Journalists gathered in Ankara for İsmail Arı and Alican Uludağ: Free the detained journalists!

Journalists gathered in Ankara for İsmail Arı and Alican Uludağ: Free the detained journalists!

İsmail Arı is not the first journalist to be arrested under this regime. If solidarity and resistance do not grow, unfortunately, he will not be the last. We journalists practise our profession within the framework of press freedom guaranteed by the Constitution, with the aim of ensuring the public has access to accurate information. Yet we see that we are deprived of legal safeguards. Almost every day, we find ourselves facing investigations, lawsuits, penalties, detentions and arrests.

‘SILENCE AND CENSORSHIP KILL DEMOCRACY’

Therefore, we have no other safeguard than the solidarity of our readers. We no longer wish merely to hear that we are not alone, but also to see and feel it. The only way for journalism, under heavy pressure, to survive is the public’s resolve to stand up for democracy and press freedom. The release of İsmail Arı, Alican Uludağ, Merdan Yanardağ and all other detained journalists, as well as the expansion of solidarity to ensure no journalist is ever imprisoned again, is an urgent and indispensable necessity that can no longer be postponed. All detained journalists must be released immediately, and the pressure and threats against journalism must cease at once. We declare once again: Journalism is not a crime. Prisons are no place for journalists. Silence and censorship kill democracy.”

Note: This article is translated from the original article titled Gazeteciler, İsmail Arı ve Alican Uludağ için Ankara’da bir araya geldi: Tutuklu gazeteciler serbest bırakılsın!, published in BirGün newspaper on March 26, 2026.