Sweden united for Medin – but the fight continues
A fantastic message came last Friday night. Journalist Joakim Medin would soon land in Sweden Sweden after being imprisoned in Turkey for 51 days. An unborn child gets his father back.
It was an emotional press conference on Saturday morning with Joakim Medin, his wife Sofie Axelsson and the magazine ETC’s editor -in -chief Andreas Gustavsson.
Gustavsson talked about how big the support was. Parties of different colors guarded the trial, competing media houses have kept up the pressure and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs also received – after a very special week – praise. The moderate Foreign Minister also made a great effort personally, the editor -in -chief told one of Sweden’s most profiled left -wing newspapers.
When a journalist was arrested because he performed his job, Sweden joined.
We still do not know everything about the reasons for the release, President Erdogan is not known for letting the pressure control his authoritarian whims. New tasks will also appear. But already we know one thing: Joakim Medin is at home.
He also met several of the people he wrote about in his prison corridor, he said on Saturday.
Because there was a lot that was at stake. It was no obvious that Medin would come back like this soon. He was charged with terrorist offenses and risked A long prison sentence. This is because Medin has written about Kurds’ situation in Sweden and Syria.
Unfortunately, it is not possible to say that the release of him sets the point for the attacks against freedom of the press. Medin has already been sentenced to a over eleven months long conditional imprisonment for insulting Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The legal process against Medin will continue In September, although he does not have to be in place.
Medin is not nor alone as a journalist about getting bad in Turkey. According to information from the Journalist Association in Turkey sat 23 journalists And media workers imprisoned in February. The country is in place 158 out of 180 in reporters without borders the press freedom index. These problems do not disappear because Medin has come home.
If we leave Turkey, there are more Swedes who are innocently imprisoned abroad.
In Iran sits scientist Ahmadreza Djalali imprisoned since nine years agohis health condition has become worse.
It is almost ten years since the Swedish publisher Gui Minhai was kidnapped during a holiday trip in Thailand to later be sentenced to prison in China.
The Swedish journalist Dawit Isaak was arrested in Eritrea in 2001 and has disappeared since then.
The struggle for their release must continue incessantly. Like Joakim Medin, they must come home.
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