ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq - A Turkish journalist, working for the German public broadcaster Deutsche Welle (DW), went on trial in Ankara on Thursday for allegedly "insulting the President" Recep Tayyip Erdogan, DW reported.

Alican Uludag was arrested in his Ankara home on February 19 and has been held in an Istanbul jail since then. He appeared before the court via a video call, asking to be acquitted, according to DW, which had a team in the courtroom.

“I was detained, but I did not commit a crime that warrants arrest... I am a journalist who is being silenced,” testified Uludag, who has also been a court reporter for 18 years.

“I made general criticisms; I criticized the relationship between the judiciary and politics. As a judicial reporter, I criticized operations in the judiciary on social media. I want to know what is criminal about that?” he said.

An hour into the hearing, the judge granted him conditional release, according to DW.

His arrest has sparked outrage, with Berlin denouncing his arrest as “baseless” and other rights monitors like Amnesty International demanding his release.

Following his arrest in February, DW chief Barbara Massing called his arrest a “targeted attempt at intimidation” and demonstrated “the extent to which the government is massively repressing press freedom.”

Erol Onderoglu, the Turkey representative for press freedom watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF), said Uludag was being “arbitrarily targeted by a judiciary beholden to those in power,” adding that his investigations may have angered those in power.

“Our organizations stress that Uludag is an award-winning journalist known for his rigorous coverage of judicial affairs, human rights violations, and corruption,” the European Center for Press and Media Freedom said in a statement.

“The use of judicial harassment and disproportionate police presence to silence a well-known investigative journalist constitutes a clear act of intimidation and is aimed at chilling investigative reporting in Turkey,” it added.

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) ranks Turkey 163rd out of 180 countries in its world press freedom index.