{"id":8402,"date":"2026-02-10T19:13:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-10T19:13:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/8402\/"},"modified":"2026-02-10T19:13:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-10T19:13:09","slug":"turkish-journalist-faces-up-to-5-years-in-prison-over-social-media-posts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/8402\/","title":{"rendered":"Turkish journalist faces up to 5 years in prison over social media posts"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>            <a href=\"https:\/\/stockholmcf.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Sedef-Kabas-1.jpg\" data-caption=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"696\" height=\"392\" class=\"entry-thumb td-modal-image\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns=\" http:=\"\" data-lazy- data-lazy- alt=\"\" title=\"Sedef Kabas\u0327\" data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Sedef-Kabas-1-696x392.jpg\"\/><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"696\" height=\"392\" class=\"entry-thumb td-modal-image\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Sedef-Kabas-1-696x392.jpg\"   alt=\"\" title=\"Sedef Kabas\u0327\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Turkish prosecutors have indicted journalist Sedef Kaba\u015f on charges of \u201cinciting crime\u201d in her social media posts, the Birg\u00fcn daily <a href=\"https:\/\/www.birgun.net\/haber\/sedef-kabas-hakkinda-5-yila-kadar-hapis-talebi-691513\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The indictment seeks a prison sentence of up to five years, citing a social media post in which Kaba\u015f advocated civil disobedience, warning that elections could become \u201cmerely symbolic.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>She denied the accusation, saying civil disobedience is protected under the constitution and cannot be treated as a criminal offense. The indictment has been submitted to a criminal court of first instance for review and approval.<\/p>\n<p>Kaba\u015f was briefly <a href=\"https:\/\/stockholmcf.org\/turkish-journalist-briefly-detained-over-social-media-posts-allegedly-insulting-erdogan\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">detained<\/a> on January 26 on accusations of \u201cinsulting the president\u201d and \u201cinciting crime,\u201d though only the latter charge was included in the indictment. She was later released under judicial supervision, including an international travel ban and a requirement to regularly report to a police station for four months.<\/p>\n<p>Kaba\u015f is also standing trial in a separate case that has been ongoing since 2023 on charges of \u201cinsulting the president\u201d based on 25 social media posts. The next hearing in that case is\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/MLSADavaTakip\/status\/2019319837290385915?s=20\" rel=\"nofollow\">scheduled<\/a>\u00a0for May 5.<\/p>\n<p>She was previously\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/stockholmcf.org\/turkish-court-orders-release-of-jailed-journalist-sedef-kabas\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">sentenced<\/a>\u00a0to more than three years on March 11, 2022, for insulting the president in remarks she made during a television program aired on the pro-opposition TELE1 television station. She was subsequently released pending appeal.<\/p>\n<p>In an earlier case in 2019, Kaba\u015f was prosecuted on similar charges and received a suspended sentence of nearly one year.<\/p>\n<p>Journalists in Turkey who are critical of the government or allied political parties have faced increasing scrutiny under laws criminalizing \u201cinsulting public officials,\u201d \u201cdisinformation\u201d and \u201cterrorist propaganda.\u201d According to Expression Interrupted, a press freedom monitoring group, 33 journalists\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/expressioninterrupted.com\/tr\/liste.php\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">are<\/a>\u00a0currently behind bars in Turkey. The country\u2019s deteriorating media landscape was further pointed out in the 2025 World Press Freedom Index published by Reporters Without Borders (RSF), where it was\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/rsf.org\/en\/country-t%C3%BCrkiye\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">ranked<\/a>\u00a0159th out of 180 nations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Turkish prosecutors have indicted journalist Sedef Kaba\u015f on charges of \u201cinciting crime\u201d in her social media posts, the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8403,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[83],"tags":[6979,312,6980,6981,2033,6982,6983,131,132,155],"class_list":{"0":"post-8402","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-stockholm","8":"tag-civil-disobedience","9":"tag-human-rights","10":"tag-inciting-crime","11":"tag-judicial-harassment","12":"tag-press-freedom","13":"tag-sedef-kabas","14":"tag-social-media-posts","15":"tag-stockholm","16":"tag-sweden","17":"tag-turkey"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8402","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8402"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8402\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8403"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8402"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8402"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8402"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}