German lawmakers from the governing coalition and opposition parties called for the immediate release of Deutsche Welle (DW) Turkish service reporter Alican Uludağ after his arrest in Turkey on charges of insulting the president and urged Berlin to consider diplomatic steps, DW Turkish service reported.
The case has prompted coordinated reactions in Germany, where officials and lawmakers are weighing possible diplomatic responses, including summoning Turkey’s ambassador, as scrutiny grows over the treatment of journalists working for German public broadcasters in Turkey.
Holger Mann of the Social Democratic Party (SPD), a member of the German Parliament’s Committee on Culture and Media, said Uludağ should be released immediately. He said the use of legal measures against journalists and recent arrests were concerning.
David Schliesing of the Left Party (Die Linke) also called for Uludağ’s release and said the German government should increase political pressure on Ankara. He said summoning the Turkish ambassador to the foreign ministry would be an appropriate step and added that Berlin should reassess its approach to issues including Turkey’s European Union membership bid and arms deliveries.
Omid Nouripour of the Green Party (Bündnis 90/Die Grünen) said arresting a journalist for his work was unacceptable and urged the German government to take visible action if Uludağ is not released. He said possible measures range from formal diplomatic démarches to summoning the Turkish ambassador in Berlin. Nouripour also referred to the 2017 arrest of German-Turkish journalist Deniz Yücel, who was held in Turkey for nearly a year before being released.
The German government last week said journalists must be able to carry out their work without fear of pressure and that DW and its staff should be able to operate freely and report independently in Turkey.
Germany’s culture and media minister, Wolfram Weimer, described Uludağ’s detention as unacceptable and called for his immediate release, saying journalism is not a crime.
The İstanbul Criminal Magistrate of Peace on February 20 ruled that 22 posts shared by Uludağ on social media constituted repeated and public insults of President Erdoğan. The court ordered Uludağ’s arrest citing flight risk, the possibility of destroying or concealing evidence and a strong suspicion of witness tampering.
In Turkey thousands of people are investigated, prosecuted or convicted on charges of insulting the president on the basis of the controversial Article 299 of the Turkish Penal Code (TCK). The crime carries up to four years in prison, a sentence that can be increased if the act was committed using mass media.
Turkey, which has been suffering from a poor record of freedom of the press for years, ranks 159th among 180 countries in the Reporters Without Borders (RSF) 2025 World Press Freedom Index.
