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Deutsch: Türkei setzt beliebte Blogger-Plattform auf die Sperrliste

Although they lifted the ban against Google's YouTube at the end of 2010 and despite the strong criticism and pending cases at the European Court of Human Rights, Turkish authorities continue to block access to websites.

Recently, following the complaint of the satellite television provider Digiturk which owns the broadcast rights to Turkish Super League games, a court in the south-eastern province of Diyarbakir banned Goggle's blogging platform Blogger.

"This is a disproportionate response by the court and undoubtedly has a huge impact on all law-abiding citizens," said Yaman Akdeniz, cyber-rights activist and a law professor at Istanbul Bilgi University, who believes that the Turkish court's decision will affect millions of Turkish bloggers and blog readers. "(I understand) there is a legitimate concern (regarding Digiturk's commercial rights) but banning all these websites will not solve the issue. The decision opens the way to collateral damage," added Akdeniz.

Blogger was entirely banned on the basis of Turkish copyright law, which allows for the entire service to be banned and not only the content considered to have infringed copyright. It is believed that about 600 000 Turkish bloggers are using the Google service to publish their personal journals, out of which the large majority do nothing to infringe the law and therefore do not to be banned.

Akdeniz also made the differentiation between regular websites and platforms for user-generated content such as Blogger, Facebook, Twitter or YouTube, considering the courts should make this difference and not ban entire platforms. Technical solutions can be found to solve issues related to intellectual and property rights.

The court's decision brought forth a vivid reaction from bloggers and their readers. About 9 000 Facebook users joined a group called "Do not touch my blog" and similar campaigns have also been created on other websites, such as Twitter.

It also seems that the Turkish authorities want to continue their fight with Google as Blogger was not the only site where "matches (whose broadcasting rights) belong to Digiturk and Lig TV are broadcasted by certain websites, disregarding all relevant laws," according to Digiturk's own statement. Yet, Blogger.com was the only one banned by the court.

"The process for making a copyright claim for content uploaded to Blogger is straightforward and efficient, and we encourage all content owners to use it rather than seek a broad ban on access to the service," said a Google spokesperson.

While Turkey is facing two more applications about blocked access to Google websites and Last.fm which are pending at the Strasbourg ECtHR, the Turkish courts continue to issue blocking orders.

Several Turkish and well-known international websites have no access in Turkey including playboy.com, vimeo.com, ffffound.com, Sanalika.com, a Turkish virtual world and playground, Azadiyawelat.com, the website of a Kurdish newspaper, Fizy.com, a popular music and video sharing Turkish website which won an award for best music search engine at the 2010 Mashable Awards or 5Posta.org, a popular blog which contains articles about sexuality, sexual politics and internet censorship.

With the number of blocked websites continuing to grow, legal challenges to blocking orders have started to occur. Timur Manisali, the owner of bugunkilicdaroglu.com website, who wrote on Kemal Kiliçdaroglu, the leader of the main Turkish opposition party, found his website banned, following the request for injunction made by Kiliçdaroglu's lawyers.

The blocking order, issued by the Ankara 3rd Criminal Court of Peace, was not communicated directly to Timur Manisali, who was not given the possibility to defend himself. However, Cyber-Rights.Org.tr, a non-profit organisation offering pro-bono legal assistance to victims of internet censorship in Turkey, started Manisali's defence and filed an appeal on December 2010.

The defence argued, among other things, that according to a new law from 2007, the courts are no longer empowered to rule for blocking websites in relation to private law matters, including for claims of defamation and other personal rights. Thus, on 6 January 2011, the Ankara 11th Criminal Court of First Instance overturned the initial decision by lifting the injunction over bugunkilicdaroglu.com.

Fighting political internet censorship in Turkey: one site won back, 10,000 to go (4.03.2011)
http://cyberlaw.org.uk/2011/03/05/index-on-censorship-fighting-politic...

Blogspot banned in football row (4.03.2011)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-12639279

EDRi-gram: Is YouTube back online in Turkey? (3.11.2010)
http://www.edri.org/edrigram/number8.21/youtube-blocking-turkey