Joakim MEDIN
Photo Credit: Zanna Nordqvist
Journalist, writer, and PEN Sweden member Joakim Medin, a Swedish national, was detained on 27 March 2025 at Istanbul airport after travelling to cover nationwide protests and arrested the following day. Medin denied charges of ‘insulting the president’https://www.mlsaturkey.com/en/two-separate-indictments-against-swedish-journalist-medin-membership-and-insulting-the-president based on social media posts related to a 2023 protest in Stockholm, in which an effigy of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan was hung by its feet, stating that his reports were in a professional capacity. Convicted on 30 April 2025, the 79th Criminal Court of First Instance in Ankara handed him a suspended prison sentence of 11 months and 20 days. His appeal was ongoing at the end of the year.
Medin remained in pre-trial detention in the high-security Marmara prison in Silivri, near Istanbul, on separate terrorism grounds, before being released and deported to Sweden on 16 May 2025. He was banned from returning to the country for five years. His trial in the ‘terror’ case began in absentia on 25 September 2025 at the 13th High Criminal Court in Istanbul and was ongoing at the end of the year. If convicted, Medin would face years in prison and could be subject to an international arrest warrant, which would seriously affect his ability to work. PEN International joined PEN Sweden and PEN Norway in calling on the authorities of Türkiye to immediately drop all terror-related charges against Medin, to lift his entry ban, and to overturn his previous conviction on ‘insult’ grounds.
Joakim Medin, born on 28 August 1984, is a journalist, writer, and member of PEN Sweden, who has reported from countries including Iraq, Syria, Hungary, Thailand, Türkiye and Ukraine. Medin specialises in Kurdish issues and is the author of several books, including Kobane – the Kurdish revolution and the fight against IS (2016)and The Kurdish track –Sweden, Turkey and the price of a Nato membership (2023). Medin reflected on his experience in Türkiye in a piece published in PEN/Opp on 19 September 2025, and in an interview with PEN Norway, published on 21 September 2025.