was with the British team as a fixer, was detained, questioned and faced further legal repercussions. They were reporting on the Turkish government's conflict with the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). One week later, Dutch journalist Fréderike Geerdink, who was known for being the only foreign reporter based in Diyarbakır and focusing on Kurdish issues, was deported by Turkish authorities following her second arrest in 2015. Geerdink, a freelance reporter whose contributions appeared regularly in Dikan, had written a book about the Turkish strike that resulted in the Roboski massacre of Kurds, which was published in 2014 but released in English in 2015. Rauf Mirkadirov, Azerbaijani correspondent from Ankara for Ayna and Zerkalo, was extradited to Azerbaijan without access to a lawyer. He was then charged with espionage by the Azerbaijani authorities. Mirkadirov had written accounts that were critical of both governments. Hostile public rhetoric and smear campaigns Particularly since 2013, the President Erdoğan and other governmental officials have resorted to hostile public rhetoric against independent journalists and media outlets, which is then echoed in the pro-governmental press and TV, accusing foreign media and interest groups of conspiring to bring down his government. The Economist correspondent, Amberin Zaman, was publicly denounced as a "shameless militant" by Erdoğan at a pre-electoral rally in August 2014. Erdoğan tried to intimidate her by telling her to "know [her] place". She was then subjected to a deluge of abuse and threats on social media by AKP supporters in the following months. In September 2014 The New York Times reporter Ceylan Yeğinsu was publicly smeared and depicted as a traitor for a photograph caption in a reportage on ISIS recruitment in Turkey. The U.S. State Department criticized Turkey for such intimidation attempts. Arbitrary denial of access Turkish authorities have been reported as denying access to events and information to journalists for political reasons. In December 2013, after the press had unveiled an alleged corruption scandal involving top government officials, the police department announced the closure of two press rooms in Istanbul and declared that journalists would not be allowed to enter police facilities unless strictly for formal press conferences. 2014 saw a worsening of discriminatory accreditation policies. AKP meetings were off-limits for critical journalists. In case of visits abroad, foreign officials had to hold separate press conferences to allow unaccredited media correspondents. Government control over the media Since 2011, the AKP government has increased restrictions on