{"id":213610,"date":"2026-09-03T18:52:13","date_gmt":"2026-09-03T18:52:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/213610\/"},"modified":"2026-09-03T18:52:13","modified_gmt":"2026-09-03T18:52:13","slug":"cpj-calls-for-release-of-turkish-journalist-jailed-over-erdogan-passed-away-post","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/213610\/","title":{"rendered":"CPJ calls for release of Turkish journalist jailed over \u2018Erdo\u011fan passed away\u2019 post"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has called on<\/a> Turkish authorities to immediately release journalist \u0130rem Delice, who was jailed under the country\u2019s disinformation law over a social media post announcing the death of a local woman who shares President Recep Tayyip Erdo\u011fan\u2019s surname.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u0130rem Delice should be released immediately, and authorities must stop their abuse of this vague legislation to criminalize journalism,\u201d \u00d6zg\u00fcr \u00d6\u011fret, CPJ\u2019s Turkey representative, said Wednesday. \u201cEven if mistakes were made, nobody deserves to go to prison in this case.\u201d<\/p>\n

Delice is a reporter for Ayd\u0131n Denge, a local news outlet in western Turkey\u2019s Ayd\u0131n province. She and three other employees were detained on August 26 after the outlet published a death notice for a local woman named G\u00fcl\u015fen Erdo\u011fan and promoted it on social media with an image reading \u201cErdo\u011fan passed away.\u201d<\/p>\n

The report itself identified the deceased as G\u00fcl\u015fen Erdo\u011fan, but authorities opened an investigation on suspicion of \u201cpublicly disseminating misleading information,\u201d citing the fact that she shared a surname with the Turkish president.<\/p>\n

Publisher Emin Ayd\u0131n, responsible news editor Ye\u015fim \u00dclker and reporters \u0130slam Kele\u015f and Delice were initially released under judicial supervision. Prosecutors appealed the decision concerning Delice, who wrote the death notice, and a court subsequently ordered her jailed pending the outcome of the investigation.<\/p>\n

Ayd\u0131n said in a column that the newspaper routinely publishes local death notices and had no intention of misleading readers or suggesting that President Erdo\u011fan had died. He acknowledged that the social media image could have been misunderstood but said an editorial choice should not be treated as evidence of criminal intent.<\/p>\n

CPJ said Delice\u2019s detention was another example of Turkish authorities using Article 217\/A of the Turkish Penal Code, commonly known as the disinformation law, against journalists.<\/p>\n

Turkey adopted the provision in 2022, making it a criminal offense punishable by up to three years in prison to publicly disseminate false information about matters including security, public order and public health in a way deemed capable of causing fear, panic or concern.<\/p>\n

At least 83 journalists have faced 114 charges under the provision since it took effect, according to figures cited by CPJ. The press freedom group joined 22 other organizations in April in calling on Turkey to stop using the law against journalists and to repeal it.<\/p>\n

CPJ said it could not determine whether the investigation of Delice and the three other Ayd\u0131n Denge employees would result in a trial. The group said the Ayd\u0131n Chief Public Prosecutor\u2019s Office did not respond to its request for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has called on Turkish authorities to immediately release journalist \u0130rem Delice, who…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":213611,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[16467],"tags":[16496,17966,95587,93603,15050,73031,95588,1102,44465,7241,18170,316,95589,93606,9710,95590,3033,1106,25962,18173,7098,1433,7362,95591],"class_list":["post-213610","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-recep-tayyip-erdogan","tag-ak-party","tag-akp","tag-article-217-a","tag-aydin-denge","tag-censorship","tag-committee-to-protect-journalists","tag-cpj","tag-democracy","tag-disinformation-law","tag-erdogan","tag-freedom-of-expression","tag-human-rights","tag-human-rights-in-turkey","tag-irem-delice","tag-journalism","tag-journalist-arrests","tag-justice","tag-media-freedom","tag-oppression","tag-press-freedom","tag-recep-tayyip-erdogan","tag-rule-of-law","tag-turkey","tag-turkish-journalists"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@people\/117208622272956205","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213610","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=213610"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213610\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/213611"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=213610"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=213610"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=213610"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}