Turkish police take over opposition Halk TV headquarters and halt its live broadcast

Police take over the Istanbul headquarters

Police took control of the Istanbul headquarters of Halk TV, the main opposition channel, shortly after 6 am on Wednesday, 14 October. Staff were kept out of the building during the search. The channel said on X that a trustee had been appointed to take control of it and that its live broadcast had been stopped. Viewers were shown a rerun of a programme instead of live output, and the announcement came while officers were still inside the building.

The channel's X post was short and direct.

The police are in the Halk TV building. A trustee has been appointed to take control of the channel.

Arrest warrants and an investigation into the owner

Local media linked the operation to an investigation into the channel's owner, Cafer Mahiroglu, over alleged corruption, bid rigging and money laundering. Eleven people were placed in custody, and arrest warrants were issued for 17 people in total. Among those named is Harika Akkaya, one of the channel's executives, according to the broadcaster Ntv. The offences are described as suspicions, and the reporting does not mention any court ruling. The figures for custody and warrants are shown below as they were reported.

Editor's appeal on air

Editor-in-chief Suat Toktas was filmed speaking with the appointed trustee and urging him not to halt the live show. Halk TV shared the video on X, and in it Toktas makes his position clear.

What is happening here right now is unlawful.

The live broadcast was nonetheless interrupted, according to the channel. The sources do not say whether the trustee reconsidered his decision.

Opposition reaction and the earlier T24 block

Özgür Özel, chairman of the opposition party Yeni Parti according to the source, condemned the takeover sharply on X. He wrote that breaking into a television station at dawn and naming a trustee is something only dictators would do, adding that this is exactly what the authorities had done to the country. The takeover came two weeks after access to the independent news website T24 was blocked. The authorities justified that block by citing alleged 'LGBT propaganda' on the site.