Türkiye: Tuğba Tekerek detained as press freedom suffers in LGBTQ+ crackdown

Tuğba Tekerek, who contributes toGerman media outlets such as DW Türkçe and taz, was arrested in Istanbul the night of 13 September and subsequently transferred to Ankara, the capital, according to DW, Bianet and DER SPIEGEL.

The public prosecutor of Ankara has accused Tuğba Tekerek of running the Instagram account of the LGBTQ+ organisation Kaos GL. However, the journalist told prosecutors during an interrogation on 15 September that she had only ever written a single article for Kaos GL's news site, also called Kaos GL, in October 2024 on the situation of queer people in Georgia ahead of the country's parliamentary election, and that she had never even been to the organisation's premises.

On 15 September, a court remanded Tekerek and seven Kaos GL board members in pre-trial detention. Among the grounds cited for their detention are alleged violations of the Law on Associations and accusations relating to "obscene" publications. Kaos GL's main website and its news outlet have since been blocked by court order.

Several journalists detained within days

As part of the Turkish government's broader plan to "protect the family," LGBTQ+ organisations, public figures and social media accounts have been labelled a threat to family structures and severely targeted. According to Turkish Justice Minister Akın Gürlek, the authorities have brought legal proceedings against 162 suspects, nine associations and 13 companies across 15 provinces since 13 September.

These raids and arrests triggered protests. On 15 September, police intervened at a demonstration outside Istanbul's Çağlayan courthouse and temporarily detained 109 people, including journalists who were there to report on the protests. Notably, Sarya Toprak, a reporter for the daily news media BirGün, and Şener Azak, a cameraman with the Istanbul bureau of German public broadcaster ARD, were taken into custody. Both were released within 48 hours of being detained.

RSF has documented the use of pre-trial detention and criminal proceedings against media professionals critical of the Turkish authorities for years. In May 2026, RSF called for the release of journalists Alican Uludağ, Merdan Yanardağ and İsmail Arı, who had been detained in connection with their journalistic work. Merdan Yanardağ remains in detention. RSF has also called for the acquittal of journalists prosecuted for their coverage of the mass protests in March 2025.

Türkiye ranks 163rd out of 180 countries in the 2026 World Press Freedom Index.