Court orders access ban on DW journalist Alican Uludağ’s X account
A court has ordered an access ban on the X account of journalist Alican Uludağ and 13 of his posts. X has made all 13 posts unavailable in Turkey but has not yet restricted access to Uludağ’s account.
The decision was issued under Article 8/A of Law No. 5651 on the grounds of “protecting national security and public order.”
Uludağ, a reporter for the Turkish service of Germany's state media DW, was detained on Jul 21 over his criticism of the judiciary. He was later released under judicial control measures.
BIA Media Monitoring Reports
Blocked posts
The Freedom of Expression Association (İFÖD) provided details about the restricted posts. They included Uludağ’s criticism of actor Levent Üzümcü’s detention and his questions about political and military responsibility before and after the 2016 coup attempt.
Other restricted posts addressed investigations targeting journalists, detentions ahead of a NATO summit and unanswered questions surrounding the killing of Muhammed Kavi, a suspected ISIS member, in late June when the suspects opened fire on police during a raid in Ankara.
The court also blocked posts in which Uludağ criticized Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu’s response to operations targeting mayors and questioned investigations involving municipalities run by the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP).
Another restricted post concerned the imprisonment of Fatoş Pınar Türker, general manager of İstanbul Metropolitan Municipality Media Inc.
DW Türkçe journalist Alican Uludağ formally arrested for 'insulting the president'
Detention
Uludağ was detained at his home in Ankara over a social media post criticizing practices within Turkey’s judicial system.
“A new judicial order has now been established in Turkey,” he wrote. “When a new operation is launched against people in the morning, briefing notes prepared against them are distributed by the same center to pro-government journalists before they even reach the police station.”
“As if that were not enough, footage of their detention recorded by police cameras is also distributed. The presumption of innocence and the right not to be stigmatized are disregarded.” (HA/VK)