Police in Istanbul took Furkan Karabay, a court reporter with the news website Medyascope, into custody on January 23, 2026, and a court placed him under house arrest on the suspicion of “publicly spreading disinformation.”
The accusations stemmed from his reporting on the indictment of the opposition-controlled Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality. After the hearing, Karabay told reporters that his work was based on legal documents and that he would continue to report for the public’s benefit.
Karabay is Turkey’s most frequently arrested journalist. Previously, he was arrested on May 15, 2025, on suspicion of “making targets of those who were tasked to combat terrorism” and insulting Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. He was indicted in early September and released on December 2, pending appeal, after being found guilty. The court sentenced the journalist to four years and three months in prison. As of March 2026, the appeal was still awaiting trial, and Karabay told CPJ that if he loses, the case would be brought to the attention of the Supreme Court of Appeals.
The May 2025 arrest was connected to Karabay’s now-deleted X posts in April about the prosecution of Ekrem İmamoğlu, the arrested opposition mayor of Istanbul. Karabay refused to defend himself in front of the arresting court: “This is the third time I’ve been here. I have left under arrest after the first two [and] I will be arrested again. I don’t care,” he said.
Karabay had been arrested twice before over the previous three years on similar accusations. On November 9, 2024, an Istanbul court arrested Karabay, pending trial, on suspicion of “making targets of those who were tasked to combat terrorism,” “insulting a public servant,” and “knowingly distributing misleading information to the public,” following his reporting on the arrest of an opposition mayor. He was released the next day pending his trial. On October 2, 2025, Karabay was acquitted of all charges except “insulting a public servant” and fined 42,500 Turkish lira (US$995).
On December 28, 2023, another Istanbul court arrested Karabay on suspicion of “making targets of those who were tasked to combat terrorism,” as well as defamation, due to his reporting on allegations of corruption in the judiciary. He was released pending trial in January 2024 and acquitted of both charges in October 2024.
Prosecutors appealed the verdicts in both the trials related to the 2023 and 2024 arrests and they are, too, waiting to be heard by local appeal courts, Karabay told CPJ in March 2026.
CPJ’s email requesting comment from the Istanbul chief prosecutor’s office in January 2026 did not receive a reply.