ECtHR requests Turkey’s defense in sendika.org case

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Examining the application of sendika.org website, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has asked Turkey to make defense. The country has been given time to present its defense till January 8, 2021.

CLICK - 'Local courts ignore Constitutional Court decisions against blocking access to news sites'

In the face of a series of access blocks imposed on the news website since 2015 and the failure of the Constitutional Court to examine the file for almost five years, the attorneys of sendika.org applied to the ECtHR on February 10, 2020 and argued the that Article 10 (Freedom of expression), 13 (Right to an effective remedy) and 18 (Limitation on use of restrictions on rights) of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) were violated.

Doğukan Tonguç Cankurt, one of the attorneys of sendika.org, has indicated that it is the first time a question has been directed to Turkey over a possible breach of the Article 18 of the ECHR by access blocks.

The Constitutional Court examined the application of sendika.org after its attorneys appealed to the ECtHR and gave a ruling of right violation on March 11, 2020. While the top court sent the file back to the local court, the Gölbaşı Penal Judgeship of Peace, for elimination of the consequences of the right violation in question in a retrial, the local court defied this decision.

Following its decision dated March 2020, the Constitutional Court gave another decision about the access blocks on sendika.org by combining seven individual applications and ruled on September 15 that the freedom of expression and press of sendika.org had been violated.

The first access block was imposed on the website by the the Telecommunications Communication Presidency (TİB) on July 25, 2015. Since then, access to "sendika.org" has been blocked for 63 times in total. Keeping on making news by getting different domain names, the news portal currently uses the "sendika64.org" address. (HA/SD)