CyberLaw Blog

Archive for the ‘Turkey’ Category

Since the Turkish Law No. 5651 on the Regulation of Publications on the Internet and Suppression of Crimes Committed by means of Such Publications came into force in November 2007, several websites were blocked by court orders and administrative blocking orders issued by the Telecommunications Communication Presidency (TIB). In terms of statistics, it was revealed by TIB that as of 01 November, 2008, 1187 websites are blocked in Turkey (compared to 1115 on 01 October, 2008) under the provisions of Law No. 5651. 264 (22%) of these websites are blocked by court orders, while majority, 923 (78%) are blocked via administrative blocking orders issued by TIB. [Blog entry by Dr. Yaman Akdeniz]

Turkish Blocking Orders as of 01 November 2008

Article 8(1)(a)(1): encouragement and incitement of suicide (article 84 of the Turkish Penal Code); article 8(1)(a)(2): sexual exploitation and abuse of children (article 103(1) of the Turkish Penal Code); article 8(1)(a)(3): facilitation of the use of drugs (article 190 of the Turkish Penal Code); article 8(1)(a)(4): provision of dangerous substances for health (article 194 of the Turkish Penal Code); article 8(1)(a)(5): obscenity (article 226 of the Turkish Penal Code); article 8(1)(a)(6): prostitution (article 227 of the Turkish Penal Code); article 8(1)(a)(7): gambling (article 228 of the Turkish Penal Code); article 8(1)(b): crimes committed against Atatürk (Law No. 5816, dated 25/7/1951); and football and other sports betting (Law No. 5728, article 256).

A detailed assessment of the Turkish approaches to Internet content regulation will be provided in a 100 page long report entitled Restricted Access: A Critical Assessment of Internet Content Regulation and Censorship in Turkey written by Dr. Yaman Akdeniz and Dr. Kerem Altiparmak. This bi-lingual (English/Turkish) report will be published during November 2008 and will be made available as a PDF file through cyberlaw.org.uk and cyber-rights.org.tr pages.

Cohen’s article refers to the censorship attempt involving the Turkish creationist Adnan Oktar and the Akdeniz & Altiparmak article published in Bianet.

Nick Cohen: Beware - creationism’s march will go on, The Observer, November 2, 2008

The idea of intelligent fundamentalists, like the theory of intelligent design, does not stand up to 30 seconds’ scrutiny. I must, nevertheless, give credit to American evangelicals for showing belated glimmerings of sense. After decades of blindly endorsing evangelical politicians from the born-again Carter to the born-again Bush, they at last appear ready to look for more than religious dogma in a candidate.

Richard Cizik, the Washington representative of the National Association of Evangelicals, has all but backed Obama. ‘I’m a conservative, but it doesn’t mean I’m going to vote that way,’ he announced. ‘I could disagree with Obama, and do, on same-sex marriage and abortion, but that doesn’t mean I’ll vote against him.’

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Index on Censorship: ‘There are more people working on censoring the Internet than developing it’

Yigal Schleifer is a correspondent for the Christian Science Monitor

The successes of Harun Yahya show just how easy it is to shut down web discussion in Turkey, writes Yigal Schleifer

Turkish Internet users woke up on 24 October to find that access to Blogger, the popular blog-hosting site owned by Google, had been blocked by a court order, because of illegal material (streams of football games) found on a handful of blogs.

The ban on Blogger — provisionally lifted after five days — came without warning, but few were surprised by it. In the last two years, Turkey has become increasingly involved in controlling what its citizens can access online. So far in the last year, access to more than 850 websites has been blocked by the Turkish state, either through court order or government action. YouTube, the popular video sharing site, has been banned since last May, after amateurish clips mocking Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, modern Turkey’s founder, were posted on it. WordPress, another major blog-hosting site, was blocked for more than a year and the website of Oxford evolutionist Richard Dawkins is currently off limits to Turkish Internet users.
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Reporters Without Borders

31.10 - Turkey: censorship threat to news website Bianet

(GIF) Lawyers acting for creationist religious leader Adnan Oktar asked the Turkish news website Bianet (www.bianet.org) on 28 October to remove an article about online censorship that was written by two specialists in Internet law, Yaman Akdeniz and Kerem Altiparmak.

‘Oktar now holds the record for suing websites that mention his name,’ Reporters Without Borders. ‘He has already brought 62 lawsuits. We support Bianet’s efforts to resist this absurd censorship.’

Posted on 20 October and entitled ‘Adnan Hodja against the Internet: all the bans contrary to the law,’ the article criticised the legal procedures used against websites and the arbitrary way some of them, especially those sued by Oktar, have been closed. ‘Adnan Hodja’ is one of the names used by Oktar. Akdeniz teaches Internet law at Leeds University, in Britain. Altiparmak teaches law at Ankara University’s political science faculty.

Turkey tightens controls on Internet speech | csmonitor.com: “Turkey tightens controls on Internet speech
The country’s courts and governments have banned 850 websites this year, including YouTube and Blogger.
By Yigal Schleifer | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor

from the October 30, 2008 edition”

Istanbul, Turkey - For pioneering Turkish blogger Erkan Saka, these are dark days. Last week, he found himself cut off from a group of blogs that he belongs to and from hundreds of other websites he regularly reads.

A Turkish court had just banned Blogger, the popular blog-hosting site owned by Google, because of illegal material found on a few sites on its servers. It was just the latest among hundreds of sites banned by Turkey’s courts and government this year, raising concerns about censorship in a country with an already troubling record on freedom of speech.

