Deniz Göktaş

This is Rajini Vaidyanathan with News Hour, coming to you live from London.

Deniz Goktas is a 32-year-old Turkish stand-up comedian.

He's popular, and earlier this year he performed at an open-air theater in Istanbul.

[audience cheering]

Deniz Goktas.

Well, thousands watched him in person, and with- within a week that clip, which was posted on YouTube, gained around 10 million views, and it's at the 15 million mark the last time I checked.

Well, not long after, he was arrested by police over that video and put in high security pretrial detention.

Today, he appeared in court on charges of insulting Turkey's President Erdogan, incitement to public hatred, and praising crime and criminals as part of that stand-up routine.

I've come here a lot over the years following court cases in Turkey, and the cast of people appearing keeps widening.

Opposition mayors, students, and today a popular comedian called Deniz Goktas.

[crowd chanting]

They are chanting, "Freedom for art, freedom for humor and freedom for Deniz." A month earlier, Deniz was on stage.

A sharp regime change full of oppression.

We are on a survival mode in our daily life struggle to pay our rents, pay our bills, to study.

And Deniz Goktas gives all our feelings and problems into his jokes.

He spoke for a lot of what young people are feeling right now.