FRANKFURT, Feb 20 (Reuters) – Turkish authorities have detained a veteran correspondent of German state-backed worldwide broadcaster Deutsche Welle in Ankara, accusing him of “disseminating deceptive data” and “insulting the president”.
Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Workplace mentioned in a press release late on Thursday it detained Alican Uludag and launched a legal investigation based mostly on a few of his social media posts. He shall be introduced earlier than prosecutors on Friday.
Deutsche Welle, or DW, mentioned the correspondent, who has been working for the broadcaster for a number of years, was arrested in Ankara and brought to Istanbul police on Thursday.
DW Director Common Barbara Massing known as the accusations baseless and mentioned the arrest was “a deliberate act of intimidation and exhibits how severely the federal government is suppressing press freedom”.
DW mentioned the allegations in opposition to Uludag relate to his criticism of Turkish authorities measures that led to the discharge of suspected Islamic State militants in a publish on social media platform X he made a couple of yr and a half in the past.
DW added that his condominium was searched and IT tools was confiscated.
(Reporting by Ludwig Burger in Frankfurt and Ezgi Erkoyun in Istanbul, modifying by Thomas Seythal)
