The decree on the violation of freedom of expression issued by the Constitutional Court’s (AYM) General Assembly was published in the Official Gazette. However, the ban that is ongoing for the last 2.5 years is still not removed. Law expert Yaman Akdeniz stated that the AYM decree is in fact of the quality of a legal notice and that the decree was physically submitted to Ankara 1st Criminal Judicature of Peace as well. “The judicature has placed the decree in the file. We are also curious what they will do,” Akdeniz stated.
In the reasoned decree of AYM, the objection against the access ban was indicated to have been denied due to reasons within “the protection of national security and public order” but are ambiguous like “damaging the government’s reputation.” It was further pointed out that the ban is not only an intervention against the right to spread information and opinion, but also restricts the right to information of users in Turkey. Six member judges, voting against the decree unanimously decided, claimed that the content on the website constitutes a threat in terms of “national security” and that the Wikipedia administration is the true responsible for not removing the content.
15.01.2020
birgun.net / twitter.com/cyberrights