Turkish journalist Sedef Kabaş was briefly detained on accusations of “insulting the president” and “inciting crime,” the Media and Law Studies Association (MLSA) reported.
Kabaş was taken into custody on Monday as part of an investigation launched by the İstanbul Anadolu Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office that cited several of her social media posts as grounds for the probe. A court released her a day later under judicial supervision including an international travel ban and regular reporting at a police station for the next four months.
In her testimony Kabaş said the posts in question were protected under freedom of expression and that she did not target President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. In one of the posts she asked, “Is there anyone who still thinks coups are carried out only by soldiers?”
In a veiled reference to accusations directed at President Erdoğan about having a fake university diploma, another post read, “Those who graduated with fake diplomas are governing the country without legitimacy.”
Regarding another post warning that elections would become merely symbolic and advocating civil disobedience, Kabaş said civil disobedience is a constitutional right and cannot be treated as a criminal offense.
Kabaş has also been standing trial in a separate case that has been ongoing since 2023 on charges of “insulting the president” based on 25 social media posts. The ninth hearing in that case is scheduled for February 5.
She was previously sentenced to more than three years on March 11, 2022, for insulting the president in remarks she made during a television program aired on the pro-opposition TELE1 television station. She was later released pending appeal.
In an earlier case in 2019, Kabaş was prosecuted on similar charges and received a suspended prison sentence of nearly one year.
Journalists critical of the government or allied political parties have faced increasing scrutiny under laws criminalizing “insulting public officials,” “disinformation” and “terrorist propaganda.” Dozens of reporters remain in prison, and many more are the subjects of ongoing investigations.
According to Expression Interrupted, a press freedom monitoring group, 28 journalists are currently behind bars in Turkey. The country’s deteriorating media landscape was further pointed out in the 2025 World Press Freedom Index published by Reporters Without Borders (RSF), where it was ranked 159th out of 180 nations.
