The trial of journalists charged with “membership in a terrorist organization” and “terrorism propaganda” in Diyarbakır has been adjourned until 9 April

ARDIL BATMAZ, DİYARBAKIR

The eighth hearing in the trial of 19 journalists who were jailed on 16 June 2022, as part of an investigation conducted by the Diyarbakır Chief Public Prosecutor's Office, and who were released at the first hearing after being detained for over a year, on charges of “membership in a terrorist organization” and “terrorism propaganda” was held at the Diyarbakır 4th High Criminal Court on 20 January 2026.

Elif Üngür, one of the journalists on trial, and the journalists' lawyers Resul Temur, Gözde Engin, Ruşen Seydaoğlu, and Bahar Oktay attended the hearing. P24 monitored the hearing.

The Dicle Fırat Journalists Association (DFG) and law students from the University of Amsterdam also observed the hearing.

Witness Canbay: “I do not know if he has a direct connection to the organization”

Journalist Üngür, who spoke at the hearing, repeated her previous statements. Witness Melik Canbay, who participated in the hearing via the judicial videoconferencing system, stated, "Only the name of one of the defendants, Aziz Oruç, was familiar to me. I met Aziz Oruç in Northern Iraq in 2018. He was working for a news agency. That is how I know him. I do not know if he had any direct connection to the organization. We did not work in the same field, but we would run into each other."

International travel ban kept in place

After the witness testimony, lawyer Temur took the floor and requested more time to prepare journalist Aziz Oruç for the next hearing. Temur also requested that the international travel ban, which has been on the journalists for approximately four years, be lifted.

The court decided to inquire about the outcome of the writ issued to the security forces at the previous hearing and to continue the journalists' ban on leaving the country. The trial was postponed until 9 April 2026.

The names of the journalists on trial are as follows: Abdurrahman Öncü, Aziz Oruç, Berivan Karatorak, Elif Zilan Öngör, Esmer Tunç, Kadir Bayram, Lezgîn Akdeniz, Mazlum Güler, Mehmet Yalçın, Mehmet Ali Ertaş, Mehmet Servet Yiğen, Neşe Toprak Bayram, Ramazan Geciken, Remziye Andan, Rohat Bulut, Serdar Altan, Suat Doğuhan, Ömer Çelik, and İbrahim Koyuncu.

Background of the case

Some production companies in Diyarbakır were raided by the police on 8 June 2022 over claims that they were shooting programs and producing content for the Stêrk TV and Medya Haber TV channels, which broadcast abroad. Several journalists, whose homes and workplaces were also searched by the police, were detained as part of the investigation. The police took a month to search the premises of the production companies.

The police presented video cameras and news materials confiscated during the searches as “evidence of terrorist organization’s activity” and provided images of these to the press. Sixteen journalists were imprisoned pending trial on 16 June 2022.

The Diyarbakır Chief Prosecutor’s Office filed a 728-page long indictment against the 18 journalists on charges of “membership in a terrorist organization” and “terrorism propaganda.” At the end of the first hearing held at the Diyarbakır 4th High Criminal Court on 11-12 July 2023, 16 Kurdish journalists and press workers were released with a ban on travelling abroad after 13 months in detention.

With the addition of four individuals to the case, the number of journalists on trial rose to 20. Later, journalist Mehmet Şahin's case was separated from the file at the sixth hearing and merged with another case file heard at the Diyarbakır 5th High Criminal Court. With this decision, the number of journalists on trial fell to 19.