German TV journalist refused entry to Turkey, detained in Istanbul airport

 

A TV journalist for German broadcaster ARD, who was going to the Turkish-Syrian border to report on refugees, spent six hours detained in the Istanbul airport after having been refused entry into Turkey.

 

“Denied entry into Turkey. There’s a note against my name. I’m a journalist. Problem?” Volker Schwenck, the chief of ARD’s Cairo bureau, wrote on Twitter.

 

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Turkish authorities haven’t yet given any explanations to the journalist, ARD Tagesschau news service reported.

 

The journalist was planning to travel to the Syrian-Turkish border to speak with Syrian refugees who are fleeing their country to escape Islamic State atrocities.

 

Schwenck is not the first German journalist who has been refused entry by Turkey. In March a correspondent for the influential German magazine Der Spiegel, Hasnain Kazim, was forced to leave the country by Turkish authorities after his press credentials weren’t renewed. The magazine’s editor-in-chief accused Turkey of violating press freedom.