Swedish journalist Joakim Medin has been detained in Turkey after arriving in Istanbul on Thursday to report on the current protests.
Since Medin notified his editor in chief that he was being taken in for interrogation – around lunchtime on Thursday – nobody has heard from him.
Joakim Medin is a regular contributor to daily newspaper Dagens ETC and has reported from and about Turkey regularly for several years. We do not as yet know where or how he is, and we are imploring the Swedish government to take action to help us get Joakim home.
The chief editor of Dagens ETC wrote the following commentary on the decision to make this public, machine translated using FireFox:
This is what Dagens ETC’s reporter Joakim Medin wrote yesterday when he landed in Istanbul to monitor recent developments:
“They are taking me in for interrogations now”
Now it’s been more than 24 hours.
Silence.
I don’t know where he is.
I don’t know how he’s doing.
Not if he’s interrogated.
Not if he’s going to be deported.
We at Dagens ETC have feverishly tried to get answers in different ways (the UD and consulate are connected).
But a whole day…
Now we choose to do this in public.
For Joakim to be released.
Because freedom of the press is under attack.
I demand that the Swedish government act directly and sharply.
I expect the support of just about every other media.
Joakim went to Turkey to give Dagens ETC’s readers all the nuances.
Now he can’t do that.
With the hope of very quick solution,
Andreas Gustavsson, Editor-in-chief Dagens ETC
So, let’s take a second and make something crystal clear:
This isn’t because he covered protests.
It’s because he INTENDED TO cover protests.
What a time to be alive.
There hasn’t been much press freedom in Turkey for years now, so it’s not like yesterday was better time to be alive or smth
Nevertheless, I believe that detaining European journalists for simply showing up indicates that the regime is more nervous now than it has ever been.
Yeah true
Thought crimes?
Conspiracy to commit journalism
I think what sucks most about shit like this is that 12 months ago it was fairly rare to hear of it happening. Now, since the orange butt plug gained an unconscionable amount of power and influence, every other right-wing dickwad leader in the world is following suit … and there’s nobody who will stop it.
I agree Trump is normalizing authoritarianism, but I’m not sure he has had much of an impact on Erdogan. Erdogan has been leaning into authoritarianism for ages now, but few have protested as the economy has been strong. Now that he has destroyed the economy as well and people are protesting, he has nothing except the authoritarian textbook to protect him.
