Istanbul, October 22, 2026—Turkish authorities must immediately free İsmail Arı, the latest journalist to be arrested in a relentless crackdown on independent media this year, and abolish the disinformation law that has supercharged these repressive tactics, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Thursday.
“İsmail Arı has already spent more than two months in jail this year due to a baseless fake news claim. Enough is enough; he must be set free without delay,” said Özgür Öğret, CPJ’s Turkey representative. “As predicted from the day it was introduced, Turkey’s disinformation law is being used as a weapon against independent reporting and it should be abolished at once.”
Ankara police summoned Arı, an Ankara-based reporter for the leftist daily BirGün, for questioning on October 20 after a complaint against him was filed by Ebubekir Şahin, the former chair of Turkey’s broadcasting regulator RTÜK. When he arrived to testify, Arı was taken into custody.
A court arrested the journalist pending trial on October 21 on the suspicion of “publicly spreading disinformation” under Article 217/A of the Turkish penal code and “insulting a civil servant because of their duty” under Article 125/3-a. No court date has yet been set and Arı has yet to be indicted and formally charged.
Arı was previously arrested in late March on suspicion of spreading “disinformation” and released pending trial on June 5.
CPJ emailed Turkey’s Ministry of Justice for comment but did not receive an immediate reply.