Is the foreign agent law in effect?

  Although the goal of the “My Family is Safe” operations was announced as targeting “those who mediate prostitution and produce obscene content,” most of those detained and arrested were executives of LGBTI+ associations. Indeed, some pro-government journalists formed a chain of posts saying, “I support the ‘My Family is Safe’ operation conducted against LGBT.”

  Furthermore, following the operations, 73 websites and social media accounts belonging to LGBTI+ associations such as Kaos-GL, 17 Mayıs, Pembe Hayat, SPoD, Lambdaistanbul, and ÜniKuir were shut down. Journalist Tuğba Tekerek was arrested; access to the X accounts of many journalists and rights advocacy outlets—including Evrensel, MLSA, Sol Haber, the Federation of Women Associations, Amnesty International Turkey, KaosGL, Academics for Peace, the Sexual Education Treatment and Research Association, Özlem Akarsu Çelik, İrfan Değirmenci, and Fırat Fıstık—was blocked.

     The pro-government media also supported the operation with headlines such as “Western countries funded immorality” (Akşam), “The West is feeding the LGBT plague” (Sabah), “3.3 million dollars for LGBT” (TVNET / Yeni Şafak), and “LGBT fund is for civil war” (Türkiye); they accused these associations of receiving funds from abroad to engage in “immorality” and “acting as spies for the West”:

      “The MASAK investigation revealed that 3.3 million dollars were transferred from abroad to LGBT+ associations named SPoD, HEVİ, Pozitif Yaşam, LİSTAG, Lambda İstanbul, and Pozitif İz. Among those funding the deviant associations are public institutions from the USA, France, the Netherlands, and Germany.”

     The news reports claimed this was “revealed,” but in reality, the funds these associations received were not secret. However, in their police statements, those detained were asked about resources transferred from European and other foreign public institutions and foreign organizations.

     If the regulation defined as the “Foreign Agent Law” in 2024 had been enacted, the scope of the crime of espionage would have been expanded, and funds received from abroad could have been evaluated as “committing a crime in line with the strategic interests or instructions of a foreign state or organization.” But that law was withdrawn following backlash; receiving funds from the European Union and other foreign organizations is not defined as a crime under current laws. 

    However, the pro-government media created a perception that receiving funds from abroad was a crime, even though the “Foreign Agent Law” was not in effect, with their “3.3 million dollars for LGBT” reports. Yet, the list of “associations and foundations receiving the most resources from European Union funds,” prepared by economist Nazır Kapusuz, is topped by pro-government non-governmental organizations such as TÜGVA, TÜRGEV, and the World Ethnosport Confederation. But the pro-government media does not see these NGOs benefiting from EU funds as a “crime.”

    It was also striking that all the news reports targeting the existence of LGBTI+ individuals and their associations were identical. It appears they were directed by the same secret source.

   They may have pleased that source with this reporting, but unfortunately, it is impossible to speak of independent journalism that stands for fundamental human rights...

Prohibition on police-camera footage being served to the media

      The fact that the police parade mayors, politicians, famous names, and even some gang members detained in operations in front of the media to expose them has also caught the attention of a reader named Ahmet Saki Uzun. 

    He recalled Article 27 of the Ministry of Justice’s Regulation on Apprehension, Detention, and Taking Statements, which concerns the “confidentiality of the investigation.” That article contains the following provision:

   “During the investigation phase, no cause shall be given for a detained person to be announced to the public as ‘guilty,’ to be brought before the press, for persons to be interviewed by the press with questions and answers, for their images to be taken, for them to be exposed, and investigation documents cannot be published.”

     The regulation is very clear. It is strictly forbidden for the police to expose accused individuals in front of the media. However, the police clearly do not comply with this provision. Sometimes, it is not limited to parading them in front of the media; special footage is taken and served to the media. 

       Comedian Deniz Göktaş had reported that the footage of his entry into the police station was repeated five times to create the desired mise-en-scène. Footage of pro-government figure Cem Küçük and singer Tuğba Ekinci walking between police officers holding their arms was also served. The footage of the detentions in the LGBTI operations was distributed in the same way.

       Sometimes, the police are not satisfied with this and pose for the camera while pinning the person they have caught to the ground. Most recently, the police who caught “drug baron” İslam Yakut pinned the man to the ground and forcibly lifted his head up.

      Sometimes, detained individuals are made to walk in front of journalists with their heads bowed down to ensure footage is taken. Young reporters who find the opportunity lean toward the suspects, who are walking with difficulty with their heads between the hands of the police, and try to hold microphones and ask questions; a strange image emerges in those situations. 

      Unfortunately, the media has no objection to the police’s effort to portray suspects as “guilty” from the very beginning and to the serving of footage; they do not care about the “presumption of innocence” principle, which states that no one can be declared guilty until they are tried and a verdict is finalized. Even opposition television channels, which describe the operations against CHP/New Party mayors as political interference, do not refrain from constantly broadcasting the mise-en-scène footage taken while the mayors are being walked between police officers.

