held by the Istanbul 33rd High Criminal Court in the new courtroom built in front of the Marmara Prison complex in Silivri, Medyascope Editor-in-Chief Ruşen Çakır presented his defense.

In his defense, Çakır rejected the allegation that he had knowingly and willingly aided a criminal organization, calling the accusation “absurd” and deeply unjust in his 40th year as a journalist. He said the case against him appeared to rely on HTS records — phone traffic and location data — that had been interpreted as evidence of meetings with Murat Ongun and Emrah Bağdatlı, although he said the records merely showed that they had been present at the same public events.

Çakır said he had known Ongun, a fellow journalist and later an adviser to İmamoğlu, for years, and that contact with him was part of his work as the founding editor-in-chief of Medyascope. He said he had followed İmamoğlu’s press conferences and campaign events as a journalist, and that it was therefore unsurprising for his phone to appear in the same locations as Ongun’s. He also said records placing him near Bağdatlı, whom he said he did not know, could be explained by public events they had both attended, including Galatasaray matches and opposition rallies.

Referring to a Galatasaray-Kayserispor match on 18 May 2025, Çakır said he later realized that Ongun was also a Galatasaray supporter and that Bağdatlı’s X account followed only one account: Galatasaray. “So now I am apparently guilty of being a Galatasaray supporter, having a season ticket and going to matches,” he told the court. He added that similar overlaps appeared in the records for other crowded events he had covered or attended, including Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu’s 2023 rallies in Trabzon and İzmir and a CHP congress in Ankara.

The hearing was adjourned until 24 August 2026.

Journalists Ruşen Çakır, Soner Yalçın, Yavuz Oğhan and Şaban Sevinç are on trial on charges of “knowingly and willingly aiding an organization without being part of its hierarchical structure” under Article 220/7 of the Turkish Penal Code and “publicly disseminating misleading information” under Article 217/A. The indictment cites “suspicious research reports,” “suspect statements” and “open-source research” as evidence for the charges.

At least 19 journalists and media workers in prison

As of 21 August 2026, at least 19 journalists and media workers are in prison in Turkey, either imprisoned pending trial or serving a sentence.

The full list can be accessed here.