Press freedom and neutrality
In March 2020, the United States Justice Department required TRT World's Washington operation to register as an agent of the Government of Turkey, engaged in political activities, under the anti-propaganda Foreign Agents Registration Act. TRT World's argument that it is independent was rejected by US officials who said that the Turkish government "exercises direction and control of TRT by regulation and oversight, and by controlling its leadership, budget, and content."[6] Apart from some Russian and Chinese networks, other state-funded media including the Qatari-backed Al Jazeera, British-backed BBC News, French-backed France 24 and German-backed Deutsche Welle had not been determined to be foreign-government agents.[7]
In a 2019 op-ed in The Washington Post, MEMRI's executive director Steven Stalinsky described TRT World as "a propaganda arm of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's regime", similar to the Russian RT network. He notes that the channel offered only enthusiastically promotional coverage of the Turkish military's Operation Peace Spring in Syria, while according to the Committee to Protect Journalists, the government banned critical news coverage domestically. Stalinsky urges human rights activists, journalists, and others not to appear on and legitimise the network's shows, just as they would not appear on RT.[8]
Following the 2016 Turkish coup attempt, some journalists who had recently joined the company resigned.[9]<[10] One of those who resigned said: "I no longer hold out any hope that this channel will become what I wanted it to become (...) After the coup, it became very apparent that the channel had no intention of actually covering it properly, in a professional, international broadcast standard."< The managing editor at the time said that he "never received a phone call from Ankara trying to frame the broadcast or give them talking points."<[11]
More recently as of March 2020 with the Evros border crisis, TRT World and other Turkish media have in a way, accelerated on producing fake news as alleged by the Greek government, as was also mentioned by Prime Minister of Greece Kyriakos Mitsotakis in a CNN interview twice,<[12] stating that the reports all come from Turkish media and other unknown sources aiming to discredit the Hellenic Coast Guard and Hellenic Armed Forces efforts with propaganda videos. TRT World said that Greece sent back refugee vessels to Turkish waters, which was denied by Greece.<[13] Conversely, there have been reports by other sources of Greek coastal authorities forcing the refugee vessels back to Turkish side, in a military strategy dubbed "push back".<[14]
In May 2025, India briefly blocked the X (formerly Twitter) account of TRT World for spreading misinformation and propaganda related to India's military operations against Pakistan during Operation Sindoor.<[15] The Indian government cited TRT World's amplification of unverified and manipulated content, including pro-Pakistan narratives, distorted reporting on Kashmir, and dissemination of false claims about Indian military actions. This move was part of a broader crackdown on foreign media outlets accused of violating Indian IT rules and spreading disinformation amid heightened tensions, though TRT World's website and other social media accounts remained accessible during the ban.<[16]<[17]