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[Blog entry by Yaman Akdeniz] Interesting story developing in Turkey right now. If you would recall Adnan Oktar (Adnan Hodja) is the Turkish creationist who is behind almost 61 blocking orders issued by the courts in Turkey to popular websites including wordpress.com, richarddawkins.net, egitimsen.org.tr, groups.google and gazetevatan.com.

As you will read below, this time he threatened to take legal action against Bianet, an independent progressive media site which published an article (in Turkish) that was drafted by myself and Kerem Altiparmak. We basically argued in the article that with regards to private law matters such as claims for defamation, and privacy invasions, the notice & takedown, and right to reply provisions of article 9 of Law No. 5651 should be followed. We explained in the article that unlike article 8 of Law No. 5651 (which is used for blocking access to websites in Turkey), article 9 does not contain “blocking” measures. The Turkish Parliament decided to provide the “blocking measures” with regards to the catalogue crimes listed in article 8 only. Therefore, since the Law No. 5651 came into force, and based on the lex specialis derogat generali doctrine, it is unlawful for the courts, or public prosecutors which are empowered to decide on claims with regards to private law matters to issue “blocking orders” or precautionary injunctions. Currently, the specific governing law is Law No. 5651 and article 9 provisions are not overridden by laws which govern general matters within the Turkish law.

Furthermore, article 8 and article 9 provisions are clearly distinct from each other. While article 8 regulates serious content crimes committed on websites located both in and outside the Turkish jurisdiction, and provides blocking measures, article 9 regulates private law disputes between individuals and involves notice & takedown and right to reply provisions. The exclusion of blocking measures from article 9 shows that the main concern of the legislators was the tackling of the serious crimes listed in article 8 and blocking is not provided as a preventative measure for the less serious private law disputes.

Going back to the legal threat, obviously we have not “defamed” anyone including Oktar in the article. His lawyers are not happy about the views put forward including the criticism of the courts who have been issuing the blocking orders. They therefore thought it is best to get rid of our “views” completely. However, Bianet, which should be applauded for taking the risk of being blocked and taken to the court in Turkey stands by the decision to publish the article at http://www.bianet.org/bianet/kategori/bianet/110319/internete-karsi-adnan-hoca-tum-kapatmalar-hukuka-aykiri

The threats are not substantiated and will not lead into the article being removed from Bianet’s website nor from privacy.cyber-rights.org.tr. Currently thanks to the anti-censorship movement SansureSansur’s the article is being spread on a considerable number of Turkish blogs like a virus!

A detailed assessment of the Turkish approaches to Internet content regulation will be provided in an 80 page long report entitled Restricted Access: A Critical Assessment of Internet Content Regulation and Censorship in Turkey written by Dr. Yaman Akdeniz and Dr. Kerem Altiparmak. This bi-lingual (English/Turkish) report will be published during November 2008 and will be made available as a PDF file through cyberlaw.org.uk and cyber-rights.org.tr pages.

Groups say Web site bans hurt Turkey’s image

Several Turkish nongovernmental organizations advocating freedom of speech and expression have stressed in a written statement that frequent Web site bans damage Turkey’s image abroad.

A large number of NGOs, including the Internet Technologies Association (İTD), Turkish Informatics Association (TBD) and Whole Internet Association (TİD), released the joint statement yesterday, emphasizing that Turkey is damaging its prestige and image in the eyes of other countries by frequently blocking access to various Web sites.
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[Blog entry by Dr. Yaman Akdeniz]

It is now been reported by a media news source that the Diyarbakir First Criminal Court of Peace has removed the blocking order it issued on 20.10.2008 (order no. 2008/2761) and executed on Friday, 24 October, 2008 with regards to Blogger.com and Blogspot. The DNS servers should be updated by end of today so currently users may still be unable to access the popular blogging sites.

It is, however, unclear why the order has been lifted and it seems like the ban is lifted until Digitürk provides to the court further evidence with regards to its claims for football streaming piracy. Therefore, I would not be surprised to see the blocking order and the ban reinstated.

A detailed assessment of the Turkish approaches to Internet content regulation will be provided in an 80 page long report entitled Restricted Access: A Critical Assessment of Internet Content Regulation and Censorship in Turkey written by Dr. Yaman Akdeniz and Dr. Kerem Altiparmak. This bi-lingual (English/Turkish) report will be published during November 2008 and will be made available as a PDF file through cyberlaw.org.uk and cyber-rights.org.tr pages.

Bianet :: Turkish Bloggers Are Furious

After Youtube.com, Wordpress and Googe Groups, now a well-known blog service blogger.com has been banned in Turkey. There has been no change in internet censorship.

Bia news center - Diyarbakır, 27-10-2008
Erol ÖNDEROĞLU - hukuk@bianet.org

The 1st Criminal Court of First Instance of Diyarbakır has banned access to the well-known blog service blogger.com.

The decision came after the Digiturk TV Platform Company filed a compliant about some internet sites broadcasting scenes from soccer games over which the Digituk had the sole right.
Blogger.com was banned upon complaint by Digiturk

Thousands of internet users are being met by the statement ‘Access to this web site has been suspended in accordance with decision no: 2008/2761 of T.R. Diyarbakır 1st Criminal Court of Peace’.

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Error: Court halts Internet freedom in Turkey: “Error: Court halts Internet freedom in Turkey
The latest in a series of bans on popular Web sites has spurred many to question the future of Internet freedom in Turkey. Turkish Internet users trying to access the popular blog-hosting service blogspot.com get an error message saying that access to the site has been blocked by a court decision, without stating the court ruling or explaining why the service has been banned.”

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