(AP Photo/Emrah Gurel)
BBC News correspondent Mark Lowen was deported from Turkey on Thursday after being detained by authorities for 17 hours in Istanbul after covering the protests that have erupted in the country.
Lowen, who previously lived in Turkey for five years, had returned to cover the wave of protests that reignited this week following the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu — a key opposition figure and vocal critic of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Turkish police have ramped up their response to the protests, deploying pepper spray, rubber bullets, and water cannons. Over 1,000 demonstrators have been detained in the past week, with eight journalists briefly jailed for covering the unrest, according to the Media and Law Studies Association.
Lowen had been posting reports on X as recently as Tuesday:
According to the BBC, Lowen was detained at his hotel and accused of “being a threat to public order” before being deported.
Lowen said in a statement: “To be detained and deported from the country where I previously lived for five years and for which I have such affection has been extremely distressing. Press freedom and impartial reporting are fundamental to any democracy.”
The BBC’s CEO Deborah Turness also condemned the deportation, calling it “an extremely troubling incident,” and said the network would be “making representations to the Turkish authorities.”
“Mark is a very experienced correspondent with a deep knowledge of Turkey and no journalist should face this kind of treatment simply for doing their job,” Turness said. “We will continue to report impartially and fairly on events in Turkey.”
The post BBC Journalist Deported From Turkey After Covering Ongoing Protests first appeared on Mediaite.
