The International and European Federations of Journalists (IFJ-EFJ) have strongly condemned Turkey’s arrest of Swedish journalist Joakim Medin, calling it a blatant attack on press freedom.
Medin was detained on 27 March in İstanbul while reporting on ongoing protests, facing charges of “membership of an armed terrorist organisation” and “insulting the president”.
The IFJ-EFJ demanded his immediate release, alongside all journalists detained in what they described as an effort to silence media workers.
Medin’s arrest follows the deportation of BBC journalist Mark Lowen on 28 March, after he covered the same protests. Turkish authorities accused Lowen of posing a “threat to public order”, holding him for 17 hours before expulsion.
Medin, a contributor to Sweden’s Dagens ETC newspaper, was apprehended shortly after arriving in İstanbul, with officials linking his detention to a 2023 Stockholm protest where an effigy of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan was hung. “We strongly condemn the arbitrary arrest and deportation of foreign journalists in Türkiye as well as any attack on local journalists,” the IFJ-EFJ stated.
The federations, representing over 600,000 journalists across 146 countries, highlighted a pattern of repression. At least 13 local journalists have been detained since mid-March while covering the unrest sparked by the arrest of İstanbul’s opposition mayor, Ekrem İmamoğlu. Earlier, on 16 March, French journalist Chris den Hond was detained and deported, receiving a 10-year entry ban.
The IFJ-EFJ stressed that such actions undermine a fundamental right, adding, “No journalist should be arrested, deported, or harassed as a result of their work.”
The IFJ-EFJ’s statement has galvanised support from other unions. The National Union of Journalists (NUJ) in the UK and the Swedish Union of Journalists (SJF) echoed the demand for Medin’s release. SJF President Ulrika Hyllert stated “Journalism is not a crime”, while NUJ General Secretary Laura Davison called Lowen’s deportation “deeply concerning” amid heightened safety risks during the protests. The federations urged Turkey to respect media freedom as tensions escalate.
