Mehmet Ali Ertaş, news editor for the Kurdish-language weekly Xwebün and a TV show producer at PEL Production Company, is on release pending trial after he was taken into police custody – alongside 14 other Kurdish journalists and a media worker - in the southeastern Turkish city of Diyarbakır in June 2022.
In April 2023, after around 10 months in jail, Ertaş, the 15 others who were detained alongside him, plus three other journalists, who were not arrested, were indicted on the charge of “being a member of a (terrorist) organization”. Their trial began on July 11, 2023, in Diyarbakır and the next day, it was reported that 15 of the defendants, including Ertaş, were released pending the outcome of the trial. Another defendant, Safiye Alagaş, was earlier released pending trial in June.
The trial continues in Diyarbakır with the next hearing set for November 10, 2026.
As of August 2026, Ertaş and the other defendants remain under a foreign travel ban.
Ertaş is a reporter and editor who worked for the pro-Kurdish outlets Dicle News Agency (DİHA) and Kurdish-language daily Azadiya Welat before they were shuttered by a government decree in 2016. He then worked at the Mezopotamya News Agency as a Kurdish-language editor and then as news editor at Xwebün. The weekly newspaper started publication in December 2019 and focuses on the Kurdish language, politics, culture, and history. Ertaş was the producer of a debate show prepared by PEL, his lawyer, Resul Temur, told CPJ.
PEL produces Kurdish-focused journalistic content including documentaries and shows on news, culture, arts, and political debates, and sells the content to European-based, pro-Kurdish broadcasters, according to Temur.
Case history
In the early hours of June 8, 2022, Diyarbakır police raided several locations in the city, including journalists’ houses and newsrooms and took into custody 20 journalists and media workers, along with a citizen who was once interviewed by one of the journalists. On June 15, 15 of those journalists, including Ertaş, and one media worker were jailed by a court pending trial.
Ertaş said the journalists and media worker were imprisoned in retaliation for their coverage of Kurdish issues and their arrests were “totally arbitrary and illegal” in a letter published by the leftist daily Evrensel on August 19, 2022.
Temur, who represents the 15 journalists and the media worker, told independent news website Bianet in 2022 that his clients were questioned about the angle they took on the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), a militant group and political party that Turkey classifies as a terrorist group, and whether the content the journalists created for broadcast by European outlets was considered pro-PKK. Most of the journalists either work for pro-Kurdish media outlets or independent production companies that provide content for other outlets, according to news reports and CPJ’s interviews with local journalists.
Temur told CPJ in an in-person interview in early November 2022 that his clients were being held at Diyarbakır Prison and remained under arrest but had not been indicted. He added that while the defense had not been informed of the details of the case, the authorities were focusing on content produced by the local ARİ, PEL, and PIA production companies. That content is broadcast by European-based, pro-Kurdish broadcasters Sterk TV and Medya TV. Temur said his clients are not employees of these broadcasters, which buy the content from a distributor that works with ARİ, PEL, and PIA. The content was also made available on YouTube after their broadcasts, the lawyer added.
Diyarbakır courts denied the journalists’ appeals of their arrests and their pretrial detention on August 22 and September 8, 2022.
CPJ emailed the Turkish Ministry of Justice in October 2022 and September 2026 for comment but did not receive any reply.