Turkish court blocks T24 news portal over alleged "LGBT propaganda"; journalists decry "digital state of emergency"

A Turkish court has ordered access to the website and social media accounts of independent news portal T24 blocked over content authorities deemed “LGBT propaganda”, a decision journalists denounced on Thursday as treating objective reporting as a crime, Reuters reported.

Istanbul’s 1st Criminal Court of Peace issued the order after authorities said the outlet had published 118 pieces of content over the past year that constituted “LGBT propaganda”, according to a Justice Ministry statement on Wednesday. The decision was sent to Turkey’s Cyber Security Presidency for implementation. T24 said it had not yet received official notification and would appeal once it did; its lawyers were due to file that appeal on Thursday.

The ruling is part of the “My Family is Safe” investigation, a widening crackdown targeting LGBTQ+ groups that the government says aims to protect children and family values. Dozens of people were jailed earlier this month under the probe, and websites and social media accounts belonging to LGBTQ+ associations, activists and media outlets — including the X account of Amnesty International’s Turkey branch — have already been blocked.

Yildiz Tar, editor-in-chief of LGBTQ+ outlet Kaos GL, whose articles published by T24 were cited among the grounds for the block, rejected the authorities’ description in a Reuters interview. “It creates the image that writing about LGBTQI people in an objective way is a crime, because all of the articles I wrote were objective,” Tar said. “It’s not propaganda. It’s about basic journalism. It’s about reality.”

Candan Yildiz, T24’s editor in charge, said the decision further expanded restrictions that began last month with operations against LGBTQ+ organisations and activists. “We are really experiencing a digital state of emergency,” she told Reuters. “An authority is telling journalists: you can report these stories, but you cannot report those. This really undermines the foundations of our profession.”

The crackdown has drawn sharp criticism from rights groups and European officials. The European Union has expressed concern over the arrests and the blocking of websites and social media accounts, calling on Ankara to uphold freedom of expression and media freedom, while Human Rights Watch said the crackdown threatens fundamental rights and the rule of law. Reporters Without Borders ranked Turkey 163rd out of 180 countries in its 2026 World Press Freedom Index, down from 159th in 2025, according to the Jerusalem Post’s account of the crackdown.