Turkey: DW's Alican Uludag released, but trial continues

A court in Ankara on Thursday opened proceedings against Deutsche Welle reporter Alican Uludag, and released Uludag from detention while the case against him continued.

The next court date is scheduled for September 18. 

Uludag's lawyer Abbas Yalcin welcomed his client's release after months in detention, but also argued that even if Uludag were convicted, "he would not spend 90 days in prison." 

Yalcin said the period in detention could be seen "as the equivalent of a punishment issued prior to conviction, or even as exceeding this."

"We hope that this will bring an end to proceedings and we ask for an urgent decision on his acquittal," he said.

What is the trial about? 

Uludag was detained in February, accused of insulting President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, spreading misleading information and disparaging state institutions or the Turkish state in a total of 22 posts on social media.

"Insulting" or disparaging Erdogan is a criminal offense in Turkey, and one that the longstanding Turkish leader has famously prosecuted on thousands of occasions during more than two decades in power.  

Uludag — who in Turkey's restrictive media landscape continued to focus on contentious issues like the judicial system, human rights violations and corruption — denied all the charges, saying he was objectively reporting.

What did Uludag say in court? 

Uludag was denied a request to appear in court in person, instead appearing via video link, which he said was "a breach of my right to a fair defense." He said he had spent 90 days removed from his family and his workplace. 

"As an independent journalist I tried to write the truth and to defend the public's right to information. I was frequently threatened, but my conscience is clear. I have never done things as a journalist that I now have cause to regret. The freedom of press and opinion guaranteed by our constitution must not be infringed," he said. 

"I have committed no crimes, rather I have only done my job; I have insulted nobody and I demand an acquittal," Uludag told the court. 

DW: Uludag was simply doing his job

DW Director General Barbara Massing welcomed Thursday's news, but added it was "troubling that the proceedings will continue" and said DW calls for the charges to be dropped immediately.

"I am very relieved that our colleague Alican Uludag is finally being released after three months and can return to his family in Ankara. He spent 92 days in detention without justification, mostly alone in a cell in the high-security Silivri prison in Istanbul, far from home," Massing said. 

"Alican Uludag was simply doing his job as a court reporter," she added. "We continue to stand firmly behind him and will advocate for his acquittal. His arrest shows how critical voices in Turkey are being deliberately intimidated and silenced."

The chairman of Reporters Without Borders (RSF) in Turkey, Erol Onderoglu, wrote on X that Uludag should not have been jailed at all. 

"Alican Uludag's release brings us joy, yet his detention will remain a 90-day mistreatment inflicted on an investigative journalist," Onderoglu said. "He should not have spent even a single day in detention because of either his reporting or his commentary."

NATO member and EU aspirant Turkey perennially ranks near the bottom of press freedom indexes, not least because of its track record of imprisoning critical reporters. In this year's RSF Press Freedom Index, Turkey slid back four places to 163rd out of 180 countries, just below Iraq and Sudan and just above Yemen, Belarus and Myanmar.

German gov't 'deeply concerned' about DW journalist's arrest

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Edited by: Sean Sinico