Turkish journalist arrested – ‘insulted’ Erdogan

– There is a saying that the crowned head is wiser, said the well-known TV journalist Seddik Kapas of the opposition TV channel Tele1, but we see that it is not true.

The bull does not become a king because it enters the palace, but turns into a barn.

Cabas was arrested at her home Saturday night, just hours after she made the comments and then posted them on Twitter to her 900,000 followers, according to her lawyer.

The offense of insulting the president is punishable by imprisonment for a period of no less than one year and not more than four years.

“It is clear that the so-called journalist insults our president on a TV channel that has no aim other than to spread hatred,” Erdogan’s spokeswoman Fahrettin Altun wrote on Twitter.

Alton writes, “I condemn this arrogance, this immorality in the strongest possible terms. This is not only immoral, it is also irresponsible.”

The Turkish Journalists’ Union describes Kapas’ arrest as a “serious attack on freedom of expression”.

Turkey is one of the countries in the world that imprisons the largest number of journalists. The country has repeatedly been criticized for undermining press freedom and shutting down media critical of the government, a development that has worsened since the failed coup attempt against Erdogan in July 2016.

Reporters Without Borders ranked Turkey 153 out of 180 in its 2021 Press Freedom Index.