FRANKFURT, Feb 20 (Reuters) – Turkish authorities have detained a correspondent of German state-backed international broadcaster Deutsche Welle in Ankara, accusing him of “disseminating misleading information” and “insulting the president”.
Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office said in a statement late on Thursday it detained Alican Uludag and launched a criminal investigation based on some of his social media posts. He will be brought before prosecutors on Friday.
Deutsche Welle, or DW, said the correspondent, who has been working for the broadcaster for years, was arrested in Ankara and taken to Istanbul police.
DW Director General Barbara Massing called the accusations baseless and said the arrest was “a deliberate act of intimidation and shows how severely the government is suppressing press freedom”.
DW said the allegations against Uludag relate to his criticism of Turkish government measures that led to the release of suspected Islamic State militants in a post on social media platform X he made about a year and a half ago.
A German government spokesperson said Berlin is deeply concerned about the journalist’s detention, adding that DW must be able to report independently in Turkey.
“Journalists in particular must be able to carry out their work freely and without fear of repression,” the spokesperson said.
(Reporting by Ludwig Burger in Frankfurt and Ezgi Erkoyun in Istanbul, additional reporting by Thomas Seythal in Berlin, editing by Linda Pasquini)
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