The Istanbul chief prosecutor’s office on October 14 seized control of Halk TV, one of Turkey’s few remaining pro-opposition television stations, Reuters reported.
In an early morning operation, police raided the station’s Istanbul headquarters, cutting off the 6:30am live broadcast and replacing it with pre-recorded programming. Hundreds of officers that surrounded the building barred staff from entering as negotiations between channel executives and state officials broke down.
The Istanbul chief prosecutor's office said the raid followed an investigation into Halk TV chairman Cafer Mahiroglu by its financial crimes unit over allegations of "bribery, tender-rigging and laundering of assets derived from crime".
Prosecutors issued detention warrants for 17 people connected to the network. Eleven have been taken into custody. Mahiroglu, who operates a textile company in the UK, remains wanted by police.
The channel’s management and assets were transferred to the savings deposit insurance fund TMSF, a body frequently deployed by Ankara to take over private companies and media entities linked to opposition groups or legal investigations.
“Only dictators would do such a thing”
The takeover of Halk TV follows similar trustee appointments made at four other major news outlets, namely Flash TV, Eko Turk, Haberturk and Tele1, leaving critical reporting in the country increasingly confined to digital spaces and small independent portals.
Rights advocates and international monitors have long warned that Turkey's judiciary is being used as an instrument of political coercion. Financial regulators, tax authorities, and broadcasting watchdog RTUK have systematically targeted critical media with heavy fines, advertising bans and asset seizures.
"Dawn raid on a television channel, appointing a trustee. Only dictators would do such a thing," wrote Ozgur Ozel (@eczozgurozel), head of the main opposition New Party (YP), on X.
"Those who appoint trustees to municipalities and trample the people's will have now appointed a trustee to Halk TV, watched by millions," he added.
Raid followed Kilicdaroglu complaints
Days prior to the police operation, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, the court-reinstated leader of the Republican People’s Party (CHP), publicly criticised Halk TV news coverage, saying that the party had lodged formal complaints with media regulators.
After the raid, the CHP issued a statement calling the police operation a "shameful" example of systematic state pressure, clarifying that political criticism was a "natural part of democratic life".
The CHP is described by YP as “occupied” by the Erdogan administration. Ozel set up the YP with breakaway CHP lawmakers after claiming that the actions of Kilicdaroglu and the new management of the CHP were helping the government implement its agenda.
The raid and seizure took place against a backdrop of intensifying legal pressure exerted against opposition figures. On the same morning as the raid, jailed Istanbul mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, long regarded as Erdogan’s most formidable political opponent, was scheduled to begin his defence in a mass trial involving more than 400 defendants linked to the Istanbul municipality.
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