Main content

Can saying fool land you in jail?

The mayor of Istanbul, Ekrem Imamoğlu has been sentenced to jail and banned from politics for ‘insulting’ election officials. Is there more to it than the word ‘fool’?

Last week Istanbul's Mayor Ekrem ImamoÄŸlu was sentenced to two years seven months in jail and banned from taking part in politics. It’s not clear if his sentence will be ratified by two higher courts, but his crime was to call Turkey’s election officials ‘fools’ after the rerun 2019 mayoral elections, though many believe it has more to do with next year's presidential elections. Â鶹Éç Monitoring journalist Dilay Yalcin in Istanbul unpicks the story.

Meeting Thailand's leading transgender business mogul
Thai transgender businesswoman and transgender advocate Anne Jakkaphong Jakrajutatip has made history as the first trans woman owner of the Miss Universe Organisation. Â鶹Éç Thai’s Tossapol Chaisamritpol has interviewed her about her ambitions for the pageant, and her own life experiences.

Reporting and running
Â鶹Éç Arabic reporter Murad Shishani is often on the road, covering stories from conflict in Gaza to presidential campaigns in Iowa. But wherever he is, he keeps his spirits and energy levels up by running. Murad shares some of those runs with us.

Brazil and K-culture
If you’re a fan of K-pop or K-dramas you’re not alone. Award-winning films like Parasite, bands like BTS, and Korean dramas like Squid Game are global successes, part of what’s been called Hallyu, or Korean Wave. It's a big wave in Brazil, and Â鶹Éç Brasil’s Shin Suzuki decided to take a closer look at the appeal of K-culture. We paired him with Â鶹Éç Korean’s Julie Yoonnyung Lee to fill in the South Korean side of the equation.

Â鶹Éç 100: Triumph against the odds
Yetunde Olugbenga of Â鶹Éç Yoruba starts a new series of stories shared by journalists from our language services who’ve faced big challenges in their lives and careers. They have told their stories in schools in order to encourage and inspire the next generation, as a way of marking the Â鶹Éç centenary. Yetunde tells us how she overcame sexual harassment from a college lecturer.

(Photo: People gather at Saraçhane in support of Ekrem İmamoğlu who has been sentenced to prison. Credit :Hakan Akgun /dia image via Getty Images)

Release date:

Available now

41 minutes

Podcast