Wednesday, March 16, 2011
ERISA DAUTAJ ŞENERDEM
ISTANBUL – Hürriyet Daily News

Access to the website, a property of Google Inc., was banned two weeks ago by a local court in Diyarbakır upon a complaint by Digiturk.

Access to the website, a property of Google Inc., was banned two weeks ago by a local court in Diyarbakır upon a complaint by Digiturk.

New evidence showing that Google had taken action against copyright violators led a prosecutor’s office in Southeast Turkey to decide Monday to lift the ban on the company’s popular blogging platform Blogger.

The ban, which entered into force Feb. 28 following a court decision, was issued based on a complaint by satellite television provider Digiturk that matches broadcast on its Lig TV channel had been illegally posted by several Blogger users.

‘We applied [to have the ban removed] to the prosecutor’s office, which required that an expert opinion be prepared regarding our case,’ cyber-rights activist Yaman Akdeniz, a lawyer and professor at Istanbul Bilgi University, told the Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review on Wednesday.

The prosecutor’s office in the Southeast province of Diyarbakır – home of the court that issued the ban – decided to lift the ban after the expert opinion found that the accounts linked to the IP addresses on which Digiturk had filed its complaint had been deactivated by Google, Akdeniz said.

‘The court could have also asked for an expert opinion before making its decision [to issue the ban], but it didn’t,’ Akdeniz said. He added that it was obvious the court worked only ‘[based] on paper,’ not even making the effort to visit the websites it was deciding about.

Despite the prosecutor’s freezing of the Diyarbakır court’s decision, Akdeniz said the risk of being banned again remains for Blogger and other sites.

‘Despite this decision, the risk of banning [Blogger] or any other similar website exists,’ Akdeniz said.

Access to the website, a property of Google Inc., was banned two weeks ago by a local court in Diyarbakır upon a complaint by Digiturk, which owns the broadcast rights to Turkish Super League games. The decision to issue a blanket ban on the site was harshly criticized by thousands of Turkish bloggers, who said it had restricted their fundamental freedom of expression.

An initial appeal of the court’s decision made by Turkish citizens and Blogger users was rejected by the court for procedural reasons. The prosecutor’s office meanwhile accepted a second appeal based on new evidence that access to the blog accounts on that Digiturk had complained about had been blocked by Google.

According to Akdeniz, the law on artistic and intellectual works requires a complainant to warn the owner of a website accused of breaching copyright, and says complainants have the right to file a court case if the site’s owner does not respond within 72 hours.

‘Given that such a [warning] mechanism already exists, at least for the Blogger case, I think people [and companies] should be encouraged to make use of it,’ he said, adding that this would take less time and have less of a cost to all parties.

Google authorities had moved to restore access to Blogger following the court decision, saying in a press release March 3 that the company was concerned about content posted via Blogger that breaches the copyrights of other entities and would take immediate action upon legal notification of such cases.

Thousands of websites are banned in Turkey under the framework of Turkish Law No. 5651, which regulates publications and copyright infringements on the Internet, and Law No. 5846 on artistic and intellectual works. The former has been more common as a basis for court decisions on banning websites.

Today, the Diyarbakir Public Prosecutor’s Office revoked the blocking order issued by the Diyarbakir 5th Criminal Court of First Instance on 14 January 2011 with regards to the popular Blogspot platform used by millions of people around the world. The decision will now be communicated to the Turkish ISPs and access should be back to normal within the next few days.

Cyber-Rights.Org.TR orchestrated several appeals representing a Blogspot user based in Turkey and these appeals were lodged three days before Google managed to lodge an appeal with the Diyarbakir Public Prosecutor’s Office. As the allegedly infringing blogs (goltvnet.blogspot.com, sportrhd.blogspot.com, trgoals2.blogspot.com, freesoccertrhd.blogspot.com, and izleligtvblog.blogspot.com) were removed by Google there was no further need to block access to the Blogspot Platform. A Court dealing with the appeal requested an expert opinion with regards to the claim of removal of the above mentioned blogs and the expert report backed the claims made by our legal team representing İdil Elveriş, the owner of travelmind-idilka.blogspot.com.

Dr. Yaman Akdeniz issued the following statement: “Blogspot decision should not have been issued in the first place. We hope this will be the last time access to a web 2.0 based platform will be blocked from Turkey. However, it would be naive to believe that this will be the end of it. The future remains bleak in terms of Internet restrictions in Turkey.”

(Via OUT-LAW News.)

(Via QuickLinks Update.)

US rattles small sabre over ‘further erosion’ of free speech

The US has said it ‘regrets’ the jailing of Azerbaijani bloggers Adnan Hajizade and Emin Milli, on what human rights organisations consider a trumped-up charge of ‘hooliganism’.…

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(Via The Register – Public Sector.)

(Via OUT-LAW News.)

On September 13, 2009, the Syrian State Security Supreme Court sentenced the young blogger Kareem Arbaji to three-years prison for ‘publishing mendacious information liable to weaken the nation’s morale,’ under article #286 of the Syrian penal code.

The thirty- one years old economics graduate, Kareem Arbaji, has been detained for over two years, since June 7th, 2007, by military intelligence officers.

Human Rights Reports reveal that Arbaji has been tortured during the detention:

Kareem Arbaji was detained before being tried, he received a cruel and disproportionate sentence even if he was convicted. He was tortured during investigations and ill treated for more than two years in prison.

It is likely that Arbaji has been arrested, detained and then sentenced for opinions he expressed on the blocked Syrian forum, Akhawiya, which he used to administrate along with other members. The forum members have created a page to honor and support their friend behind bars. A Facebook group too has been recently created in support of the jailed blogger. Several Syrian bloggers have expressed their anger at the courts order. The Arab bloggers league has also issued a statement denouncing Kareems sentence.

Below is an excerpt of The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI) report regarding the Syrian courts decision to sentence Kareem Arbaji:

ANHRI requests the Syrian government to immediately release Kareem Arbaji and all prisoners of conscience in Syrian dungeons, to abolish arbitrary detention policy and stop the security interference in judiciary affairs.

ANHRI asserts that the charge against Arbaji is a false one , only used as a pretext to inhibit freedom of expression and repress activists.

ANHRI also urges the Syrian government to eliminate the state security court as it is a stain to the Syrian justice.

Several Syrian and other human rights organizations and websites have joined ANHRIs call to release the jailed blogger.

It is worth to note that along with Kareem Arbaji, Syrian authorities sentenced several Syria bloggers in prison. On 11-5-2008 the State Security Court in Damascus stated its verdict on the Syrian blogger Tariq Biasi who was held in detention since 7-7-2007.

Also Tariq al-Ghorani (1985, assistant engineer) – Maher Ibrahim Esber (1980, a shop owner) – Husam Melhem (1985, a law student) – Omar al-Abdullah (1985, philosophy student) – Diab Siriyyeh (1985, student) – Ayham Saqer (1975, works at a beauty salon) – Allam Fakhour (1979, a student at the Faculty of Fine Arts – Sculpture Department) all were arrested, detained and sentenced for expressing their views on blogs and online forums, particularly on syriandomari blog and Akhawiya.

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(Via Global Voices Advocacy.)

(Via Tech and Web from Times Online.)

(Via Tech and Web from Times Online.)

Net sedition porn filter

Malaysia – the Southeast Asian country that has imprisoned at least two bloggers under sedition laws – is mulling a net filter along the lines of China’s Green Dam. But Information Minister Rais Yatim says it would not be used to censor blogs and websites.…

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(Via The Register – Public Sector.)