The headquarters of German broadcaster Deutsche Welle in Bonn, September 2016. Photo: EPA/MARIUS BECKER.

Deutsche Welle, DW, and media rights groups on Friday called on the Turkish authorities to immediately release DW’s arrested Turkish investigative journalist, Alican Uludag.

Uludag, a well-known investigative reporter with DW, was arrested on charges of “insulting the President”, “disseminating disinformation” and “insulting the Turkish nation, state and institutions”.

“The accusations against our colleague are baseless. Alican Uludag is a well-known investigative journalist who focuses on reporting about corruption,” DW’s Director General, Barbara Massing, said on Friday.

More than 30 police officers detained Uludag at his home in Ankara in front of his family while his residence was searched and his electronic devices seized.

DW said the allegations relate to a post on X he wrote about 18 months ago, when he criticised measures taken by the Turkish government that led to the release of possible Islamic State terrorists who had been arrested over an attack at Istanbul’s Ataturk Airport.

Despite confirming the accuracy of the reported releases, the Directorate of Communications under the Turkish Presidency accused the journalist of “disseminating disinformation”, claiming the report was intended to create a “false public perception”.

DW director Massing said that Uludag “is very well connected and has access to important sources. This makes him dangerous to the government, in their eyes.”

Turkish rights groups and media organisations also called on the authorities to immediately release Uludag.

“We call for an end to targeting press and freedom of expression, to portraying journalists as criminals, and to using the judiciary as a weapon against news reporting. We will never tire of saying it: Journalism Is Not a Crime!” the Progressive Journalist Association, CGD said in a written statement on Friday.

The latest Press Freedom Index issued by the media watchdog organisation Reporters Without Borders, RSF, ranked Turkey in 159th place out of 180 countries in 2025.

“With authoritarianism gaining ground in Turkey [under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan], media pluralism is being called into question. All possible means are used to undermine critics,” RSF said.