Joakim Medin has been imprisoned in Turkey for a month, since he was arrested on March 27 when he was to monitor the demonstrations in Istanbul for the newspaper Dagens ETC.
Last week, he was charged with "insulting the president" and "participating in a terrorist organization", and now the point "spreading terrorist propaganda" has been added, according to Journalisten, which refers to a compilation by Reporters Without Borders.
It can result in seven years and six months' imprisonment. The information comes from our correspondent in Istanbul, Erol Önderoğlu, says Erik Larsson, chairman of Reporters Without Borders in Sweden.
In total, Joakim Medin risks up to more than 27 years' imprisonment, according to the organization.
It's terrible and it sounds completely unreasonable. It's a person who goes to Turkey to report on what's happening there, and now he risks this punishment. It's incredible. I'm taken aback, says Erik Larsson.
"Doesn't add up"
However, Dagens ETC's editor-in-chief Andreas Gustavsson doubts the calculations and believes it's about "maximum sentence exercises".
"I just spoke to Joakim's lawyers. Their professional assessment is still that Joakim Medin in a worst-case scenario risks 12 years' imprisonment, not 27 years," Gustavsson writes on X.
He also rejects the information that the allegations would constitute a new charge:
"Doesn't add up. The point about spreading propaganda is already included in the indictment that came last week and concerns membership in a terrorist group and spreading terrorist propaganda. It's already known information."
Trial to be held
On Wednesday, the trial begins in Ankara regarding the charge of insulting the president, where Medin will participate via link from the prison.
In connection with the charge, Andreas Gustavsson said that all evidence only concerns Medin's journalistic activities. Medin denies all allegations and has emphasized that journalism is not a crime.
Journalist Joakim Medin traveled to Istanbul on assignment for Dagens ETC on March 27 to report on the extensive protests in the country, after Istanbul's mayor Ekrem Imamoglu was arrested earlier in the spring.
Medin, who has visited Turkey as a journalist several times but has not had problems with the authorities before, was arrested directly at the airport.
After that, he was transferred to the high-security prison Marmara in Silivri outside Istanbul, where many of Turkey's political prisoners are or have been. Medin is sitting in the same department as the imprisoned mayor Imamoglu.
On April 23, he was charged with terrorist crimes and insulting the president, which can result in a total of twelve years' imprisonment.
