{"id":20787,"date":"2025-11-05T19:16:48","date_gmt":"2025-11-05T19:16:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/penbelarus.org\/en\/?p=20787"},"modified":"2025-11-05T19:40:38","modified_gmt":"2025-11-05T19:40:38","slug":"turkiye-pen-member-merdan-yanardag-held-on-espionage-charges","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/penbelarus.org\/en\/2025\/11\/05\/turkiye-pen-member-merdan-yanardag-held-on-espionage-charges.html","title":{"rendered":"T\u00fcrkiye: PEN member Merdan Yanarda\u011f held on espionage charges"},"content":{"rendered":"
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PEN Belarus joins the\u00a0statement<\/a> of PEN International about PEN member Merdan Yanarda\u011f.<\/p>\n

\u2018By arresting PEN member Merdan Yanarda\u011f on ludicrous espionage charges and appointing a trustee to TELE 1, the authorities clearly intend to wipe out what is left of critical journalism in T\u00fcrkiye. We stand with Yanarda\u011f and urge the government to halt its pervasive assault on press freedom,\u2019 said Burhan Sonmez, PEN International President.<\/strong><\/p>\n

05 November 2025 \u2013 The authorities of T\u00fcrkiye should immediately release prominent PEN T\u00fcrkiye member and editor-in-chief of the critical broadcaster TELE 1, Merdan Yanarda\u011f, PEN International said today. The organisation believes that Yanarda\u011f is being targeted on account of his journalistic work and calls for all charges against him to be dropped. The authorities should reverse their decision to place TELE 1 under trustee control and uphold media freedom.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Merdan Yanarda\u011f, 64, was detained<\/a> by police at his home in Istanbul on 24 October 2025 and formally arrested on 27 October on charges of \u2018espionage\u2019 under Article 328\/1 of T\u00fcrkiye\u2019s Criminal Code, which carries between 15 and 20 years in prison. He denies<\/a> any wrongdoing. The investigation, which sees him accused<\/a> of \u2018manipulating the 2019 local elections in cooperation with foreign intelligence services\u2019 notably involves Istanbul\u2019s Mayor Ekrem \u0130mamo\u011flu, who has been held in pre-trial detention on politically-motivated grounds since March 2025, triggering mass protests<\/a> across the country. The authorities subsequently appointed a trustee to TELE 1 \u2013 one of the few remaining critical news outlets in T\u00fcrkiye \u2013 prompting the collective resignation<\/a> of TELE 1 staff amid a national outcry<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Yanarda\u011f and TELE1 have been repeatedly targeted by the authorities of T\u00fcrkiye throughout the years, including through arbitrary fines and criminal prosecution. Already on 4 October 2023, a court in Istanbul found Yanarda\u011f guilty<\/a> of \u2018making propaganda for a terrorist organisation,\u2019 and sentenced him to two years and six months in prison, after Yanarda\u011f spoke about the peace process between the government and the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in a broadcast of TELE 1 in June 2023. He was detained for over 100 days. On 3 November 2025, T\u00fcrkiye\u2019s Constitutional Court ruled<\/a> that Yanarda\u011f\u2019s pre-trial detention violated his right to liberty and security and ordered the government to pay 166,500 Turkish lira (approximately USD3,950) in compensation.<\/p>\n

Over the past two decades, T\u00fcrkiye\u2019s government has captured<\/a> more than 95% of the media landscape and unleashed a crackdown on independent media. PEN International reiterates its calls on the authorities to uphold their national and international obligations, including by ending all attacks and pressure on media, writers, and journalists, and releasing all those held solely for peacefully expressing their views.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Note to editors:<\/p>\n

For further details contact Aur\u00e9lia Dondo, Head of Europe and Central Asia Region at PEN International<\/p>\n

For media queries, please contact\u202fSabrina Tucci, Communications and Campaigns Manager at PEN International<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

PEN Belarus joins the\u00a0statement of PEN International about PEN member Merdan Yanarda\u011f. \u2018By arresting PEN member Merdan Yanarda\u011f on ludicrous espionage charges and appointing a trustee to TELE 1, the authorities clearly intend to wipe out what is left of critical journalism in T\u00fcrkiye. We stand with Yanarda\u011f and urge the government to halt its<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":117,"featured_media":20788,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4201],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20787","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-solidarity"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/penbelarus.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20787","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/penbelarus.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/penbelarus.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/penbelarus.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/117"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/penbelarus.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20787"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/penbelarus.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20787\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20791,"href":"https:\/\/penbelarus.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20787\/revisions\/20791"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/penbelarus.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20788"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/penbelarus.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20787"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/penbelarus.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20787"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/penbelarus.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20787"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}