Human rights and press freedom organizations have called on Turkish authorities to immediately release journalist Alican Uludağ, who has been held in pretrial detention for allegedly insulting President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and for spreading disinformation, ahead of his trial.
Uludağ, who was arrested on February 20 over 22 social media posts and sent to Marmara Prison in İstanbul, will be tried on May 21 at the Ankara 57th Court of First Instance on charges of insulting the president, publicly insulting the Turkish government and judiciary and disseminating misleading information. He faces a prison sentence of more than 19 years and will present his defense via the judicial teleconference system (SEGBİS).
Amnesty International said in a statement that Uludağ’s posts fell within the scope of the freedom of expression guaranteed under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).
“All journalists and other media workers who are the subjects of rights violations, criminalized and deprived of their liberty solely because of their journalism must be immediately released,” said Ruhat Sena Akşener, director of Amnesty International Turkey.
The organization also called for the repeal of provisions in the Turkish Penal Code that criminalize publicly spreading misleading information, insulting the president and denigrating the Turkish nation and state institutions.
Insulting the president is a criminal offense under Article 299 of the Turkish Penal Code (TCK), punishable by up to four years in prison. Publicly spreading false information is also criminalized under Article 217/A of the TCK, known as the disinformation law, which requires prison sentences of one to three years. Both provisions have long been criticized by human rights and press freedom advocates, who say they are frequently used to prosecute journalists, politicians and ordinary citizens for expressing views critical of the government and President Erdoğan.
Representatives of six press organizations gathered outside the Ankara Courthouse on Wednesday to call for release of Uludağ and to protest the use of pretrial detention against journalists. Representatives of the Press Council, the DİSK Press Union (DİSK Basın-İş), the Contemporary Journalists Association (ÇGD), the Turkish Journalists Union (TGS), the Turkish Journalists Association (TGC) and KESK Haber-Sen took part in the protest, along with opposition lawmakers and journalists.
The representatives demanded that Uludağ be allowed to present his defense in person and that no journalist be held in pretrial detention over their reporting.
Journalists critical of the government have increasingly been targeted under laws criminalizing insulting public officials, disinformation and terrorist propaganda.
According to Expression Interrupted, a press freedom monitoring group, 27 journalists are currently behind bars in Turkey. The country’s deteriorating media landscape was further pointed out in the 2026 World Press Freedom Index published by Reporters Without Borders (RSF), where it was ranked 163rd out of 180 nations.
