Youtube Ban Going Before the ECHR
Internet Technologies Association (INETD) prepares to take the ban on Youtube to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR). With the latest court ruling on May 5th, users from Turkey can't access to the video-sharing site for over a year. Lawyer Nihad Karslı told bianet that legislative action within the country to lift the ban remains ineffective.
Courts ban Youtube on grounds that it includes content insulting Atatürk, the founder of modern Turkey. A law on combating crime on Internet allows public prosecutors to close access to web sites. Karslı says, "This is like giving the police to try and condemn suspects" and claims its against the constitution, which states that freedoms could be curbed only by law and court orders.
A complaint at the Constitutional Court, scrutinizing the infamous Law 5651 is still pending. Karslı criticizes the government as attempting to gain full control over the Internet, disregarding jurisdiction techniques.
He reminds that the European Parliament had rejected a proposal to introduce bans on peer-to-peer sites for combating music and video piracy, on grounds that such would cause harm against freedoms.
"It's not right to make a exact analogy but clearly there're two fundamentally different ways of thinking in action here. We know that ours is a right cause. In fact, everybody knows that but we have to go to the ECHR for a solution that our courts fail to provide."(EÖ/AGÜ)
