US State Department has no ''specifics'' re American journalist being denied at Istanbul Aiport

QUESTION:  Turkey?

MR KIRBY:  Go ahead, Turkey.

QUESTION:  Thank you.  There’s a American journalist today denied entry at Istanbul airport.  This is the fourth foreign journalist within the last week.

MR KIRBY:  Yeah.

QUESTION:  In addition to another Dutch-Turkish journalist who visited Turkey, but his – her passport confiscated in Turkey, so she cannot leave from the country.  These are very new trends.  I wonder if you have any comment specific to American journalist.

MR KIRBY:  Well, again, without getting into each and every case, we’ve seen the press reporting on this, and you know where we are on media freedoms and the treatment of journalists, not just in Turkey but around the world.  Nothing’s changed about that from our perspective.  We continue to raise the issue of media freedom in Turkey and we’ll continue to do that.  But I don’t have specifics with respect to each and every case that you’re citing.  Obviously, you’re seeing these reports; we’re concerned by them, as we would be anywhere.  And again, what we want to see is for Turkey to live up to its own constitutional principles, enshrined right in its constitution, to include freedom of expression through the media.