ISTANBUL – Turkish officials announced on Sunday that they had apprehended a Swedish journalist who was sent to report on the ongoing nationwide protests. The journalist was taken into custody on charges of terrorism and insulting the president.
Joakim Medin, working for the daily Dagens ETC, was arrested upon his arrival at Istanbul airport last Thursday and was subsequently detained on Friday. The charges brought against him include “membership in a terrorist organization” and “insulting the president.”
Contrary to claims that Medin’s arrest was related to his journalistic endeavors, the Counter Disinformation Center, under the Turkish Presidency’s Communications Department, stated that his detention was unrelated to his work as a journalist.
The Center accused Medin of taking part in a rally in Stockholm on January 11, 2023 attended by supporters of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, which included an effigy of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
The PKK has waged a 40-year insurgency in Turkey which has cost tens of thousands of lives and is designated a terrorist organization by Ankara and its Western allies. A peace initiative between the Turkish state and the PKK was initiated in October, and the organization declared a ceasefire at the beginning of March upon a call to do so by its imprisoned leader Abdullah Ocalan.
The Ankara Public Prosecutors Office launched an investigation into the 2023 Stockholm rally two days after it was held, and identified 15 suspects including Medin who had organized, participated or covered the event according to the Counter Disinformation Center.
It added that Medin also facilitated communication between the PKK and the press.
Over a dozen journalists have been detained in Turkey this past week as part of a crackdown on media workers covering Turkey’s largest protests in more than a decade.
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