01 — IDENTITY

gavelConfiscatedverifiedVerified recorddescriptionDecree-Law No. 688

Son güncelleme: May 25, 2026

Cihan News Agency

Cihan News Agency was a news agency founded in 1994 with its headquarters in Istanbul. Operating under Feza Publishing, the agency produced news in the fields of current affairs, politics, economy, international news, culture and arts, entertainment, and sports. With its widespread reporter network across Türkiye and its local media subscriptions, it provided written news, photographs, and video news services to many newspapers, television channels, and news organizations.

Cihan News Agency became known as one of Türkiye’s important news agencies, with a structure that produced hundreds of written news items, photographs, and video reports every day. Working not only with the national press but also with local television channels, radio stations, and newspapers, the agency conveyed developments from Türkiye and the world to its subscribers.

Cihan News Agency was closed in 2016 under a decree-law issued after 15 July; its movable and immovable properties and all its assets were seized and transferred to the Treasury.

Confiscated

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1994
Founded: 2016
Closed: Media
Type: İstanbul
Location

02 — STORY

Story

A verified chain of events from foundation to closure.

1994Jan 1, 1994
Foundation
Cihan News Agency began broadcasting on 1 January 1994 as a news agency based in Istanbul. Operating under Feza Publishing/Feza Journalism, the agency worked as a media organization providing written news, photographs, and video news services.
2000
News production and distribution network
The agency produced news in the fields of current affairs, politics, economy, international news, culture and arts, entertainment, and sports. It was stated that it provided 24-hour news service via satellite and the internet, supplying content to national television channels, national newspapers, local media organizations, internet news sites, and radio stations.
2010
Growth and expansion
Cihan News Agency became one of the important news agencies working with a broad correspondent network across Türkiye. Sources report that the agency had a news network in many provinces and regions in Türkiye, as well as in Europe, the Middle East, Central Asia, the Balkans, and other geographies.
2015Visual record
2016
Trustee process
Before 15 July, in March 2016, a state-appointed trustee process took place against the media group to which Cihan News Agency was also affiliated. This process created a de facto breaking point in the agency’s publishing and management structure.
Mar 5, 2016
Cihan News Agency’s website was closed
gavelClosureJul 27, 2016
Closure and seizure of assets
Cihan News Agency was among the news agencies closed under the list annexed to Decree-Law No. 668. Under the decree-law, the movable and immovable properties, receivables, rights, documents, and records of the closed media organizations were deemed transferred to the Treasury free of charge.

03 — VOICES

Voices and traces

Institutional marks left here and personal voices connected to this place.

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04 — EVIDENCE

Evidence

Official sources, visual archive, and digital traces.

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newspaperNewsMay 5, 2015

Cihan News Agency is being closed

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Street view — after · 2019

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Cihan Haber AjansıFull screenopen_in_new

05 — AFTERMATH

After closure

How building, name, and ownership changed from closure to today.

Silencing Türkiye’s News Network Opening to the World

Cihan News Agency was not merely a local agency providing news services inside Türkiye; it was a broad media network extending from its Istanbul center to different cities in Türkiye and to news points abroad, producing written news, photographs, and video reports. Its international visibility stood out especially through its foreign-news production, overseas correspondent network, the use of Cihan-sourced footage and information by foreign media in their Türkiye coverage, and its provision of an alternative data flow during election periods. Reporting on the trustee process in March 2016, The Guardian described Cihan as Türkiye’s “second-biggest news agency”; this statement is important in showing the agency’s weight within the Turkish media ecosystem.

The agency’s success became visible less through international awards than through its news-production capacity and media subscription network. Producing regular news in fields such as current affairs, politics, economy, international news, culture and arts, and sports, Cihan served as an important source for national and local media. The photographs, video footage, and rapid news flow provided by the agency were especially decisive in local media access to developments centered in Ankara and Istanbul, and in the national press’s access to events in Anatolia. The debate by journalists’ organizations over discrepancies between Anadolu Agency and Cihan election data during the 2014 local elections also showed that Cihan was not only a news service, but an alternative data source consulted by the public on election nights.

For this reason, the placing of Cihan News Agency first under control through trusteeship and then its closure by Decree-Law No. 668 can be considered one of the breaking points that put the free press in Türkiye under pressure. With Decree-Law No. 668, three news agencies including Cihan, along with numerous television channels, radio stations, newspapers, magazines, and publishing houses, were closed; Cihan’s movable and immovable assets, archives, rights, and documents were deemed transferred to the Treasury.

Cihan News Agency

Foundation

News production and distribution network

Growth and expansion

Trustee process

Closure and seizure of assets