The Radio and Television Supreme Council (RTÜK), Turkey’s broadcasting and streaming regulator, has imposed administrative fines on two television stations over their coverage of a recent physical attack on Özgür Özel, Turkey’s main opposition leader, a member of the board announced.
The incident occurred in early May following the funeral of a pro-Kurdish politician. As Özel exited the Atatürk Cultural Center in central İstanbul, a man approached and slapped him in the face, according to footage aired by Turkish television channels. Özel, who has led the Republican People’s Party (CHP) since November 2023, appeared uninjured but was seen holding his head as his bodyguards quickly intervened.
RTÜK imposed 3 percent administrative fines on pro-opposition channels Sözcü TV and Halk TV, citing the use of speculative on-screen headlines and unverified claims in their coverage of the assault on Özel.
According to İlhan Taşcı, a board member of RTÜK appointed from the CHP who made the announcement on X on Thursday, the watchdog punished the stations for displaying captions such as “Vehicle not allowed into the parking garage, attack happened en route to car,” “Was Özel left exposed to attack?” and “Özel’s official car was denied access to the underground garage.”
The captions implied that the physical assault might have been prevented if Özel’s vehicle had been allowed into the venue’s secure underground parking, suggesting a possible lapse in security or deliberate negligence.
Taşcı criticized RTÜK’s decisions, passed by majority vote, as politically motivated, stating that the council ignored the broader context of the attack and an ongoing probe into an İstanbul deputy police chief accused of blocking Özel’s access to the underground parking garage.
“RTÜK President Ebubekir Şahin must be very proud of himself,” Taşcı said sarcastically in a tweet, adding, “At this rate, he might as well claim the attack on Özgür Özel never happened and was completely fabricated.”
RTÜK, Özel’in saldırıya uğramasını haberleştirmeyi spekülasyon saydı!
RTÜK; CHP Genel Başkanı Sayın @eczozgurozel in, TBMM Başkanvekili Sırrı Süreyya Önder’in cenaze töreninin yapıldığı AKM’nin kapalı otoparkına aracının alınmaması ve tören sonrası aracına yürüyerek giderken…
— İlhan Taşcı (@ilhantasci) May 15, 2025
In a separate decision, RTÜK also imposed a fine on Tele1 over its coverage of allegations raised by Özel concerning a high-profile blackmail scandal involving five allegedly missing videotapes. The tapes reportedly belonged to Halil Falyalı, a murdered businessman tied to illegal gambling operations in northern Cyprus, and are said to contain compromising footage of senior political figures and state officials, including Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan and former prime minister Binali Yıldırım, a key ally of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. The council claimed the broadcast included “defamatory language” and “statements exceeding the bounds of legitimate criticism.”
It is common for pro-opposition news channels in Turkey to face restrictions on their broadcasting through sanctions imposed by RTÜK, whose board members are appointed in proportion to the number of seats held by political parties in parliament, meaning that the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) currently dominates the agency.
After a failed coup in July 2016, the Turkish government summarily shut down nearly 200 media outlets due to their alleged links to terrorism or their alleged involvement in terrorist propaganda. The post-coup crackdown also included the detention of dozens of journalists, which briefly made Turkey the second-worst jailer of journalists in the world after China.
Turkey, which has been suffering from a poor record of freedom of the press for years, ranks 159th among 180 countries in the Reporters Without Borders (RSF) World Press Freedom Index published earlier this month.