Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu responded to a journalist in Germany who asked whether tourists visiting Turkey are jailed, saying that the question was “bullshit.”
Targeting the journalist who asked a question about the arrest of tourists in Turkey during a press conference in Berlin on Thursday, Çavuşoğlu claimed that black propaganda is being conducted against Turkey by the media, including the Western journalist who asked the question.
“We host nearly 40 million tourists, and nobody is held in prison unless there is a violation of the law. That’s bullshit,” Çavuşoğlu told reporters in Germany amid growing criticism against Turkey over freedom of expression.
Despite being the biggest jailer of journalists in the world, Turkey denies that journalists are imprisoned in the country due to their journalistic work, accusing them of terrorist links or coup charges regarding a failed coup attempt on July 15, 2016.
CORRECTION: The earlier version of this story was headlined “Turkey’s FM calls criticism over media freedoms ‘bullshit’” and said that Çavuşoğlu was asked about whether Turkey jails journalists, which was not correct. Turkish Minute regrets the error.