LAST UPDATE | 28 Mar 2025

SWEDISH JOURNALIST JOAKIM Medin, who was detained on his arrival in Turkey on Thursday to cover street protests, has been jailed, his newspaper’s editor-in-chief told news agency AFP.

Asked whether Medin had been jailed, Dagens ETC chief Andreas Gustavsson said in a text message, “it’s correct”, adding that “we have not been informed about actual charges yet”.

Turkish media said that Medin has been accused of having “insulted the president”, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and being a “member of an armed terrorist organisation”.

Medin’s arrest comes as BBC News correspondent Mark Lowen was earlier deported from Turkey after being detained for around 17 hours, the corporation has said.

Turkish authorities took Lowen from his hotel on Wednesday, in what BBC News CEO Deborah Turness called “an extremely troubling incident”.

He had been in the country to report on recent anti-government protests, which reignited yesterday with the police using pepper spray, rubber bullets and water cannon against demonstrators.

The journalist was deported on yesterday morning from Istanbul, after being accused of “being a threat to public order”, according to the BBC.

“Mark is a very experienced correspondent with a deep knowledge of Turkey and no journalist should face this kind of treatment simply for doing their job,” Turness said, adding that representations had been made to Turkish authorities.

“To be detained and deported from the country where I previously lived for five years and for which I have such affection has been extremely distressing,” Lowen said in a statement.

“Press freedom and impartial reporting are fundamental to any democracy.”

📣 Some news about me:
Yesterday (Wednesday) I was detained by police in Istanbul, held for 17 hours and then deported from Turkey to the UK. Told I was “a threat to public order”. In the country I lived in - and love.
Journalism is not a crime.
Here’s the BBC’s statement: pic.twitter.com/vhw7BHlbnn

— Mark Lowen (@marklowen) March 27, 2025

Week-long protests, the largest to grip the country in decades, have swept Turkey since the 19 March arrest of Istanbul’s popular opposition mayor Ekrem Imamoglu.

Since then, more than 1,850 people have been detained, including 11 journalists covering the protests.

Media watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said it was “outraged” by Turkey’s expulsion of Lowen and its accusation that he was a threat to public order.

“This is how (President Recep Tayyip) Erdogan’s regime regards journalism, and tries to prevent foreign reporters from doing their jobs,” said Erol Onderoglu of RSF in Turkey.

“RSF calls on the Turkish authorities to stop using the legal system to criminalise journalists and to lift the arbitrary bans on Lowen and other foreign journalists’ entry into Turkish territory,” Onderoglu added.

The Media and Law Studies Association said eight journalists who were jailed awaiting trial after covering the protests have been released.

Additional reporting by Andrew Walsh