Article 9 of Law No. 5651, which was annulled by the Constitutional Court (AYM) and led to content censorship on the grounds of “violation of personal rights”, is being brought back with the AKP’s new judicial package. The new regulation also includes the sanction of “band narrowing”.
The article, which was canceled after Diken and the Freedom of Expression Association (İFÖD) appealed, had been used to block access to and delete thousands of news and content. According to İFÖD’s EngelliWeb data, more than 35,000 news articles have been blocked and approximately 30,000 content has been removed since 2014.
The new regulation does not take into account the criticisms of the Constitutional Court. Prof. Dr. Yaman Akdeniz from Bilgi University described the regulation as “an even more problematic version of the article the Constitutional Court annulled” and commented, “Censorship is great, the rest is an excuse.”
The proposed text still authorizes criminal judgeships of peace; objection processes are open to delays and decisions are made in a closed circuit. It also expands jurisdiction with vague phrases such as “prima facie violation”. According to the AKP proposal, if the content is not removed, band throttling will be applied.
If the regulation is adopted, it is expected to further set back freedom of expression by ignoring the Constitutional Court’s grounds for annulment. The new proposal is expected to be discussed in Parliament.
20.05.2025
Diken