Access block to PİRHA, Yeni Yaşam news websites
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An access block has been imposed on the websites of the Pir News Agency (PİRHA) and Yeni Yaşam newspaper.
After the Hatay 1st Criminal Judgeship of Peace gave a decision of access block on the websites, the Information Technologies and Communications Authority (BTK) has blocked access to the websites "yeniyasamgazetesi2.com" and "pirha.net" from Turkey.
The website of Yeni Yaşam was also blocked on January 28.
PİRHA, the first news agency of the Alevi community in Turkey and online since 2016, has denounced the access block, saying:
Press freedom is an indispensable element of democracy. Free press cannot be silenced. Society is free if the press is free.
PİRHA will appeal against the access block.
Top court gave a ruling of 'rights violation'
The Constitutional Court, in a statement on October 27, 2021, announced that it handed down a pilot ruling regarding access blocks. The top court pronounced its detailed pilot ruling on January 7, 2022.
The Court examined the similar applications of news websites and online editions of newspapers such as BirGün, Artı Gerçek, SoL, Diken and TarımdanHaber as well as columnist Çiğdem Toker and concluded that the access blocks on 129 news stories in total violated rights.
The top court has concluded that freedom of expression and press and right to an effective remedy as per Articles 26, 28 and 40 of the Constitution have been violated by the related access blocks.
Noting that the rights violations are caused by a structural problem, the Constitutional Court has concluded that the 'pilot ruling method' shall be implemented and 'the Grand National Assembly of Turkey shall be notified of the arbitrariness in order to eliminate the structural problem.'
As per this pilot ruling, if the Parliament fails to introduce a new legal regulation within a year, the Constitutional Court will hand down rulings of rights violation for all similar other applications on access blocks.
The highlights from the ruling are as follows: The scope of the access block procedure shall be legally and sufficiently clear; an obligation of immediate social need shall be introduced for access blocks; the limits of interference of public institutions shall be set; assurances that will not lead to arbitrary practices shall be determined; access blocks shall be open to appeals; criminal judgeships of peace shall impose access blocks as a last resort.
Access blocks in Turkey
According to the figures shared by the Freedom of Expression Association (İFÖD), in the last 14 years, access blocks have been imposed on 467,011 websites by 408,808 different decisions given by 764 different institutions (courts and administrative institutions) in Turkey. Only in 2020, 58,809 websites were blocked to access in the country.
The same report shows that in 2020, as per 819 different decisions given by 236 different criminal judgeships of peace, access blocks were imposed on 5,645 news URLs. Since February 2014, 22 thousand 554 news URLs have been blocked to access. As of the end of 2020, the number of access blocks imposed as per the Law no 5651 and other laws were as follows:
- 467,011 websites
- 150,000 URL addresses
- 7,500 Twitter accounts
- 50,000 tweets
- 12,000 YouTube videos
- 8,000 Facebook posts
- 6,800 Instagram posts
(HA/SD)