ANF to Re-open, Verdict Exemplary for Other Banned Websites

The court lifted the access ban dated 2011 on Fırat News Agency (ANF) Internet site firatnews. Ankara University Faculty of Law Assistant Professor Kerem Altıparmak interpreting İstanbul 11^th High Criminal Court’s decision stated that around 200 leftist and Kurdish Internet sites including the ANF are banned, and that the ANF verdict should provide an example for these cases.

Justification: 3rd Judicial Package

Following Netherlands-centered Fırat News Agency Foundation’s representative Lawyer Ramazan Demir’s application on June 23, İstanbul 11^th High Criminal Court lifted the access ban verdict of İstanbul 11^th High Criminal Court, closed following the abolition of Specially Authorized Courts.

The court showed as justification the abolition of Fight against Terror Law (TMK) article 6, 5^th clause with the third judicial package, which says to “cease broadcast of periodical publications lauding terror organizations between 15-30 days.”

Lawyer Demir told bianet they worked together with Asst. Prof. Altıparmak and Bilgi University Assoc. Prof. Yaman Akdeniz on the application and said, “This was an arbitrary ban that lasted years; we are glad the project produced good results.”

"Indefinite bans are against the ECHR"

36 Internet sites had been banned in 2011 together with ANF. Asst. Prof. Altıparmak recalls that access to approximately 200 Kurdish and leftist websites had been blocked like the ANF through TMK’s article 6/5:

“The TMK 6/5 is valid for periodical publications, but you cannot block a website with this. Nonetheless, courts were blocking sites by drawing comparisons and doing so indefinitely too. This goes against the European Court of Human Rights’ (ECHR) Ürper verdict. According to the ECHR, banning a website indefinitely means to block future news, that is to say, censorship. Not to mention that when websites are concerned not only the TMK 6/5, but also Law no. 5651 applies.”

Asst. Prof. Altıparmak says this verdict is important for other banned sites to be opened to access.

Fırat News

Along with ANF's website "www.firatnews.com" established in 2005 and publishing today in Kurdish dialects Kurmanji and Sorani as well as Turkish, English, Arabic and Persian, access to 36 Kurdish websites was also blocked in 2011.

ANF's domain addresses in different extensions had similarly been subject to blocks in this period.

The lifting of the access ban was reported to the telecommunications authority of Turkey (TİB) yesterday, but the site remains inaccessible. (EA/PU)