bianet has been targeted by a fake court order for the second time in a month in an attempt to censor its reporting.
Both fake orders, sent via email on June 19 and July 4, appear to show separate rulings by two different judges based on a complaint filed by Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) MP Ahmet Gündüz.
Neither ruling has a record in Turkey’s official judicial database. The verification code listed on the document does not correspond to any entry in the National Judiciary Informatics System (UYAP).
Also, despite being a separate action, the second document carries the same case number—2025/7563 D.İş—as the initial fake order.
Both documents were formatted identically as template-style PDFs. bianet was able to identifty that the file was created by a user named Uğur Yılmaz. In the newer version, the name of Gündüz’s attorney was changed from Merve Şahin to Mehmet Kaya, with no other substantial alterations.
The document refers to non-existent courts: Küçükçekmece 6th Penal Judgeship of Peace is listed as the issuing authority, and Küçükçekmece 7th Penal Judgeship of Peace is named as the appeals court. However, there are only four such judgeships in the Küçükçekmece Courthouse—1st through 4th.
Additionally, under Turkish law, official blocking orders must be relayed to media outlets via the Access Providers Association (ESB), which was not the case here.
Fake rulings for censorship purposes have targeted Turkey's independent outlets several times over the past couple of years. According to the Freedom of Expression Association (İFÖD), which represents bianet, the document shares the same systematic code as other previously identified fake rulings targeting Diken, Gazete Pencere, and Sözcü.
The PDF’s metadata shows it was created on Apr 25, 2023, the same creation date seen in earlier forgeries. Similar fraudulent blocking orders have previously been sent to Gazete Duvar and Halk TV.
BIA Media Monitoring Reports
The article on target
The fake orders target an article about the imprisonment of criminal lawyer Dilek Ekmekçi, who was held in pretrial detention for three months in late 2024 and early 2025. The article contained her remarks sent from prison, claiming mistreatment.
The piece references statements from former Good (İYİ) Party Chair Meral Akşener about hotels where women dormitory students were allegedly pushed into sex work.
The report noted that Ekmekçi had raised this issue publicly and included allegations that MHP's Ahmet Gündüz was a bagman for one of these hotels. (HA/VK)
