https://www.dw.com/en/turkey-government-raids-takes-over-top-news-channel/a-79662749
—Turkey is hosting UNFCCC talks next month with Australia, a fossil-fool state.
—Erdogan, Trump and Digger appear to confuse limitless power with limitless wisdom
Opinion by Mathew Carr With ChatGPT etc
Do press attacks mean the climate talks are fucked yet again?
Yes — it is a bad omen for the credibility of the climate talks, even if it does not necessarily mean the negotiations themselves will fail.
The central problem is that international climate negotiations depend on trust, transparency and the ability of civil society to hold governments accountable.
If Turkey is restricting journalists in the run-up to the talks, that raises questions about whether the country is prepared to welcome the scrutiny that a major UN climate conference ought to invite.
There are three distinct concerns.
1. Freedom to scrutinise the host government. Journalists need to be able to investigate Turkey’s own climate policies, energy investments, environmental record and treatment of protesters without fear of intimidation or arbitrary detention.
2. The atmosphere for civil society. Climate negotiations are not just meetings between ministers. Independent journalists, environmental campaigners, scientists and representatives of vulnerable communities help expose gaps between governments’ public commitments and their actual conduct.
3. The legitimacy of the outcome. If access to information and independent reporting is constrained, it becomes harder for the public to judge whether agreements represent genuine progress or political compromise dressed up as ambition.
The latest developments make the warning more serious
This is no longer just a hypothetical concern. Three developments stand out.
- 13 October: Human Rights Watch published findings on the prosecution, detention and intimidation of environmental defenders opposing coal and gold mining projects. It also reported that journalists had been prevented from filming protests.
- 14 October: Turkish authorities raided independent broadcaster Halk TV, detained people in an investigation and appointed a trustee to oversee the channel, prompting press-freedom protests. The investigation concerns alleged corruption; the political significance of the action remains contested.
- The COP31 hosting agreement: Climate Home News reported that the agreement requires participants not to interfere in Turkey’s internal affairs. Amnesty International warned that the clause could chill free expression and civil-society activity.
COP31 is scheduled for 9–20 November 2026 in Antalya.
What does this mean for the UN climate process?
The deeper concern is the contradiction between the UN’s stated commitment to inclusive climate action and the conditions in which that action is being negotiated.
Environmental disputes are not peripheral to climate policy. They concern the very decisions that determine emissions: whether coal mines expand, whether forests survive, whose land is sacrificed and whether local communities have any effective say.
If people documenting those consequences are intimidated, the international negotiations risk becoming detached from the realities they are supposed to address.
There is also a question for the UNFCCC itself: what practical protections will it provide to journalists, environmental defenders and peaceful protesters, particularly outside the conference’s UN-controlled areas?
The UNFCCC says the hosting agreement includes strengthened human-rights and inclusion provisions. The test will be whether those commitments translate into meaningful protections on the ground.
My verdict: yes, this is a bad omen — not necessarily for the diplomatic outcome, but for the openness and democratic legitimacy of the process.
The most revealing test will be whether independent journalists and civil society can report, organise and criticise freely during COP31, without intimidation or retaliation.
A climate summit cannot credibly claim to represent the public interest if the people challenging the environmental decisions of its host country are silenced.
Live Example
Gemini:
Deutsche Welle (DW) correspondent Alican Uludağ was formally arrested in Ankara, Turkey, on February 20, 2026.
He was detained by Turkish police on charges of “insulting the president” (President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan) and disseminating misleading information over his reporting and social media posts. He was later released from pre-trial detention after spending approximately 90 days in custody.
Alican Uludağ was released from prison after spending roughly 90 days in pre-trial detention. However, he remains out on conditional release (judicial supervision), which typically includes travel restrictions, and he still faces active prosecution and potential prison time under Turkish criminal charges regarding his social media reporting.
Yes, he is still working as a journalist and reporting for Deutsche Welle (DW), though under active judicial pressure.
Since his initial release from pre-trial detention, Uludağ has continued publishing news reports and commentary via social media and through DW. His reporting remains constrained by his legal situation:
- Ongoing Legal Battles: He still faces active criminal charges related to “insulting the president” and criticizing the Turkish judiciary.
- Repeated Detentions: His continued reporting has led to subsequent brief detentions under judicial supervision—including a brief re-arrest over social media posts before being conditionally released again.
- Travel Restrictions: Because he is under judicial control with an active travel ban, he must conduct his reporting entirely within Turkey while complying with reporting conditions set by the court.
Spoiler alert
Don’t Mess with Nature: A Digger of a Climate Summit
The run-up to COP31 in Turkey is beginning to resemble Digger, the Tom Cruise Oscar-attempt film whose larger-than-life, Trump-like protagonist appears to confuse limitless power with limitless wisdom.
Cruise’s Digger is so Trump it’s almost boring vs the real, more visceral, Trump
There is something wonderfully deranged about Trump romping with a tiger and declaring, “Don’t mess with nature,” while pursuing policies that seem designed to do precisely that.
It is rather like setting fire to your house while lecturing the flames about fire safety.
And now, as the world prepares for its annual climate summit, Turkey’s crackdown on journalists and environmental scrutiny threatens to add another layer of absurdity.
The people who might report on the damage are being silenced just when the world needs to hear from them.
The spectacle is almost too perfectly scripted: a world leader playing Tarzan with a tiger; governments gathering to save the planet; and a host country apparently uncomfortable with people asking awkward questions about its environmental record.
Nature, unfortunately, does not care about the choreography.
World temperatures right now are at their highest for 125,000 years for the time of year.
Nor does the atmosphere distinguish between political theatre and genuine climate action.
The real danger is that COP31 becomes another exercise in performative concern: plenty of grand declarations, carefully managed images and backroom compromises, but too little willingness to confront the economic and political interests driving environmental destruction.
Perhaps the tiger is the most honest participant in this entire drama. At least it isn’t pretending that the photo opportunity constitutes a conservation policy.
Don’t mess with nature. And don’t mistake a climate summit for climate action.
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Notes
Trump
Digger
