A Turkish court on Thursday sentenced a Turkish journalist to two years and five months in prison for insulting President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Reuters reported.
The journalist will not be jailed for his time in prison and that the sentence is appealable.
A leading local journalist is also writing columns in the opposition newspaper "Suzhou".
The court also sentenced one-year and eight-month suspended sentence to a local court for insulting government officials.
A lighter sentence will be enforced only if he commits a crime requiring a prison sentence in the next five years during which he will be under surveillance.
"My client was sentenced because of the expressions he used in his columns and tweets, which should be considered free of criticism," said Ertogirl Aidugan, a local lawyer.
Authorities arrested a local in December after accusing Turkey of helping terrorist groups in Syria and calling Erdogan a dictator. He was released in January 2017 pending trial.
The local news agency "Demir Oren" reported that a local defended himself in court, saying that he was doing his duty as a journalist.
"I was not the president, I always called him the president, the word 'dictator' is not insulting, I ask for my acquittal," the agency quoted him as saying.
Tens of thousands of government employees, journalists, soldiers and others were arrested by the Turkish authorities following a failed coup in July 2016. The authorities also closed some 130 media outlets.
Erdogan believes that some journalists have helped terrorists through their writings and that the campaign is needed to ensure stability in his country.
Critics say Erdogan is using the post-coup campaign to silence the opposition and tighten his grip on power, and the campaign has also been criticized by the European Union, which Turkey has joined.
