In an interview with the German News Agency (DPA), Tsavousoglou claimed that no journalist was in Turkish prisons for reasons related to journalism, while accusing countries of sending spies to Turkey by portraying them as journalists.
"There is not a single journalist detained or imprisoned in Turkey for reasons related to journalism," Tsavousoglu said, calling Turkey's 157th place among 178 countries without Reporters Without Borders "unfair." for freedom of the press.
The Turkish foreign minister also claimed that some of the imprisoned journalists had "robbed a bank and some had transferred weapons to the PKK terrorist organization" (Kurdistan Workers' Party).
"Some countries also use so-called journalists as their agents in Turkey. When they are arrested, it is easy to put pressure, 'Oh, Turkey arrests journalists!' "But in reality they are working for the secret service," Tsavousoglou said.
When asked by a DPA reporter to give him an example of a foreign journalist working as an agent in Turkey, Tsavousoglu simply said: "You don't know, but I know."