Mark Lowen, a BBC News correspondent and presenter, was deported from Turkey on Wednesday after being deemed “a threat to public order” by the Turkish government.

Lowen was in Istanbul covering one of the country’s largest anti-government protests, which followed the arrest of the city’s mayor, Ekrem İmamoğlu, last week.

Turkish authorities arrested Lowen at his hotel and detained him for 17 hours prior to his deportation.

“To be detained and deported from the country where I previously lived for five years and for which I have such affection has been extremely distressing,” Lowen said in a statement. “Press freedom and impartial reporting are fundamental to any democracy.”

“This is an extremely troubling incident, and we will be making representations to the Turkish authorities,” BBC News CEO Deborah Turness noted in her own statement. “Mark is a very experienced correspondent with a deep knowledge of Turkey, and no journalist should face this kind of treatment simply for doing their job.”

Lowen understands the Turkish political system well, having been based there from 2014 to 2019. During that time, he covered numerous stories about the country, including the ascension of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan from prime minister to president.