Turkey Urged to Withdraw Draft Law Targeting LGBTQ+ Reporting
Turkish and international media and rights groups, including BIRN, called on the Turkish government in a joint letter on Wednesday to withdraw a draft law restricting and possibly criminalising journalists who cover LGBTQ+ issues.
“As press and freedom of expression organisations undersigned below, we call for the removal of the reported anti-LGBTQ+ provision from the 11th Judicial Package, which would restrict and possibly criminalise media reporting on the community,” wrote the 17 Turkish and international groups.
The signatories include BIRN, the European Centre for Press and Media Freedoms, ECPMF, European Federation of Journalists, EFJ, and the Media and Law Studies Association, MLSA.
The draft law is expected to be submitted to parliament in the coming days. Under the heading “Obscene acts,” it introduces a so-called “Turkish-style ban on homosexual propaganda”. It includes prison sentences of up to three years for any behaviour or attitudes “contrary to one’s biological sex and public morality,” or for praising, promoting, or encouraging such behaviour.
“The proposal is even broader and more vague than Russia’s 2013 ‘gay propaganda ban,’ posing a grave threat to freedom of expression and press freedom in Turkey,” the joint letter said.
The media rights groups warned that “journalists reporting on LGBTQ+ issues, such as human rights violations, sexual health, Pride marches, etc., risk criminal prosecution on the grounds of ‘promotion’.
“This proposal would not only target LGBTQ+ individuals but also place journalists reporting on LGBTQ+ issues and related rights violations under threat of criminal punishment,” the letter said.
Under its Islamist President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey has been targeting media, internet freedoms with a particular crackdown on LGBTQ+ groups, on the grounds of morality, family and religion.
In June, Turkey blocked the prominent LGBTQ+ magazine’s KAOS GL website and its social media accounts for alleged “public incitement to commit crimes”. In same month, journalists covering the LGBTQ+ Pride March in Istanbul’s Beşiktaş district were detained and later prosecuted.
Turkey’s Radio and Television Supreme Council, RTUK, the government agency regulating TV and radio broadcasts, fined several digital streaming platforms for violating moral and family values and obscenity in September.
Turkey ranked in 159th place out of 180 countries in 2025 in the latest press freedom index issued by the watchdog organisation Reporters Without Borders, RSF.
“With authoritarianism gaining ground in Turkey, media pluralism is being called into question. All possible means are used to undermine critics,” RSF wrote.
