Media and Law Studies Association (MLSA) and Free Web Turkey have submitted a Rule of 9.2 to the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe against internet censorship in Turkey.
MLSA and Free Web Turkey filed a 9.2. communication on the Ahmet Yıldırım group of cases to be discussed by the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, the body of Council responsible for the implementation of judgments of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR).
The communication emphasized that Turkey is using wholesale access blocking of domain names to silence opposition websites and Kurdish media.
The communication referred to access blocking decisions directly applied to domain names in 2022 and 2023, and used data from Free Web Turkey. In 2022, more than 35,000 domain names were blocked, while in the current year, more than 50,000 domain names were blocked as of October.
In addition to the 2023 access bans imposed on Deutsche Welle Turkish, Voice of America Turkish and Ekşi Sözlük, access bans imposed on opposition publications such as Etkin News Agency, Komün Dergi, etc. were also mentioned. It was emphasized that the access blocking decisions violated freedom of information and freedom of expression.
In the Ahmet Yıldırım Group cases, instead of blocking URLs or content, domain names are blocked in a wholesale manner, violating freedom of expression and freedom of information. MLSA requested that the Committee of Ministers continue to monitor the case.
