Swedish journalist Joakim Medin will appear in Ankara’s Criminal Court of First Instance on Wednesday 30 April via video link from his cell in İstanbul, for the first hearing of his trial on charges of ‘insulting the president’, ‘membership in a terrorist organisation’, and ‘spreading terrorist propaganda’. The case has been widely condemned by press freedom advocates amid international scrutiny on rising authoritarianism in Turkey.
Medin, a Swedish national who has reported extensively on international conflicts and human rights issues, particularly involving Kurdish communities in Syria, Iraq, and Turkey, was arrested on 27 March on his arrival in İstanbul, where he intended to report on mass protests against the arrest of İstanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu for his Swedish paper Dagens ETC.
Turkish authorities allege that Medin participated in a 2023 protest in Stockholm, during which a mannequin of Turkish President Erdoğan was displayed, accuse Medin of ties to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), and lodged a fresh charge of spreading terror propaganda. If charged on all accounts he faces up to 27 years in prison.
Dagens ETC editor-in-chief Andreas Gustavsson shared a handwritten note by Medin on social media, written and signed in his cell in Silivri High Security Prison No.9 on 29 April. It read: “Not guilty. Journalism is not an insult. Journalism is not an act of terror. Journalism is not a crime.”
NOT GUILTY.
New message from Swedish journalist, imprisoned in Turkey.
First trial starts tomorrow.
Read. Share. Publish.#FreeMedin pic.twitter.com/nkVbv9Tzxn
— Andreas Gustavsson (@a_gustavsson) April 29, 2025
In an article published in Dagens ETC the same day, Gustavsson said, “It is disgusting that Turkey wants to judge Dagens ETC’s reporter.” “Joakim Medin is subjected to a political process, where the Turkish power apparatus wants to punish him for having formulated a sharp and scrutinising journalistic story about what has been happening in Turkey for many years.”
“Joakim is of course innocent, there is a complete lack of substantial evidence, the prosecutor only lists articles and books and social postings,” he explained. “A Swedish journalist is imprisoned in Turkey, Sweden’s ally. That, if anything, is an insult.”
“There is absolutely nothing that Sweden has not already given Turkey,” the chief editor said, citing concessions Sweden made to Turkey during their two-year NATO accession process, which were heavily focused on restricting the rights of Kurdish diaspora, extraditing Kurdish activists and halting support for Kurdish forces in Syria.
Medin investigated how NATO negotiations made “life unsafe for Turkish dissidents in Sweden – many of them Kurds”, Gustavsson said. “Sweden’s most influential publicists unanimously condemn what Turkey is now doing, that is, violating press freedom through quasi-legal warfare,” he warned. “Now this journalism is before a judge.”
Rallying ahead of Medin’s trial, ETC gathered responses from 40 influential media figures in Sweden, pointing to the seriousness of his silencing and unanimously giving the clear message that journalism is not a crime.
In the report, Lotta Folcker, editor-in-chief of Aftonbladet, one of Sweden’s biggest papers, said,
“Prosecuting and, in the worst case, convicting Joakim Medin for his journalism is not only a violation of fundamental freedom of the press and expression, it is a threat to our open society. It is extremely serious and Turkey should understand that this does not silence journalism but rather puts even more focus on Turkey's questionable methods."
Cilla Benkö, CEO of Sweden’s Radio, said, “That Turkey, a country Sweden cooperates with within the framework of NATO, imprisons journalists simply for doing their job is unacceptable and something we must all clearly distance ourselves from and question.”
Sweden’s TV4 news director Fredrick Malmberg, highlighted the “regime’s systematic war on press freedom” and called Medin’s charges based on terror and insults “excuses to silence an inconvenient voice”. “It’s not about justice – it’s about control,” he said. “When journalists are imprisoned for doing their job, democracy is eroded and the power’s fear of scrutiny becomes frighteningly clear.”
James Savage, editor-in-chief of The Local and chairman of Sveriges Tidskrifter, followed suit, condemning Turkey’s press freedom record and urging international players to take a clear stance:
“That an authoritarian regime imprisons a Swedish journalist in this way not only undermines the already deeply wounded freedom of expression in Turkey – it also threatens our own freedom of expression. Neither free media nor governments in democratic countries must accept this."
An appeal against Medin’s detention was rejected by the Ankara court on 9 April. His legal team, represented by the Media and Law Studies Association (MLSA), challenged the decision through Turkey’s Constitutional Court but Medin remained in pre-trial detention.
