Turkey seizes opposition Halk TV as crackdown widens: What to know

ANKARA — Turkish authorities took control of Halk TV, one of Turkey’s few major television channels not aligned with the government, on Wednesday amid a broader crackdown on dissent and independent media.

Istanbul police and a government-appointed trustee raided the broadcaster’s Istanbul headquarters early Wednesday, and the trustee took control of the channel. Halk TV’s live broadcast was abruptly cut off and replaced with a decades-old Turkish movie. 

The Istanbul Chief Prosecutor’s Office said the takeover stemmed from an investigation into alleged bribery, money laundering and other fraud accusations. Prosecutors issued detention orders for 17 people — including Halk TV chairman Cafer Mahiroglu — 11 of whom were detained in raids on Wednesday.

Mahiroglu, who lives in Britain, denied the accusations while government critics and press freedom groups criticized the move as part of a broader assault on civil society and dissent.

Halk TV is a pro-opposition broadcaster and one of Turkey’s most-watched news channels, according to data from Turkey’s television audience measurement provider, Kantar Media, cited by the broadcaster.

Most of Turkey’s mainstream television news channels are already owned by companies close to the government or are under the control of government-appointed trustees. 

Nacho Sanchez Amor, the European Parliament lawmaker in charge of monitoring Turkey’s EU accession process, also lashed out at the decision.

Opposition condemns takeover 

Opposition politicians and rights groups largely linked the move to a recent investment fund scandal that has gripped the country since September and to the start of jailed Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu’s defense in his corruption trial.

“Let me silence them so that the fund scandal is not discussed. Let me silence them so that Imamoglu’s defense is not heard,” Ozgur Ozel, chairman of the Yeni Party — Turkey’s largest opposition party — told reporters outside the courthouse in a prison complex where Imamoglu began his defense on Wednesday.

Imamoglu has been behind bars since March 2025 over corruption charges that government critics say are aimed at sidelining a key rival of Erdogan and weakening the opposition. Hundreds of elected opposition officials have been jailed since the opposition’s historic victory in the 2024 local elections, when it replaced Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) as the country’s top vote-getter nationally for the first time.

Other opposition parties also slammed Halk TV’s takeover, including the pro-Kurdish DEM Party and nationalist Iyi Party, describing the move as a blow to freedom of the press.  

Fund scandal fuels media crackdown 

The investment fund scandal has affected 455,758 individual investors in 131 funds holding roughly $18 billion in assets. The fallout involved senior figures from the AKP and was followed by a large-scale crackdown on X accounts of economy writers, financial experts and journalists who commented on the scandal. 

In September, at least 1,270 X accounts with a combined 35 million followers were restricted from access in Turkey, according to the Freedom of Expression Association, or IFOD, a Turkey-based rights group that monitors online censorship and freedom of expression. The crackdown also included restrictions on independent media. Access to T24’s website was blocked in Turkey on Sept. 29.

On Oct. 11, prominent journalists Ismail Saymaz and Murat Agirel were placed under house arrest after prosecutors accused them of making misleading public statements about the fund scandal. The AKP has also filed civil lawsuits seeking a total of 1.6 million lira ($32,400) in damages from journalists and Yeni Party lawmaker and spokesman Zeynel Emre over their coverage and criticism of the investment fund scandal, alleging that they made unfounded claims that damaged the party’s reputation.