Constitutional Court: Access Block on Sendika.org Violates Freedom of Expression

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The Constitutional Court has pronounced its verdict on the access block imposed on Sendika.org news website by the Telecommunications Communication Presidency (TİB) on July 25, 2015.

Concluding the application of Sendika.org dated October 2015 after four and a half years, the Constitutional Court has concluded that the access block imposed on the entire website has violated freedom of expression.

The Court has also ruled that the penal court of peace which ruled for the access block shall remove its related order.

The TİB was closed by a Statutory Decree issued during the State of Emergency in August 2016 and its authority has been transferred to the Information and Communication Technologies Authority (BTK).

Access blocked for 62 times

The first access block was imposed on the website by the TİB on July 25, 2015. Since then, acess to "sendika.org" has been blocked for 62 times in total. Keeping on making news by getting different domain names, the news portal currently uses the "sendika63.org" address.

Sendika.org has taken a legal action against all access blocks; however, they have been rejected by the local courts. Since October 9, 2015, Sendika.org has submitted 17 applications to the Constitutional Court.

In the face of long silence of the Constitutional Court, Sendika.org appealed to the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) in February. (HA/SD)

* Source: sendika.org