The daily Hurriyet’s magazine supplement posted Nov. 13 a web-only article headlined “13 Reasons for Bad Luck Associated with Friday the 13th.” The piece was not political and was illustrated by a photograph of Leonardo da Vinci’s famous “Last Supper.” Upon closer inspection of the image, however, one saw it had been digitally altered to have President Recep Tayyip Erdogan seated to the right of Jesus. In a public apology to Erdogan, Hurriyet said it had removed the image from its Web page within minutes of its posting and immediately fired the editor, Aynur Karabel, and the director of Web page content, Sermin Terzi. It also said the use of the photo had been an unacceptable oversight.

For the two fired journalists, the ordeal is far from over. News broke Jan. 25 that prosecutors had filed suit against Terzi and Karabel for offending the president. Both assert that they did not realize Erdogan’s image had been placed into the visual. Because the article had nothing to do with politics, they had no intention or reason to use such an image. The prosecutors claim, however, that the image is offensive regardless of purpose or accidental use.

That same day, an investigation was launched against CNN Turk, which had reported on opposition leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu calling Erdogan a “sham dictator.” In reporting this news, the TV network had put quotation marks around the word “dictator” when it used the subheadline “‘Dictator’ Under Investigation.” CNN Turk, which was simply trying to report on the word “dictator,” now finds itself in the crosshairs of the Turkish legal system.

These two cases should come as no surprise to regular readers of Al-Monitor’s Turkey Pulse, given that several columns have reported on how quick to anger Erdogan and his men can be. The cases have naturally generated commentary on social media and among pundits, with sober analysts arguing that it is counterproductive for a politician not to allow anyone to call him a dictator, and that he should instead give up acting like one.