The Mardin 2nd Assize Court on 6 October convicted two journalists over reports that a gendarmerie officer had tortured civilians during a house raid.

Öznur Değer, news director of the women’s agency JINNEWS, was sentenced to one year and six months. Osman Akın, former news editor of the daily Yeni Yaşam, was sentenced to ten months, with the announcement of his verdict deferred — he will not serve the sentence, but remains under a five-year supervision period during which a similar offence would revive it. Değer’s sentence was not deferred.

The charge was identifying as a target persons who have taken part in counter-terrorism work, under Article 6(1) of the Anti-Terror Law. The prosecution was brought on the criminal complaint of Gendarmerie Major Kamil Aksoy.

The reports, published in July 2024, concerned a raid on a house on 16 July in the Eskihisar neighbourhood of Nusaybin, in Mardin province, and the allegation that civilians were tortured during it.

Değer’s lawyer, Erdal Kuzu, told the court that a decision not to prosecute had been issued in respect of the commander named in the reports.

Kuzu also argued that the officer’s identity was already public and had appeared in earlier reporting, citing a confirmation from the Milliyet newspaper, and that the material came from a publicly accessible website rather than from privileged access. He asked the court to address the torture allegation itself. Prosecutors argued that the report was not protected by press freedom.

Neither journalist attended the hearing.

Değer is facing three other sets of proceedings. In September she was indicted over social media posts containing news reports and photographs, on a charge of repeatedly disseminating terrorist propaganda, carrying up to five years; the first hearing is listed for 19 January 2027. In October 2025 she was sentenced to more than three years on propaganda charges over posts about the journalists Cihan Bilgin and Nazım Daştan, killed in a drone strike in northern Syria in December 2024. In July 2024 she was sentenced to more than six years for membership of the PKK; the conviction was upheld on appeal in November 2025 and is now before the Court of Cassation.

Expression Interrupted records 25 journalists currently held in Turkish prisons. Reporters Without Borders placed Türkiye 163rd of 180 countries in its 2026 index.

An allegation of torture produced one closed file and two convictions. The convictions were of the people who reported it.