Turkey jails journalist with Germany's DW for 'insulting president'

A Turkish journalist with German public broadcaster Deutsche Welle (DW) was jailed by an Istanbul court Friday on charges of "insulting the president", an NGO said a day after his arrest by 30 police officers.

Alican Uludag was arrested in Ankara on Thursday evening following a warrant issued by the Istanbul public prosecutor's office, which said it had opened an investigation into him for "insulting" President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and "disseminating false news" in connection with "certain posts" on X.

Uludag was driven to Istanbul and quizzed by prosecutors on Friday morning "who asked about 22 social media posts from the past year", the MLSA legal rights group said, indicating the probe had been approved by the justice ministry.

He was then taken to court, remanded in custody and brought to prison, MLSA said.

Many people have been slapped with the same charge, which observers say is often used to silence Erdogan's critics.

Contacted by AFP late Thursday, Deutsche Welle said the charges referred to a post on X in which Uludag "criticised measures taken by the Turkish government that allegedly led to the release of possible Islamic State group terrorists"; he had also "accused the government of corruption".

Uludag had been arrested "in front of his family by around 30 police officers. His home was searched and computer equipment was seized," the broadcaster said.

At issue was his reporting on the release of six IS members whose convictions for planning a 2016 Istanbul airport bombing that killed 45 people were overturned by a Turkish court in December 2024.

At the time, Uludag was working for NOW TV, but he returned to DW a year later, the broadcaster said.

Uludag's lawyer Tora Pekin told AFP he also was being investigated for an article about Turkey's plans to repatriate Turkish nationals affiliated with IS.

- 'Relentless targeting of journalists' -

Reporters Without Borders' (RSF) Turkey representative Erol Onderoglu said the arrest was "part of a process of judicial harassment against serious journalists".

In a statement sent to AFP, he denounced "the relentless arbitrary practices now targeting a journalist who may have disturbed the authorities because of his investigations".

DW chief Barbara Massing demanded Uludag's immediate release.

"That a journalist is treated like a common criminal, taken away by some 30 police officers and immediately transferred to Istanbul, constitutes targeted intimidation and shows the extent to which the government is massively repressing press freedom," she said in a statement.

The European Parliament's Turkey rapporteur Nacho Sanchez Amor expressed similar sentiments, describing the move as "depressing" in a post on X that said it revealed "the reality of democratic standards in Turkiye."

In a joint statement Friday, 12 Turkish journalists' unions demanded Uludag's immediate release, accusing the authorities of "criminalising" journalism.

"News is now considered 'misleading information', in other words a crime; personal opinions are considered defamation, and all our colleagues are being targeted and intimidated," it said.

"We call for an end to targeting the press and freedom of expression, portraying journalists as criminals, and using the judicial system as a weapon to suppress news... Journalism is not a crime!"