Ankara to Monitor Foreign Reporters' Compliance With Turkish Press Rules

ANKARA (Sputnik) — The press rules for foreign journalists in Turkey have not changed, but the existing ones will be more carefully monitored, a representative of the Turkish Directorate General of Press and Information said Wednesday.

Earlier in the week, the Russian Foreign Ministry said that a Russian television crew from the Rossiya-1 channel had been detained and deported from Turkey, on Monday, for allegedly violating the rules concerning foreign journalists working in the country.

The representative told RIA Novosti that the accreditation rules for foreign journalists are published on the Directorate General's website.

A representative of the Turkish Embassy in Moscow confirmed that Turkey has not introduced new rules for foreign journalists.

"The accreditation rules for foreign journalists to work in Turkey haven't changed. They have always existed, but they were not [always] well observed," the representative told RIA Novosti.

According to the representative, foreign journalists seeking accreditation to work in Turkey must submit a letter from the editorial office of the agency they work for to the Turkish Embassy in the country they reside, in which the goal of the visit, and the names and positions of the people who are due to be interviewed during the trip should be specified.

Moscow condemned the detention and deportation of the Rossiya-1 reporters by the Turkish authorities. Russia's Foreign Ministry claimed that the deportation decision might have motivated by fear in Ankara that the Rossiya-1 correspondents would uncover illegal activities on the Turkish-Syrian border.