{"id":49459,"date":"2026-03-26T20:20:18","date_gmt":"2026-03-26T20:20:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/49459\/"},"modified":"2026-03-26T20:20:18","modified_gmt":"2026-03-26T20:20:18","slug":"press-groups-rally-in-ankara-call-for-release-of-jailed-journalists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/49459\/","title":{"rendered":"Press groups rally in Ankara, call for release of jailed journalists"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Journalists, union representatives and opposition politicians gathered in Ankara on Thursday to protest the arrest of journalists Alican Uluda\u011f and \u0130smail Ar\u0131, calling for their immediate release and an end to pressure on the media, Turkish Minute reported, citing the BirG\u00fcn news website.<\/p>\n

The demonstration took place outside the BirG\u00fcn\u2019s Ankara bureau, where participants chanted slogans and held placards demanding freedom for the two journalists.<\/p>\n

Uluda\u011f, a reporter for Deutsche Welle\u2019s Turkish service, was\u00a0arrested<\/a>\u00a0on February 20, while Ar\u0131, a journalist for the left-wing BirG\u00fcn newspaper, was detained on March 21 and later\u00a0jailed<\/a>\u00a0pending trial.<\/p>\n

Several press organizations took part in the protest, including the Contemporary Journalists Association (\u00c7GD), the Turkish Journalists Union (TGS) and the D\u0130SK Press Union (D\u0130SK Bas\u0131n-\u0130\u015f), along with opposition lawmakers and civil society representatives.<\/p>\n

In a joint statement read aloud by TGS Ankara branch head Sinan Tartano\u011flu, the groups said the arrests were part of a broader pattern targeting journalists and undermining press freedom.<\/p>\n

\u201cJournalists are not enemies. This hostile legal approach must be abandoned,\u201d the statement said.<\/p>\n

\"\"\"\"Journalists Alican Uluda\u011f (L) and \u0130smail Ar\u0131.<\/p>\n

The groups also questioned the legal basis for the charges against Ar\u0131, who was arrested under Article 217\/A of the Turkish Penal Code, commonly known as the \u201cdisinformation law.\u201d<\/p>\n

They said Ar\u0131 had previously complied with legal procedures in multiple investigations and criticized the use of pretrial detention in such cases.<\/p>\n

Speaking at the protest, BirG\u00fcn Ankara bureau chief Nurcan Bilge G\u00f6kdemir warned that the arrests reflect a broader crackdown on journalism.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u0130smail Ar\u0131 is not the first journalist to be arrested under this system. If solidarity does not grow, he will not be the last,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Participants included lawmakers from the main opposition Republican People\u2019s Party (CHP) as well as representatives of labor unions and press groups.<\/p>\n

The protest followed criticism from bar associations and press freedom organizations, which\u00a0described<\/a>\u00a0the arrests as a serious threat to freedom of expression.<\/p>\n

Ar\u0131 was detained in Tokat on March 21 while visiting family for the Eid holiday and later transferred to Ankara, where he was put in pretrial detention on charges including disseminating misleading information.<\/p>\n

Uluda\u011f was arrested in February on charges of insulting President Recep Tayyip Erdo\u011fan in social media posts and remains in pretrial detention, with no indictment filed.<\/p>\n

Turkey\u2019s media environment has grown increasingly restrictive in recent years, particularly for journalists covering issues that are politically sensitive or critical of the government.<\/p>\n

According to Expression Interrupted, a press freedom monitoring group, 26 journalists\u00a0are<\/a>\u00a0currently behind bars in Turkey.<\/p>\n

The country\u2019s deteriorating media landscape was further pointed out in the 2025 World Press Freedom Index published by Reporters Without Borders (RSF), where it was\u00a0ranked<\/a>\u00a0159th out of 180 nations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Journalists, union representatives and opposition politicians gathered in Ankara on Thursday to protest the arrest of journalists Alican…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":49460,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[83],"tags":[16138,145,27631,26364,27632,12589,11960,27633,2033,27634,131,132,155,27635],"class_list":{"0":"post-49459","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-stockholm","8":"tag-alican-uludag","9":"tag-arrested-journalists","10":"tag-contemporary-journalists-association-cgd","11":"tag-disinformation-law","12":"tag-disk-basin-is","13":"tag-insulting-the-president","14":"tag-ismail-ari","15":"tag-nurcan-bilge-gokdemir","16":"tag-press-freedom","17":"tag-sinan-tartanoglu","18":"tag-stockholm","19":"tag-sweden","20":"tag-turkey","21":"tag-turkish-journalists-union-tgs"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@dk\/116297336558652791","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49459","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49459"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49459\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49460"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49459"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49459"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49459"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}