BERLIN (Reuters) - The German government said on Wednesday that press freedom is non-negotiable after German international broadcaster Deutsche Welle complained that Turkey had confiscated the recording of an interview with a minister at his office in Ankara.
A foreign ministry spokesman said the German ambassador to Turkey had held "good and constructive" talks with a senior official in the Youth and Sports Minister's office and they agreed the incident should not increase tensions.
"(The ambassador) made clear that for us, for him, for the German government and German media, press freedom is very important," the foreign ministry spokesman said.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel's spokesman Steffen Seibert added that press freedom was non-negotiable for Germany.