Journalist Fatih Altaylı to appear in court in Silivri tomorrow

Journalist Fatih Altaylı will appear before a judge at the hearing to be held at Silivri Prison tomorrow. Altaylı has been in detention for approximately three and a half months, a period during which debates regarding press freedom have reignited.

While the investigation and prosecution of journalists frequently come to the fore in Turkey, Altaylı's case holds special significance in this context.

Why was Fatih Altaylı arrested?

Journalist Fatih Altaylı was arrested after being taken into custody on allegations of "threatening the President," based on remarks made on his YouTube channel.

Chief Advisor to the President Oktay Saral shared a 36-second clip from a video Altaylı posted on his YouTube account on his X account, adding the following note: "Altaylı! The water is starting to get hot for you."

In the video in question, Altaylı was commenting on a poll showing that 70 percent of the public in Turkey said no to AKP Chairman and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan "remaining in power for life," and stated the following:

"Right now, apart from a significant portion of AKP voters and a portion of MHP voters, no one would approve of such a thing. Look at the history of this nation, look at its distant past. This is a nation that has strangled its sultans when it did not like or want them. It is not a small number of Ottoman sultans who were killed or assassinated."

Oktay Saral had previously targeted Altaylı in posts on his X account. In another post on June 20, he shared Altaylı's remarks regarding Israel and said, "The words of Zionist-lover Fatih Altaylı that 'Israel is a country where the rule of law prevails and its people are enlightened' are a moral bankruptcy and a collapse of conscience."