Swedish Journalist Arrested in Turkey for Alleged Ties to Pro-Kurdish Group

ISTANBUL – Turkish authorities said Sunday they arrested a Swedish journalist dispatched to cover ongoing nationwide protests on charges of terrorism and insulting the president.

Joakim Medin of the daily Dagens ETC was detained as he arrived at Istanbul airport on Thursday and placed under arrest on Friday on charges of “membership in a terrorist organization” and “insulting the president.”

The Counter Disinformation Center, part of the Turkish Presidency’s Communications Department, said in a statement that Medin’s arrest was “not over his journalism activities.”

The Center accused Medin of taking part in a rally in Stockholm on January 11, 2023 attended by supporters of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, which included an effigy of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

The PKK has waged a 40-year insurgency in Turkey which has cost tens of thousands of lives and is designated a terrorist organization by Ankara and its Western allies. A peace initiative between the Turkish state and the PKK was initiated in October, and the organization declared a ceasefire at the beginning of March upon a call to do so by its imprisoned leader Abdullah Ocalan.

The Ankara Public Prosecutors Office launched an investigation into the 2023 Stockholm rally two days after it was held, and identified 15 suspects including Medin who had organized, participated or covered the event according to the Counter Disinformation Center.

It added that Medin also facilitated communication between the PKK and the press.

Over a dozen journalists have been detained in Turkey this past week as part of a crackdown on media workers covering Turkey’s largest protests in more than a decade.