The death of 72-year-old political prisoner İbrahim Güngör, who is denied release despite suffering from serious illnesses, once again draws attention to other sick inmates in Turkish prisons.
On September 6, the International Journalists Association (IJA) marks what should be the Day of the Free Press by issuing a statement that highlights not only the dire state of press freedom but also the ongoing human rights violations in prisons. The statement stresses that elderly and ill prisoners, including journalists such as Alaeddin Kaya, Hidayet Karaca, Ali Ünal, İlhan İşbilen, and Ufuk Şanlı, remain incarcerated.
The IJA makes an open call to journalists: “Break the silence, document, report, and expose. The suffering of elderly and sick prisoners in Turkey must neither be hidden nor forgotten.”
Statement by the IJA
On September 6, Turkey marks the Day of the Free Press. Yet only one day later, on September 7, the devastating news arrives that İbrahim Güngör, a 72-year-old political prisoner suffering from Alzheimer’s, hydrocephalus, and other severe illnesses, dies behind bars. He no longer recognizes his own daughter during visits, yet the authorities declare him “fit for prison.” His death is not a natural occurrence but the result of deliberate neglect and systematic cruelty.
The issue does not end there: elderly and sick prisoners, including journalists such as Alaeddin Kaya, Ali Ünal, and İlhan İşbilen, continue to be held under similar conditions. Their health deteriorates by the day. Alongside them, many other journalists — Mehmet Baransu, Fatih Altaylı, Hidayet Karaca, Ufuk Şanlı, and others — remain unjustly imprisoned solely because of their work and their words. Turkey’s prisons become places where age, illness, and conscience are punished through deliberate neglect. To target journalists in this way means attacking not only individuals but also the principle of truth and collective memory.
The International Journalists Association stresses: Silence is complicity. The fate of İbrahim Güngör shakes all of us — journalists, institutions, and the international community — and obliges us to raise our voices. Our call to every journalist is this: Break the silence, document, report, and expose. The suffering of elderly and sick prisoners in Turkey must neither be hidden nor forgotten. Only by speaking out do we preserve their dignity and defend the very core of press freedom.
