Prominent Turkish journalist is jailed after quoting proverb deemed ‘insulting’ to Erdogan

A prominent Turkish journalist was jailed Saturday after being charged with “insulting” President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in what her lawyer and media advocacy groups described as an unusually harsh measure that could further chill press freedoms.

The charges against the journalist, Sedef Kabas, came after she quoted what she said was a proverb while appearing as a guest on a news show last week discussing Erdogan and political polarization in Turkey. The proverb, which she also posted on Twitter, said: “When the ox goes to the palace, he does not become a king. But the palace becomes a barn.”

Tens of thousands of people are investigated every year for insulting the president, under a long-standing section of the criminal code that Erdogan, in recent years, has vigorously enforced against political opponents as well as ordinary citizens. Figures by Turkey’s Justice Ministry showed that prosecutors pursued more than 31,000 cases of insulting the president in 2020. Nearly a third of those cases resulted in formal charges, it said.

Fahrettin Altun, a spokesman for Erdogan, called Kabas a “so-called journalist” on Twitter and said her comments had “no goal other than spreading hatred.”

“The honor of the presidency is the honor of our nation”, he wrote.

Ugur Poyraz, her lawyer, called the decision to remand Kabas, “strange” and “a very serious and big mistake”.

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