Joakim Medin

Kaj Joakim Medin (born 1984) is a Swedish journalist and writer.

Early life He was born in 1984 in Mölndal. He has a sister and a brother. He worked as a history and social studies teacher for two years at in Enköping.

Career His first job in journalism was covering the 2009 Honduran coup d'état for a Guatemalan newspaper. He studied journalism at Uppsala University. after having defeated ISIS attempting to establish a caliphate in the region. In 2014, the couple and their children travelled to the ISIS caliphate in Syria where both were subsequently killed in 2019.

Imprisonment in Syria Working as a freelance journalist he has reported on the treatment of Kurds in Syria. While working there he and his interpreter were jailed for a week.

In February 2022, Medin was in Kyiv and reported on the first week of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Later that same year he was awarded the Uppsala Medal of Honor.

Imprisonment in Turkey On 27 March 2025, Medin was arrested when arriving in Turkey where he was supposed to report on the ongoing protests for the newspaper ETC. A day later, Medin's editor-in-chief at ETC confirmed his arrest, and that he was being charged with "insulting the president" and "membership of a terrorist organisation". This was also confirmed by prosecutors in Ankara.

His arrest stems from his alleged involvement in a protest against Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in Stockholm in 2023 were an effigy of Erdogan was hanged outside Stockholm Town Hall. On 23 April, he was officially charged with insulting the President, and terrorism. The trial in Ankara was attended by Swedish parliamentarians Jonas Sjöstedt of the Left Party and Ulrika Westerlund from the Green Party. He was convicted on the insult charges and sentenced to a suspended 11-month prison term. He remained detained at Marmara Prison pending a verdict on his terrorism case. He was released on 16 May 2025 and returned to Sweden the same day.

Personal life His wife, Sofie Axelsson, is also a journalist. They have a daughter.