Turkey: another journalist arrested
Swedish journalist Joakim Medin being held in prison
Following the arrest of Swedish journalist Joakim Medin in Turkey, the NUJ joins the International and European Federations of Journalists and the Swedish Union of Journalists in calling for his release and all local and foreign journalists who have been detained in the country.
The confirmation of Medin’s detention comes just days after BBC journalist Mark Lowen was arrested and deported from Turkey on 28 March.
Media, a special correspondent for the Swedish daily newspaper Dagens ETC, was arrested on 27 March soon after he arrived in Istanbul. He was accused of alleged connections with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and charged with “membership of an armed terrorist organisation” and “insulting the President.”
Turkish authorities claimed Medin is being held due to participation in a protest in Stockholm in 2023, in which a puppet of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan was hung by its feet.
However the organisers of the protest, The Rovaja Committees, denied the allegations: in a post on X they said: “Joakim Medin has never been a member of the Rojava Committees and had nothing to do with our action. It was planned and carried out entirely by us. But it is not a coincidence that Erdoğan imprisons the journalist who has most persistently scrutinised Turkey’s persecution of Kurds.”
Medin’s arrest has sparked protests in Stockholm, with demonstrators calling for his release.
According to the SUJ, Medin has been transferred to Marmara Prison in Silivri. SUJ president Ulrika Hyllert said:
“We demand the immediate release of Joakim Medin. The accusations against him are false. He has done his job as a journalist and reported on issues related to Turkey. Journalism is not a crime.”
NUJ general secretary Laura Davison commented:
"We support the IFJ, EFJ and SUJ in calling for the release of Joakim Medin and all local and foreign journalists who have been detained. Medin's arrest follows the expulsion of the BBC's Mark Lowen, which we have already written to the Turkish ambassadors to the UK and Ireland about, expressing our grave concern. Journalism is not a crime."
The IFJ-EFJ said:
“We strongly condemn the arbitrary arrest and deportation of foreign journalists in Türkiye as well as any attack on local journalists. The Turkish government must immediately release Joakim Medin andall journalists detained as a blatant attempt to silence and intimidate media workers. Freedom of the press is a fundamental right that must be respected. No journalist should be arrested, deported, or harassed as a result of their work."