Turkish opposition lawmakers wore blindfolds and taped their mouths shut at a parliamentary committee meeting Wednesday to protest the government’s takeover of Halk TV, a gesture that also attracted mockery on social media.
Lawmakers from the main opposition New Party covered their eyes with black bands and their mouths with black tape at parliament’s Planning and Budget Committee, according to footage filmed by the T24 news website.
Yeni Parti Halk TV’ye kayyım atanmasına siyah bantlı protesto!
Plan ve Bütçe Komisyonu grubu, görüşmeler öncesinde gözlerini ve ağızlarını siyah bantlarla kapattı. pic.twitter.com/vsU5Pz9tCU
— T24 (@T24_com_tr) October 14, 2026
Some social media users ridiculed the symbolic protest as inadequate, with one sarcastically commenting: “What a forceful response. Now let the [Justice and Development Party] AKP regime worry!”
Another user mocked the New Party for staging a European-style protest in Turkey, describing the country as one of the world’s autocracies.
The protest followed a predawn police raid on Halk TV’s İstanbul headquarters that halted live broadcasts as state-appointed trustees took control, in the latest intervention against pro-opposition media.
Speaking at the committee meeting, New Party lawmaker Özgür Karabat questioned the timing of the operation, saying Halk TV had been silenced on the day Turkey was expected to discuss the investment fund scandal and jailed İstanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu’s defense in court.
Karabat accused the government of trying to prevent the public from learning about those developments and of wanting viewers to watch only its preferred media outlets.
“They want to do everything and have nobody hear about it,” he said.
The fund scandal involves suspected market manipulation and allegations of political connections, with investors in affected funds unable to recover their savings. İmamoğlu began presenting his defense Wednesday in a corruption trial involving alleged bribery, bid rigging and money laundering at the İstanbul Metropolitan Municipality.
Police entered Halk TV’s headquarters early Wednesday, blocking the surrounding road and preventing employees from entering. Prosecutors said detention warrants had been issued for 17 suspects and that 11 had been taken into custody in an investigation into station owner Cafer Mahiroğlu over allegations of bribery, bid rigging and money laundering.
Mahiroğlu condemned the takeover as “a dark day for Turkey,” as opposition politicians and rights groups criticized the move.
Speaking to reporters outside the station’s headquarters, New Party lawmaker Ali Mahir Başarır described the takeover as “a saddening, shameful” move intended “to silence” dissent.
“There are only three or four stations left in Turkey that tell the truth, the facts … that can act as an opposition, reporting what they see, exactly as it is,” he said.
“This democracy … these stations are needed by all of us,” he said.
Agence France-Presse, with reporting from Turkish Minute
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