Access Blocked to bianet’s Article “Acquittal for ‘Thief, Murderer Erdoğan’” on Request of President

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Access was blocked to bianet's article "Acquittal for 'Thief, Murderer Erdoğan'" by an order of İstanbul 9th Criminal Judgeship of Peace issued on March 17, 2017.

Besides the original link of the article, also access to other websites citing the article has been blocked.

Access block order was issued upon complaint by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's attorney Ahmet Özel.

The article by Ayça Söylemez issued on February 29, 2016 with the title "Acquittal for 'Thief, Murderer Erdoğan'" covered the decision in the lawsuit of eight people standing trial for chanting slogans and be acquitted on the grounds that they had been exercising their freedom of expression.

Access blocked to 46 links

İstanbul 9th Criminal Judge of Peace, Mustafa Şakar has ruled that access be denied to 46 links to certain articles and posts.
The reports covering lawsuits and the hearings in trials regarding "defaming the President" to which access has been blocked are besides bianet, the following:

Oda TV, Türk Solu, Haber Sol, Yarın Haber, BirGün, Cumhuriyet, Diken, İleri Haber, Gerçek Gündem, Sözcü, Çağdaş Ses, Evrensel, Halk Haber, Mynet and T24.

Access has also been blocked to links on social media accounts on Twitter and Facebook in which the original reports were shared.

Reason for block: Violation of personal rights

The court ruled that access to above mentioned links be blocked on the grounds that the reports violated the personal rights of the person due to their content shared on the internet. The respective law regulating the matter provides that natural and legal entities can apply to the content provider or the hosting provider in case that the latter cannot be reached and request the removal of the content or can apply directly to the criminal court of justice and demand access block to the link. (AS/DG)