FMA joins other journalism and #pressfreedom organizations in calling for the release of award-winning Turkish journalist @alicanuludag.bsky.social and an end to judicial harassment of journalists reporting on matters of public interest. #GazetecilikSuçDeğildir turkiye.ipi.media/turkey-media...
📰 Sunday extras:
"Turkey ramps up surveillance of its citizens – with a hand from Brussels" by @yleniagostoli.bsky.social . [1/5]
7/ Meanwhile, hundreds of young people who dared to take to the streets last March still await trial, many under travel bans. With thanks to @saskiabricmont.bsky.social @notzachcampbell.bsky.social @mcaster.bsky.social
6/ Other Turkish companies backed by the EU's Horizon Europe programme, such as Aselsan and Havelsan, also provide surveillance and facial-recognition tools to the police. “We're seeing this lack of coherence everywhere when it comes to the Commission,” says @itxasdo.bsky.social of EDRi
5/ Earlier this year, I reported on how surveillance photographs were used to prosecute hundreds of peaceful protesters - many detained simply for showing up at rallies against the jailing of Istanbul’s mayor #ekremimamoğlu
newlinesmag.com/spotlight/tu...
4/ Tenders show the company has recently supplied facial-recognition servers to Turkish law enforcement, feeding into a major expansion of the country’s surveillance system.
3/ At the centre is Netaş, a Turkish telecom firm controlled by China’s ZTE. Despite ZTE being labelled a “high-risk” vendor by the EU, Netaş received hundreds of thousands in EU research funds and is listed as a Commission “key innovator.”
2/ Turkey’s surveillance apparatus is being strengthened by companies that have received funding from the EU's flagship research programme, #Horizon - even as that tech is used to target peaceful protesters.
#EU -funded companies, #China -linked tech, and #Turkey's rapidly expanding surveillance machinery - read how they're connected in my latest investigation @ftm.eu
www.ftm.eu/articles/tur...
𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗻𝗲𝗰𝘁𝘀 𝗔𝗻𝗸𝗮𝗿𝗮, 𝗕𝗲𝗶𝗷𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗕𝗿𝘂𝘀𝘀𝗲𝗹𝘀?
EU research money, a Chinese firm and Turkish surveillance tech.
A company part-owned by China’s ZTE still gets EU funding – while its servers help Turkey monitor protesters.
💶 How did EU money end up funding repression? Read more:
Must read from colleagues @andresmourenza.bsky.social @sofiacherici.bsky.social @dogueroglu.com and Siraj investigating the journey of scrap metal from waste pickers in war-torn countries to powering Turkey's steel industry www.newarab.com/investigatio...
Environmental journalist and documentarist #HakanTosun has died as a result of an attack carried out by two assailants in #Istanbul. He had been reporting on land grabbing and profiteering after the Hatay earthquake
bianet.org/haber/hakan-...
An entire news crew working for Al Jazeera was killed by Israel as they sought to bring the world firsthand reporting from #Gaza.
Among them was prominent journalist Anas Al-Sharif, who had been previously smeared and threatened by the IDF.
#NotATarget
Full statement: cpj.org/2025/08/isra...
Finally got around to listening to Lethal Dissent. Brave reporting & incredible storytelling from @faribanawa.bsky.social @berileski.bsky.social @farooqumar.bsky.social on how #Iranian dissidents are surveilled & silenced in exile. Final episode broke me.
www.onspecpodcast.com/season-five-...
Another major recognition for our investigation into Turkey's EU-funded deportations of Syrian and Afghan refugees with @lighthousereports.com @andresmourenza.bsky.social @maybulman.bsky.social @sebnemarsu.bsky.social @nicolasbourcier.bsky.social and the rest of our stellar team
Chilling and important reporting by @yleniagostoli.bsky.social as this kind of tech-powered surveillance of protesters spreads around the world.
"We see this as a way to transform the whole society. There has been a backsliding of rights in #Turkey in the last 10 years, this is a chance to tackle it," @ceylanakca.bsky.social on the ongoing negotiations #KurdishPeace
lespresso.it/c/mondo/2025...
Turkey is expanding AI-powered surveillance, prosecuting protesters based on facial recognition and scant evidence, reports @yleniagostoli.bsky.social for @newlinesmag.bsky.social
📰Sunday extras:
"Turkey’s AI-Powered Protest Crackdown" by @yleniagostoli.bsky.social. [1/5]
My brilliant friend @yleniagostoli.bsky.social on how Ankara expands facial recognition to detain protesters.
8/ Turkey is becoming a cautionary tale of how AI-powered surveillance isn’t just watching us, but also quietly reshaping the boundary between democracy and authoritarianism, individuals and collective action - ultimately remodelling the relationship between citizens and state.
7/ “In Turkey today, walking is a crime,” human rights lawyer Gulizar Tuncer, whose son was detained, told me. “When police came to our house ... the searches were very superficial. The purpose is not to find evidence of a crime, the purpose is to intimidate”.
6/ There’s virtually no oversight. Turkey lacks legal frameworks for the use of AI in policing. Broad security exemptions allow circumvention of data protection laws. Lawyers argue those photos should not be admissible as evidence.
5/ In late 2024, Turkey's police bought 3,500 facial recognition cameras and 278 servers. In 2025, more contracts and tenders followed - including one for 13,000 new cameras, published just a day before the mayor’s arrest.
4/ A Chinese-made Hikvision camera was spotted at a major Istanbul rally. It matches a model listed in a Turkish interior ministry document - capable of detecting 120 faces simultaneously.
3/ Arrests have continued since. Police reports show 100+ young people identified via surveillance cameras - most simply standing in the crowd. Some wore face masks against tear gas, which was used as evidence of a separate crime.
2/ Nearly 2,000 mostly young people were detained during the March protests against the arrest of #Istanbul's mayor, #Imamoglu. 819 are facing charges in 20 investigations - many arrested in dawn raids, held for weeks without trial. Often, their “crime” was just being present.
#Turkey is accelerating its use of facial recognition to detain and prosecute protesters - often with little or no evidence. I’ve been investigating how #AI is contributing to the erosion of the rule of law & supercharging authoritarianism 🧵
newlinesmag.com/spotlight/tu... @newlinesmag.bsky.social
NEW: Turkey is expanding AI-powered surveillance, prosecuting protesters based on facial recognition and scant evidence, reports @yleniagostoli.bsky.social for @newlinesmag.bsky.social.
newlinesmag.com/spotlight/tu...
Proud that our investigation with @lighthousereports.com is a finalist for this prestigious award - alongside other amazing, mostly consortium-led projects. A testament to the power of collaboration
