Turkish journalist Derya Okatan detained over classified files on seized hard drive

Journalist Derya Okatan, with more than two decades of experience, was arrested on October 2 and transferred to Bakırköy Women’s Closed Prison, where she reported being in good spirits despite the surprise of the case. The İstanbul Provincial Gendarmerie Command discovered PowerPoint, Word, Excel and PDF files on an external hard drive seized in 2019, labeling them as classified documents concerning Çorum and Tokat that belong only to security forces.

Okatan maintains the drive was used as a movie archive and she had no knowledge of the intelligence material, which she first saw during police questioning. Her attorney, Ziya Ergin, highlighted that the drive had been in state custody since 2019 and that the latest file modification dates back to 2010, raising the possibility of a mix-up or contamination. The DİSK Basın-İş union demanded her immediate release, urging authorities to compare one outlet drive with the forensic image taken in 2019 before any further legal action. The case underscores concerns about press freedom and the handling of digital evidence in Turkey.