According to Yildiz's lawyer Alpdeğer Tanrıverdi, the reporter faced a lawsuit by Turkish government one year ago after she published footage showing the trial of four prosecutors who ordered Turkish Intelligence (MIT) trucks to be searched en route to Syria.
In 2014, a group of Turkish intelligence trucks were stopped and searched, revealing weapons purportedly intended for Takfiri militants in Syria. Turkish daily newspaper Cumhuriyet published footage of the trucks, which resulted in two journalists — Can Dundar, the editor-in-chief and Erdem Gul, paper's Ankara bureau chief — being sentenced earlier this month to five years in prison.
At the time of events, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan declared that the vehicle searches and the subsequent media reaction were a plot to destabilize the Turkish government.
The prosecutors who issued the search order were also tried, and footage of the trial was published by Yildiz. She is now charged with violating confidentiality in the court case.
Notably, Yildiz was stripped of her parenting rights, in favor of the state. While this article of penal code is usually not executed, Tanrıverdi claimed that, in the case of Yildiz, "this was an act of revenge."
The Turkish government has been repeatedly criticized for clamping down on journalists and free speech since Erdogan came to power in 2014. Erdogan has built a notoriety for himself by filing hundreds of lawsuits in response to any criticism, including suing foreign citizens. According to Republican People's Party deputy head Sezgin Tanrıkulu, in 2015 nearly 800 Turkish journalists were sacked, 156 others were detained, and court cases were opened against 238 members of the press.
