T24 news site blocked in Turkey over 'LGBT propaganda'

Turkey has blocked the website and social media accounts of T24, a leading independent digital news site, after the justice ministry accused it of producing what it called "LGBT propaganda".

The ministry said Wednesday the action was part of the "My Family is Safe" investigation and said T24 had produced 118 pieces of content over the past year that it described as LGBT propaganda.

T24 foreign news desk editor Buse Sogutlu said the closure had taken effect on Wednesday afternoon. "The website is blocked in Turkey now," she said.

EngelliWeb, which monitors Turkish internet censorship, said the site and its X account were shut down by an order from Istanbul 1st magistrates court dated September 29. A DW Turkce report said the court justified the measure on grounds that T24 published content aimed at weakening the Turkish family structure.

The move came several weeks after authorities raided gay bars, nightclubs and the homes of activists and community members with warrants for 162 people.

Sogutlu said T24, which is based in Istanbul and has another office in Ankara, had faced a social media harassment campaign in recent days. She said the closure went beyond coverage of LGBTQ issues and was a blow against journalism.

Opposition leader Ozgur Ozel denounced the move as repression and called for it to be reversed. Twelve Turkish journalists' associations called it a grave attack on their profession and said it obstructed citizens' right to receive news.

The associations said the wider operation had targeted press and freedom of expression from the start, noting that journalist Tugba Tekerek remained in prison. Tekerek was arrested in connection with an article she wrote on Georgia's LGBTQ community before the country's 2024 elections, published on the website of Turkish LGBTQ rights group Kaos GL.

Justice Minister Akin Gurlek has said the "My Family is Safe" operation was launched as part of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's "Decade of the Family", aimed at protecting children, the institution of the family and social order. Erdogan has described Turkey's LGBTQ community as a "deviant movement" of "perverts".