The French photo-journalist Mathias Depardon, arrested on 8 May in a report for National Geographic, and since then detained in Gaziantiep, near the Syrian border, interrupted his hunger strike which began on 21 May. The announcement was made by the Reporters Without Borders secretary general Christophe Deloire. According to the Turkish justice, the journalist had been accused of “propagating a terrorist organization.” whereas he wanted to follow militants of the Kurdish Workers’ Party (PKK). His police custody lasted more than thirty hours.
The case promptly worried the French authorities. “Mathias Depardon is well treated, he knows that his file is carried to the highest level: the journalist has put an end to his hunger strike, which means nothing about the final outcome, but these are positive signals. “Is satisfactory to see that the mobilization, the engagement of the embassy, the fact that it is treated in France, seems to start bearing fruit,” said Christophe Deloire to AFP.
Yesterday, on the occasion of the NATO summit in Brussels, the recently elected President of the French Republic Emmanuel Macron reiterated his commitment to this solve this issue and recalled his firmness towards his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan. “The discussion was frank, direct and virile. The result is that this morning we obtained consular access for Depardon.”
