ISTANBUL, April 10, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - Two Turkish investigative journalists were arrested on Thursday as part of an investigation into the sale of a television station, the Istanbul prosecutor's office said, prompting condemnation from their employers.

Timur Soykan and Murat Agirel had their homes searched and were taken into custody for "threats" and "blackmail" as part of the probe into the acquisition of the Flash Haber TV channel.

"An investigation is under way with detention, search and seizure procedures against the suspects," the prosecutor's office said in a statement.

The two journalists work for opposition dailies Birgun and Cumhuriyet, who condemned their arrest and said they were held because of their investigation into the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu.

Imamoglu is seen as the main rival to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

The chairman of the board of Birgun, Ibrahim Aydin, said the authorities were attempting to gag the press.

"The government's target is not crime and criminals but real journalists who fight to convey the truth," he wrote on X. 

Soykan and Agirel are among Turkey's best-known investigative journalists.

According to media rights group Reporters Without Borders, they recently claimed in a YouTube video that there were irregularities in the probe into Imamoglu and several other district mayors from the main opposition CHP party. 

Imamoglu's arrest on March 19 triggered the largest wave of protests in Turkey in more than a decade.

In all, at least 13 Turkish journalists have been arrested since the start of the protests. Several of them, including an AFP photographer who was held for several days in late March, are due in court on April 18.

They are accused of participating in illegal gatherings that they claim they were covering as part of their job as journalists.

A Swedish journalist was also arrested and detained in late March in Istanbul and accused of "terrorism" and "insulting" Erdogan.