A court in Istanbul ordered the release of Turkish journalists Baris Terkoglu, and Baris Pehlivan on Friday 14 September 2012. They were among the journalists accused in the OdaTV case and have spent 578 days in prison. Baris Terkoglu was "adopted" by the Association of Professional Journalists in Belgium (AGJPB), an EFJ affiliate. Their co-accused, journalist Soner Yalçi, writer Yalçin Küçük and former police officer Hanefi Avci have been remanded in custody.

The court decided to commission another report into llegations of unlawful interference with official records, after inaccuracies were raised regarding the recent report submitted by Tubitak, the Government's Scientific Researches Agency. Its report confirmed that contentious documents on the alleged support for the army's overthrow of the current Islamic-conservative Turkish Government had been inserted by virus in the computers, but did not state the means used. The judge ordered a supplement report from the same organisation to be submitted within 20 days. The previous one was delivered after seven months.

The court released the two journalists on the account of the extremely lengthy period of their preventive detention (578 days). They remain accused, along with 13 other suspects, 3 of whom remain behind bars.

The news of the unexpected releases got a mixed reception from the public which had gathered in large numbers to support the accused journalists in front of the Justice Palace in Istanbul. Özge Terkoglu, Baris Terkoglu's wife, declared in front of the cameras: "The ordealmay be over for my husband and his friend Baris, but every journalist currently in jail should be free! We won't be fully satisfied until they're all released but obviously I'm happy to be with my husband again. Our joy will only be complete when justice is done.  We won't stop until justice prevails!"

The next hearing in this case is to take place on 16 November.