ANKARA – Dozens of Turkish journalists have been denied accreditation for a NATO summit in the Turkish capital Ankara next month, media outlets and journalist associations said on Thursday, with NATO saying it relied on Turkey for guidance about journalists.
Turkey will host 32 NATO leaders, as well as officials from the alliance’s partners in the Gulf and Asia-Pacific region, on July 7-8.
Turkish independent media outlets including Cumhuriyet, Sozcu, Anka, T24 and Medyascope said on Wednesday and Thursday that NATO had denied their reporters’ accreditation applications for the NATO summit.
Ersin Celik, a journalist working for the pro-government Yeni Safak newspaper, also said in a post on his Instagram account on Thursday that NATO had denied his accreditation request.
“The denial of accreditation applications from a large number of media outlets is worrying in terms of press freedom,” the Turkish Journalists Association said in a statement.
