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ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Several independent Turkish media outlets were denied accreditation to cover an upcoming NATO summit in Ankara, journalism groups said Thursday, calling the decision an affront to media freedoms.
U.S. President Donald Trump is expected to join other leaders from the 32-member alliance for the July 7-8 summit in the Turkish capital, during which allies will, among other issues, debate defense spending and attempt to project unity.
Turkish journalists from news organizations viewed as opposition‑leaning or independent — including Halk TV, Sozcu TV, Cumhuriyet newspaper, T24 news website and ANKA news agency — have been excluded from covering the summit, the Turkish Journalists’ Association and other media solidarity groups said.
The journalists were neither given a reason for the rejection nor offered the opportunity to appeal the decision, the association said.
“Preventing certain media outlets from covering events of public importance undermines freedom of information and reporting,” the association said. “International organizations must act in line with the democratic values they claim to uphold.”
NATO spokeswoman Allison Hart said in a statement posted on X that for summits held outside of its Brussels headquarters, the trans-Atlantic alliance relies on the host country to assess and approve journalists from that country.
“We are in contact with Turkish authorities on accreditation for the NATO Summit in Ankara. It is very important for NATO that media can attend major events in person,” she said.
Turkish officials haven’t commented on the accreditation issue.
Turkey is implementing wide‑ranging precautions in the lead‑up to the summit. Earlier this week, security forces detained more than 200 people suspected of links to extremist groups, the Ankara chief prosecutor’s office said.
But opposition parties and media reports said that a politician, an academic, a journalist and prominent LGBTQ activist, and lawyers were among those detained, calling for their release.
In a statement on Thursday, Human Rights Watch also criticized the detentions and urged NATO to ensure that basic democratic rights are respected during the summit.
“The misuse of terrorism laws to conduct mass arrests and silence people in the run-up to a NATO summit flies in the face of the founding values of the alliance,” said Benjamin Ward, the group’s deputy director for Europe and Central Asia. “The authorities should immediately release those detained, and NATO should insist that peaceful expression and assembly must be permitted around the summit.”
The Turkish government’s Communications Directorate insisted on Thursday that those who were detained “were assessed to have been involved in activities connected to various terrorist organizations.”
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