Turkey bars entry to foreign journalists, gives no explanation
Giorgos Moutafis, 38, was denied entry to Turkey after landing in Istanbul on Saturday and was sent back to Athens. He was kicked out of the country less than an hour after German Chancellor Angela Merkel had left, having visited a refugee camp in Gaziantep, the newspaper pointed out. He intended to go to Libya from Turkey.
“I was told at the passport control that my name was on a blacklist and that I’m not allowed to enter Turkey. Then my passport was taken from me until the early morning. I had to spend the night in a room in the airport. The reasons why I’m on this list were not explained to me,” Moutafis said.
He added that he entered Turkey six months ago with no problems, and that he cannot explain why he could have been banned since then.
Moutafis is an internationally-acclaimed journalist and filmmaker, who has covered stories for outlets such as Newsweek, TIME, the New Yorker, Der Spiegel, the Guardian, Al Jazeera, CBS, CNN and the BBC, among others. He recieved the 2014 Press Freedom Award from Reporters Without Borders.
The focus of his work is on the perils of asylum seekers travelling to Europe from the Middle East, but he also reported on the battle for the Kurdish city of Kobani in Syria, which may explain the Turkish authorities’ attitude.
When asked for comments by RT, Bild said it would not provide any.
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