A Turkish prosecutor has sought a prison sentence of more than 19 years for journalist Alican Uludağ over social media posts that allegedly insulted President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and spread disinformation, the Evrensel daily reported.
The İstanbul Public Prosecutor’s Office on Monday filed an indictment with the İstanbul 26th Court of First Instance seeking a sentence of up to 19 years, six months on charges of insulting the president, publicly insulting the Turkish government and judiciary and disseminating misleading information.
Under the Turkish Penal Code the charges carry sentences of up to four years for insulting the president, up to three years for disseminating misleading information and up to two years for publicly insulting the state and its judicial organs, with the total potentially rising to 19-and-a-half years if sentence increases for repeated offenses are applied.
Uludağ was detained in Ankara on March 19 over 22 social media posts that prosecutors said constituted repeated and public insults of President Erdoğan. The İstanbul Criminal Magistrate of Peace ordered his arrest citing flight risk, the possibility of destroying or concealing evidence and a strong suspicion of witness tampering.
Bar associations and press freedom groups in Turkey have condemned the arrest, warning that penalizing reporting undermines the public’s right to access accurate information and restricts press freedom and freedom of expression.
Journalists in Turkey operate in an increasingly restrictive environment, particularly those reporting on politically sensitive issues or criticizing the government or its political allies. They are frequently targeted through prosecutions under laws criminalizing “insulting public officials,” “disinformation” and “disseminating terrorist propaganda.”
According to Expression Interrupted, a press freedom monitoring group, 33 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, where it was ranked 159th out of 180 nations.