     The association that broke the award record

     It is well known that journalism professional organizations distribute awards generously, and some even have unclear criteria. The Reporters Association, founded two years ago, surpassed them all; by inventing new categories such as “Contribution to the Turkic World” and “Turkey’s Hand Reaching Out to the World Special Award,” it announced that it would award 59 people and 6 institutions and organizations this year. 

  In the 2025 achievement awards of the Turkish Journalists Association, one of the organizations that draws attention for distributing many awards, 43 people were found worthy of an award. Even the Turkish Press Federation, chaired by Sinan Burhan, gave awards to 27 people and organizations this year. 

    TRT takes the first place among the 65 award winners of the Reporters Association. TRT Haber will be given the “News Channel of the Year” award, and the “Media Organization Contributing to the Turkic World” award will be given to TRT Avaz. Interestingly, the association’s president, Berrin Yücesan, and five members of the 13-person board of directors are TRT personnel. 

    The “News Agency of the Year” award is also given to İHA; three board members, including Vice President Demet Soyuçok, are İHA personnel. Teoman Korkmaz, the editor-in-chief of SavunmaSanayi.org, which was given the “Digital News Platform of the Year” award, is also an executive of the association. Strangest of all, board members of the association, Selçuk Böke, Oya Armutçu, Seyit Taşdelen, and Yeliz Uslu Aslan, are also among the journalists who were awarded.  

   As can be guessed, most of the awards do not even have a justification. Among the awarded journalists, there is not a single opposition journalist or media organization from the opposition media. All of them are pro-government media or public institutions like TİKA.

      It is also interesting that Association President Berrin Yücesan “thanked them for their contributions to the organization” while announcing the awards. Yücesan thanked AKP Altındağ Mayor Veysel Tiryaki and Medya-İş Union President Sezai Ballı, as well as a training company and the officials of “Mutlu Günler Bakery”! 

     Whatever kind of journalism professional organization this is…

   Media that looks out for the market’s interest

    In Nefes’s report titled “Banned substance found in chain market tomatoes,” it was stated that pesticide residues were found in 15 percent of tomatoes purchased from five chain markets in Istanbul, and a banned chemical substance was found in one sample. 

     I noticed this news a bit late with the warning of a reader. But I decided that it needed to be addressed because it concerns human health.

    Although the markets were listed as A101, BİM, CarrefourSA, Migros, and Şok on the website of Greenpeace, which conducted the research, the names of the markets selling these tomatoes were hidden in Nefes. I searched out of curiosity; the names of the markets were also missing in the reports of Karar, Sözcü, Independent Türkçe, İnternet Haber, 12Punto, and Yeniçağ. 

   Cumhuriyet, Diken, Evrensel, Gazete Pencere, İlke TV, and Odatv, however, did not hesitate to clearly write the names of the five markets that are “Turkey’s largest organized retail chains.” This is the right thing to do. A journalist defends the public interest. 

    Hiding the names of the markets is problematic in terms of journalism. Not writing the names of those responsible for an issue concerning human health is protecting them. 

      Of course, it is also wrong to show all five markets as equally problematic with headlines like “They disregarded human health” and “We are consuming poison.” Because in Greenpeace’s “Market Report Card” research, the results for the markets and their branches turned out differently. 

     Tomatoes purchased from A101, BİM, and CarrefourSA were more problematic in terms of pesticides and banned substances compared to Migros and ŞOK. However, samples taken from A101’s Kadıköy and Sultanbeyli branches, Migros’s Kadıköy and Sancaktepe branches, and ŞOK’s Sultanbeyli branch were in compliance with regulations and no PFAS substances were found. These differences should also have been stated in the news reports. 

    Furthermore, Greenpeace keeping the name of the laboratory secret raises doubts about the reliability of the research. It would have been beneficial to emphasize this feature of the report in the news reports.    

      In a single sentence:

• Milliyet put the headline “The first school bell rang at Demirören Media High School” on the new term news, as if the new academic year had only started at the newspaper owner’s high school. 

• In Ahmet Hakan’s “Tarafsız Bölge” program on CNN Türk, the photo of BirGün’s film critic Cüneyt Cebenoyan, who passed away in 2019, was displayed on the screen as Kurtlar Vadisi screenwriter Cüneyt Aysan. (Berkant Gültekin)

• Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan’s conversation with the journalists he took to Damascus was published by Fazlı Şahan from Yeni Şafak and Melik Yiğitel from Akşam as if they had conducted an exclusive interview themselves.

• Yeni Şafak published the promotional text prepared by the AKP-run Erzurum and Bursa Metropolitan Municipalities as if it were news without adding the “This is an advertisement” warning.

• Interior Minister Mustafa Çiftçi boasted about the closure of 40 thousand websites and the blocking of access to 73 thousand social media accounts with the “cyber patrols” they created. 

• The holding company that owns Turkuvaz Media, which includes Hürriyet, Sabah, and A Haber, made the opening of the shopping mall it had built in Istanbul a major news story on the front page.

• Sözcü used the photo of his son Oğuzhan Uğur in the news about Hasan Atilla Uğur, who was detained in the investigation into the death of Kaşif Kozinoğlu, titled “The commander who interrogated Apo.”

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