Turkey's Deposit Fund Becomes a Media Censor
Censorship blocking · 15.10.2026

Turkey has found a new way to control editorial policy — through the Savings Deposit Insurance Fund. On October 14, 2026, a court handling a bribery and money laundering case against Halk TV owner Cafer Mahiroğlu appointed TMSF — the very fund meant to insure bank deposits, not run newsrooms — as the company's trustee. Police showed up at the channel, broadcasting stopped, journalists were barred from entering, and the channel's social media accounts were blocked — apparently to make the investigation into economic crimes truly comprehensive.

Notably, none of the 11 people detained are journalists. The prosecutor's claims concern the owner and his circle, but the entire editorial team got caught in the crackdown. The logic is generous: if the channel's owner is suspected of bribery, then viewers no longer deserve news.

This isn't the first time this has happened. Exactly a year earlier, the same scheme worked with TELE1: the editor-in-chief was arrested on espionage charges, and TMSF once again took the helm. The pattern is so systematic that the fund has already become the country's largest media employer — quite an achievement for an organization that's supposed to handle deposits, not broadcasting.

One more detail worth noting: the operation against Halk TV took place on the very day the defense was set to begin in the case against Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu. A coincidence, of course, but it's exactly this kind of coincidence that fuels suspicions that the real goal isn't justice — it's silence on air.

Turkey's constitution, incidentally, states plainly that the press is free and shall not be censored. But apparently this is the very clause that coexists perfectly well with appointing an external manager to run a newsroom.

Human rights organizations are demanding that Halk TV's independence be restored, that the blocks on its social media be lifted, and that criminal cases against media owners stop being used as a tool to purge inconvenient outlets. For now, the only things growing steadily are TMSF's portfolio and the list of channels that no longer go on air.

Source: https://www.article19.org/resources/turkiye-trustee-appointment-at-halk-tv-must-be-reversed/