Overview
- The journalist Alican Uludağ was taken into custody on July 21 and brought to the Ankara prosecutor's office as officials opened a fresh investigation into his internet posts.
- Prosecutors said the inquiry accuses him of stoking "public hatred and enmity" and sharing false information but have not published the specific posts or evidence behind the charges.
- Uludağ was earlier arrested in February, spent roughly 90 days in pretrial detention at Silivri, and was released in May while that original case remained active and set to continue on September 18.
- Deutsche Welle and its director Barbara Massing have condemned the new arrest and demanded that Uludağ's rights be respected; the journalist was also awarded a press-freedom prize in July by the Turkish Journalists' Association.
- The case fits a broader pattern in Turkey where laws on insulting the president and spreading false information are frequently used to prosecute critics, a practice that rights groups and foreign governments say risks curbing independent reporting.