The most watched news show on YouTube in Turkey has an unusual format: In a bare studio, the camera is fixed on an empty gray chair . Over that striking visual, a narrator reads out a letter written by Fatih Altaylı, a prominent Turkish journalist, from his cell in the Marmara Prison Campus in Silivri, on the outskirts of Istanbul.

The show airs at 6:30 in the morning during weekdays, quickly attracting clicks and comments, with its immensely popular content usually making headlines on other news sites. The format was born after Altaylı, the host of the show, was arrested in June over comments he made in a broadcast that allegedly contained threats to Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the Turkish president.

Altaylı has been writing letters from prison, reflecting on prison life, offering commentar

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