Öznur Değer, news director for the pro-Kurdish site JİNNEWS, was taken into police custody during a February 7, 2025, raid on her home in the southeastern city of Mardin and placed under arrest. A court subsequently charged her with making propaganda for the outlawed Kurdish Workers’ Party (PKK), which Turkey recognizes as a terrorist organization. She was released in May 2025, pending trial. In October 2025, she was found guilty and sentenced to three years, four months, and 15 days in prison, but she remains free pending appeal. As of June 2026, Değer was also on trial for several other criminal cases.
In the four-page indictment for the PKK-related charges, reviewed by CPJ, prosecutors said PKK-related news, photographs, and videos that Değer had posted on the social media platform X between 2021 and 2024 were terrorism propaganda. The indictment also said Değer was under investigation for “insulting a public officer,” after the officer filed a complaint about comments she had made at a wake in December 2024.
Following a first hearing on May 22, 2025, the Mardin court released Değer pending trial, while putting her under a travel ban and judicial control.
On October 21, 2025, the Mardin court found Değer guilty and sentenced her to three years, four months, and 15 days in prison. Değer remained free pending appeal, which had yet to be heard by an appeals court as of June 2026.
Also as of June 2026, Değer was appealing a June 2024 sentencing of six years and three months against her and seven other journalists for membership in a terrorist organization. She spent almost seven months in jail, from October 2022 to May 2023, awaiting trial.
Separately, Değer was also prosecuted for “resisting arrest” and “insulting” the police during the February 2025 raid on her house. This trial was set to begin on July 14, 2026, she told CPJ.
Meanwhile, yet another trial for “insulting” a police officer, regarding an interaction at a funeral home on December 19, 2024, will begin in Mardin on July 26, 2026, she told CPJ.
In addition, Değer was charged with “making targets of those who were tasked to combat terrorism” for a story she published in JİNNEWS on July 16, 2024, about a criminal complaint filed that day against the commander of a gendarmerie (the military police responsible for rural areas) unit for allegations of torture during a house raid in Mardin. The commander filed a criminal complaint of his own against Değer for that story. The next hearing for that trial was set for June 16, 2026, Değer told CPJ.
Previously, in a trial focusing on her interactions with the police, Değer was charged with “violating the law for gatherings and demonstrations" and “resisting” the police at a political rally that took place in Ankara on November 28, 2021. She was acquitted on July 8, 2024.
CPJ’s email requesting comment from Turkey’s Justice Ministry did not receive a reply.