Swedish journalist Joakim Medin has been arrested in Turkey. He is alleged to have insulted Erdoğan and to be a member of the PKK. The accusations are related to a protest by groups in solidarity with Kurdistan against Sweden's NATO accession.
A Swedish journalist who was detained upon his arrival in Turkey has been remanded in custody. This was confirmed on Friday evening by the editor-in-chief of the Swedish newspaper Dagens ETC, for which journalist Joakim Medin had traveled to Turkey, to the AFP news agency. “We have not been informed of the charges against him,” said editor-in-chief Andreas Gustavsson.
Medin had traveled to Turkey on Thursday to report on the mass protests against the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. He was arrested upon his arrival in Istanbul. According to the official Anadolu news agency, the journalist is accused of insulting Erdoğan and being a member of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).
The accusations against Medin are related to a protest action in January 2023 in Stockholm. At the time, activists from the Swedish Kurdistan Solidarity protested against Sweden's accession to NATO with the slogan “No to NATO - No alliance with fascists” with a Erdoğan doll hung from his feet near Stockholm City Hall.
Medin reported in Kobanê on the fight against ISIS
The Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor's Office then launched an investigation and identified “15 suspects” who had “organized, carried out or made visible in the media” the protest. Joakim Medin is said to be one of them. The authorities also base their accusations on the journalist's alleged trips to the Qandil, where the PKK operates its headquarters, as well as to northern Syria and Rojava. There he is said to have been in areas where “fighting” took place. In fact, Medin had observed the fight of the YPG and YPJ against the terrorist militia “Islamic State” (ISIS) in Kobanê and was even temporarily detained in a Baathist prison.
Arrests and deportations
For several days now, the Turkish authorities have been clamping down on the media covering the protests in the country. On Monday, several journalists were detained in Istanbul and Izmir, including an AFP photographer. They have since been released. Turkey has also expelled the correspondent of the British broadcaster BBC, Mark Lowen. On Friday, two left-wing Turkish journalists were detained in Istanbul.
The wave of protests was triggered by the arrest of CHP politician Ekrem Imamoğlu. The now-arrested and dismissed mayor of Istanbul is considered the most promising political rival of Erdoğan. He is being held in the notorious penal institution number 9 at the Marmara prison complex in Silivri, west of Istanbul. Opposition members describe “Silivri No. 9” as a detention center because it is mainly used to imprison critics of Erdoğan.
According to information from the Ministry of the Interior on Thursday, more than 1,800 people have been detained and over 260 jailed since the start of the mass protests. The CHP is holding a mass rally in Istanbul today.
