The European Union condemned Turkey on Thursday for detaining journalists covering mass protests, urging the country to uphold press freedom. European Commission spokesman Guillaume Mercier stated that Brussels "deplores the arrests of journalists and shutdown of social media accounts," calling on Ankara to respect media and expression rights. Social media platform X confirmed that Turkish authorities had ordered it to block a significant number of accounts linked to the demonstrations.
Meanwhile, BBC correspondent Mark Lowen was deported from Turkey after being detained for 17 hours in Istanbul. The BBC reported that he was expelled today for allegedly being a "threat to public order." Lowen, who had been reporting on the protests triggered by Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu's arrest, described his deportation as “distressing” after living there for five years.
More than 1,400 protesters have been detained, including Agence France-Presse photographer Yasin Akgul.
