ANKARA (Reuters) – Turkish authorities deported a BBC News correspondent on Thursday after detaining him for 17 hours and branding him a “threat to public order”.
Mark Lowen had been in Turkey to cover mass street protests triggered by the arrest and jailing of Istanbul’s Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu.
BBC News CEO Deborah Turness called the deportation “extremely troubling” and said the broadcaster would raise the issue with Turkish authorities.
Lowen, who previously lived in Turkey for five years, said his expulsion was “extremely distressing”, adding that press freedom is essential to democracy.
Imamoglu, President Tayyip Erdogan’s biggest political rival who leads him in some polls, was jailed on Sunday, pending trial on corruption charges which he denies. Imamoglu and his supporters say his detention is politically motivated and anti-democratic, an assertion that Erdogan’s government denies.
His arrest has prompted the largest anti-government protests in Turkey in more than a decade and has led to the detention of nearly 1,900 people across the country.
Meanwhile, Turkey’s media watchdog, the Radio and Television Supreme Council (RTUK), imposed fines on four broadcasters over coverage related to the arrest of Imamoglu, a RTUK member said.
Sanctions were issued against programmes aired on pro-opposition channels SZC TV, Tele1, and Halk TV as well as NOW TV, for alleged violations.
Additionally, SZC TV was ordered to halt broadcasting for 10 days, with RTUK warning that a third violation could result in the revocation of its licence.
(Reporting by Ece Toksabay; Editing by Gareth Jones)
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