Turkey deports BBC journalist over 'public order' threat, fines TV channels

 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. 

Turkey court orders release of AFP journalist and 2 others

A Turkish court on Thursday ordered the release of three journalists, including AFP photographer Yasin Akgul, held after covering the country's worst unrest in over a decade, his lawyer and an NGO said.

Akgul, 35, was one of 11 journalists detained after days of covering mass protests that erupted on March 19 when Istanbul mayor Ekrem Imamoglu -- President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's main political rival -- was arrested.

Eight were detained in Istanbul, and three others in the western coastal city of Izmir.

Seven of them were remanded in custody on Tuesday on charges of "taking part in illegal rallies and marches and failing to disperse despite warnings", court documents showed.

The Istanbul journalists had been detained in pre-dawn raids on their homes on Monday then taken to Istanbul's main Caglayan courthouse a day later where prosecutors had initially ordered their release under judicial control.

Shortly afterwards, they suddenly revised their request, asking the court to formally arrest them, which it did, Akgul's lawyer said.

Legal observers described it as an "unprecedented" U-turn.

The court also ordered the release of two more journalists on Thursday, the MLSA rights group said.

Akgul was expected to be freed by afternoon after the procedures are completed, his lawyer said.

"Yasin Akgul's release is welcome and constitutes redress for a monumental injustice," Erol Onderoglu of media watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) told AFP.

"As RSF, we demand the release of all other journalists who have been deprived of their freedom due to grossly unjust treatment," he said, specifically pointing to "all journalists arrested in Istanbul and Izmir".

AFP chief executive and chairman Fabrice Fries had slammed imprisonment as "unacceptable".

Akgul, he stressed, was "not part of the protest" but only covering it as a journalist, and should be swiftly released.

Turkey ranks 158 out of 180 countries listed in the 2024 World Press Freedom Index compiled by Reporters Without Borders (RSF).

The journalists' initial arrest sparked international condemnation including from the United Nations.

The court decision was slammed as "scandalous" by RSF, with the Turkish Photojournalists Union denouncing it as "unlawful, unconscionable and unacceptable".