“Journalism is not a crime, not in any country”

COLUMN. The Turkish regime must immediately release Joakim Medin, and all journalists imprisoned simply for trying to report on the situation in Turkey, writes the Swedish author, journalist, and commentator Kurdo Baksi who was himself born in Turkey.

The opinions expressed in this article are those by the author.

The first message from Joakim Medin from inside prison.

‘Journalism is not a crime, not in any country. Joakim Medin. Silivri prison. 1 April 2025’. These handwritten words were scribbled a few days ago on a chequered sheet of paper by the Swedish journalist in Marmara prison, located in the small town of Silivri outside Istanbul.

Joakim’s brave words about the vital importance of journalism touched me deeply. Would I have dared to write the same message if, like Joakim, I found myself in a Turkish prison with many prisoners who had criticised Turkey’s despotic President Recep Tayyip Erdogan? Would I have dared to write these lines if, like Joakim, I had been accused of ‘insulting the President of Turkey’ and ‘membership of an armed terrorist organisation’?

I am not at all sure that I would have written something similar on a piece of paper. But I am absolutely sure of another fact. I don’t want to live in a dark and silent world without independent journalism. I don’t want to live in a world where despots manage to hide the truth. Free and independent journalism is as important to us as food and water! But journalism has many enemies because more and more states are now ruled by despots. Despots will do anything to keep the truth about their totalitarian rule, shady deals, and corruption scandals from coming to light. Despots do everything to hide their crimes against humanity. And many journalists who do their job by reporting the truth are murdered, kidnapped, or imprisoned. Many people here in Sweden are familiar with the Swedish journalist Dawit Isaak, who has been held in a prison in Eritrea for more than 23 years. For more than 23 years he has been denied a lawyer, consular access, and family visits.

And the 2024 Report of Reporters Without Borders does not make for pleasant reading. In 2024 alone, 54 journalists were murdered globally, 31 of them in conflict zones, a record high. The sheer number of journalists murdered is hard to take in. In the same year, no less than 550 journalists were detained by different regimes around the world. These are journalists imprisoned by a state for reporting on a social problem or refusing to honour the leaders of their country. And 55 journalists were held hostage, mainly in Syria. As we know, the world’s most dangerous terrorist organisation, the Islamic State (IS), held many journalist’s hostage and demanded ransoms for them. After the new terrorist labelled HTS movement took power in Damascus, many relatives are waiting for signs of life from their family members. But let’s remember that ISIS still operates in hard-to-reach rural areas where it holds journalist’s hostage. There is no indication that ISIS will hand over hostages to the new rulers in Damascus. And the Reporters Without Borders report also tells us that a total of 95 journalists are missing in 35 states. Incredible but true!

These facts speak for themselves, but two things stand out. Many journalists pay too high a price for their profession, just like Joakim Medin. Free journalism and opinion-forming are not given phenomena, nothing we can take for granted. We must fight for free speech and independent journalism everywhere, every day. The dismantling of free and independent media can happen unexpectedly fast. We see it happening in different places.

Finally, the Turkish regime must immediately release Joakim Medin, and all journalists imprisoned simply for trying to report on the situation in Turkey. Freedom of the press is a fundamental right that must be respected. No journalist should be arrested, deported, or harassed because of their work. Because journalism is not a crime, journalists are not criminals, not in any country!

Freedom to Joakim Medin!

Kurdo Baksi

Kurdo Baksi was born in Batman, Turkey and is  of Kurdish descent. He is a writer of several books and columnist in the magazine Journalisten. He came to Sweden in 1980 along with his parents and four siblings.

Translation and editing: David Isaksson.

The column was originally published in Swedish by Journalisten. Read it here.

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