Why has Turkey arrested a Swedish journalist?

The Swedish journalist Joakim Medin has been held in the high-security Marmara prison in Turkey since March 30. On April 30 the trail against him starts. Joakim Medin is charged with ‘insulting the President’ and could risk 12 years of imprisonment. Why is Turkey doing this against a NATO ally?

Joakim Medin was arrested on March 27 upon his arrival in Istanbul, he is accused of insulting President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and “belonging to an armed terrorist organisation”. The trial of Joakim Medin, the imprisoned Swedish journalist in Turkey, starts on April 30.

Joakim Medin is a Swedish journalist, author, lecturer, and photographer, working for the newspaper Dagens ETC. He has devoted much of his career to monitoring, investigating, and analysing human rights and democracy issues around the world. He has written six books, the latest of which is called Kurdspåret – Sverige, Turkiet och priset för ett Natomedskap. The book is about the relationship between Sweden and Turkey during the Swedish application process to NATO. The book was nominated for the prestigious Swedish journalism award Guldspaden 2024. 

Joakim Medin himself describes the Kurdish issue as one of his specialities. His involvement and journalistic coverage of the issue has for several years been a source of discontent for the Erdogan regime and its supporters. Joakim Medin’s imprisonment and prosecution is widely seen as an attempt by the regime to silence journalists like him.

The trial of Joakim Medin on one of two charges, insulting the President, begins on Wednesday 30 April.

‘After being wanted for the crimes of ‘belonging to an armed terrorist organisation’ and ‘insulting the president’, the individual was arrested on arrival at Istanbul airport on 27 March and put in prison’,  said the Turkish government’s Centre for Combating Disinformation in a statement on 30 March, regarding Joakim Medin’s detention. 

The Swedish journalist’s detention took place in the context of large protests in Istanbul against the arrest of opposition leader Ekrem İmamoğlu. The Istanbul mayor, widely seen as the main challenger to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, was arrested last week on corruption charges. Mr Medin’s arrest also comes in the wake of the deportation of BBC correspondent Mark Lowen and the imprisonment of dozens of Turkish journalists covering the protests.

The Turkish government claims that the arrest warrant for Mr Medin ‘has nothing to do with journalistic activities’. Instead, they say it is about Medin’s participation in a Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) demonstration in Stockholm in 2023.

On 23 April, it was announced that the trial of Joakim Medin for ‘insulting the President’ will start next week, on 30 April. The trial will take place in the capital Ankara and will be open to journalists, organisations, and the embassy to attend. 

According to Mr Medin’s lawyers, the Swedish journalist faces up to three years in prison on the sole charge of ‘insulting the President’. For the second charge, a terrorist offence, he could face a further nine years in prison. The trial for the terrorist offence charges has no date set yet.

– Joakim is being charged solely for his journalistic activities. There is no concrete, clear, or convincing evidence to support either the charge of insulting the President or the charge of membership of a terrorist organisation. The acts, presented as criminal offences in the indictments consist solely of Joakim’s journalistic activities, including social media posts made for reporting purposes, interviews, and travel. Such activities are not considered criminal offences – neither in Turkey nor in Sweden,’ Veysel Ok, one of Joakim Medin’s lawyers, told Dagens ETC.

Thibaut Bruttin, Secretary General of Reporters Without Borders, condemns the detention of Joakim Medin.

‘We are very concerned about the transfer of journalist Joakim Medin to the Marmara maximum security prison. The reporter, who works for the Swedish daily Dagens ETC, is accused of ‘insulting the president’, a charge often used to silence journalists. Based on the evidence currently available, RSF calls for the immediate release of the special correspondent and demands that the Turkish authorities respect their commitments to the right to reliable information,’ Mr Bruttin said in a press release.

Gustav Nilsson Bucht

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