Enlarge image
Police officers escort Sedef Kabas before her court appearance in Istanbul
Photo: Uncredited / dpa
Under Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, freedom of the press in Turkey was increasingly restricted.
Media professionals are exposed to considerable reprisals.
Now a well-known Turkish journalist has been sentenced to prison for publicly quoting a saying about an ox in a palace.
An Istanbul court found Sedef Kabas guilty of insulting the president and sentenced him to two years and four months in prison, the MLSA lawyers' association said on Friday.
Following the decision, however, Kabas was released from custody.
In a television program in January, the journalist denounced, among other things, the Turkish government's harsh treatment of critics.
There and later on Twitter, she quoted a proverb: "When an ox goes into a palace, it doesn't become a king, the palace becomes a stable." She did not explicitly mention Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan or his presidential palace in Ankara.
According to the bar association, Kabas said in the courtroom that she had not insulted the president but that she had the right to criticize the government.
That is also her duty as a journalist.
asc/dpa
