French President Emmanuel Macron has called his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, to demand the release of a French reporter jailed in Turkey for nearly a month.
Mr. Macron requested the Turkish president on Sunday to secure the release and return of journalist Loup Bureau. The reporter is facing terrorism charges and arrested earlier this month on the Turkish-Iraqi border.
Mr. Bureau, 27, a freelance journalist and a journalism student, is the third French journalist to be detained in Turkey in the past year. Turkey is notorious for arresting and deporting foreign journalists. Nearly 30 journalists have been deported from Turkey in the past three years, while a number of foreign journalists, particularly German, remain in prison.
The French presidency said in statement that the leaders agreed to keep in touch and continue dialogue on a ministerial level to “arrive at a positive outcome.”
Macron and Erdogan also discussed the situation in Syria, Iraq, the Gulf region and the fight against terrorism. France will reportedly work to create a contact group to discuss the developments in Syria on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly next month.