ISTANBUL: Police raided Turkey's most-watched news channel, Halk TV, early Wednesday, halting broadcasts and installing a government-appointed administrator in the latest move against pro-opposition media.
They also raided homes, arresting 11 people -- among them a journalist and seven family members of Halk TV chairman Cafer Mahiroglu, who described it as "a dark day for Turkey".
"Police raid at Halk TV headquarters! A trustee has been appointed, broadcasts have been halted," Halk wrote on X as its live news channel and YouTube broadcasts were cut during the pre-dawn raids.
It was the latest move against media viewed as critical of Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his government, coming two weeks after officials closed the website and social media accounts of leading digital news website T24, citing "LGBT propaganda".
Prosecutors said they had issued a warrant for 17 people, 11 of whom had been detained as part of a probe into Mahiroglu on suspicion of bribery, rigging tenders and money laundering. They confirmed seizing companies co-owned or managed by him with trustees placed at the helm.
But Mahiroglu said the allegations were "baseless" and accused the government of using the judiciary for political ends.
"The public's right to information is being seized for political reasons," he said in a video on X, confirming seven family members had been detained including his 70-year-old brother. He himself is also named in the warrant but lives abroad.
"Using the judiciary as a weapon is the greatest harm inflicted on Turkey," he said. "We will get our channel back."
'Brutal blow'
As dawn broke, staff and journalists gathered in the pouring rain outside the headquarters where hundreds of riot police stood behind shields outside the building, an AFP correspondent said.
Staff were later allowed in.
Footage of the moment when the feed was cut showed a live interview about a huge investment-fund scandal suddenly switching to a classic film from 1973.
Amnesty International denounced the move as "a brutal blow to media freedom", while Human Rights Watch said it was "a dramatic assault on free speech and media freedom".
'Cannot be silenced'
In Ankara, MPs of the opposition Yeni party covered their eyes with black ribbon and their mouths with black tape in a silent protest caught on camera by the Anka news agency.
Veysel Ok, co-director of the MLSA media-rights watchdog, called the intervention "one of the most significant steps in the government's efforts to monopolise the flow of information".
"Halk TV's position as the most-watched news channel also reveals the real target of this intervention: depriving the public of its right to access news from different sources," he told AFP.
Outside Halk TV's Ankara branch, around a hundred people gathered to protest, shouting: "A free press cannot be silenced!," an AFP correspondent said.
"The police raid on Halk TV... is the strongest indication the judiciary and law enforcement have become tools to silence independent media," Demet Aran, the head of the Ankara branch of the Contemporary Journalists Association, told the crowd.
And that was a problem for everyone, agreed Ozlem Akarsu Celik of the Journalists' Association.
"Censorship is not just a problem for journalists, but for the entire society, it's become a tool for consolidating the new regime," she said.
Living on borrowed time
Yeni leader Ozgur Ozel said it was no coincidence the raids occurred just before the defence began presenting its arguments in the sprawling graft trial of jailed Istanbul mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, a key Erdogan opponent.
"Storming a TV channel with a police raid at dawn and appointing a trustee is something only dictators do," he said.
Halk TV has been repeatedly sanctioned by Turkey's broadcasting regulator and threatened with possible closure last year over its critical tone towards Erdogan.
In 2025, the authorities also seized control of fellow pro-opposition TV channel Tele1, appointing a trustee to oversee broadcasts that were stripped of all hard-news content. Although it still exists, its pro-opposition stance has been neutralised.