BERLIN, July 22 (Reuters) – A German government spokesperson said on Wednesday that Berlin was “highly irritated” by the renewed detention of Deutsche Welle correspondent Alican Uludag in Turkey.
The Turkish prosecutor’s office said on Tuesday that Uludag had been detained again on suspicion of inciting hatred and hostility and publicly spreading misleading information. Later on Wednesday, an Ankara court released Uludag under judicial control measures banning him from travelling abroad, Deutsche Welle said.
His repeated detention exacerbates a diplomatic irritant between Berlin and Ankara over press freedom and comes amid broader international criticism of Turkey’s treatment of journalists.
Deutsche Welle, a German state-backed international broadcaster, said on Tuesday that Uludag had been re-arrested in Turkey, two months after being granted conditional release following his three-month detention.
Turkish authorities in February arrested Uludag in Ankara, charging him with insulting the president through a series of social media posts.
The German government spokesperson said Turkish authorities were acting in violation of the freedom of the press that Turkey had committed itself to by joining the Council of Europe and signing the European Convention on Human Rights.
He added, however, that Germany’s consulates and embassy in Turkey would not get involved in the case because Uludag is not a German national.
(Reporting by Andreas Rinke; Additional reporting by Huseyin Hayatsever in Ankara; Writing by Ludwig Burger; Editing by Linda Pasquini and Hugh Lawson)
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