Access to the blog-publishing service blogspot.com (Blogger) was banned "referring to decision no. 2011/156 d given by the Diyarbakır 5^th Criminal Court of First Instance dated 14.01.2011". Online protest actions against the decision were initiated by virtual communities thereupon.

The access ban was implemented on 28 February. Hence, access to the entire number of blogs published by the Google sub-domain has been blocked.

The proscriptive decision came after a complaint of the Turkish Satellite Television provider Digitürk regarding "unlicensed" sharing of football broadcasts on some websites.

Digiturk targeted Google

In a corresponding statement, Digitürk announced to have bought the publication rights for Super Toto Super League football matches and that broadcasts of Digitürk and its sports channel League TV had been published on certain websites. "The implementation of the court decision caused access problems for a few bolgs", Digitürk declared.

Digitürk held Google and blogspot responsible for the ban, saying that they had "insisted on not removing illegal contents".

Superonline did (not) announce the ban

The internet service provider Superonline, belonging to the same company group as Digitürk, announced the restriction on their Facebook and Twitter accounts before the Turkish Telecom (TTNET) and the other service providers had implemented the ban.

Superonline removed the messages from publication after a certain time. In an announcement released later on, it was said:

"The access ban of Blogspot.com is a legal requirement that includes all existing internet service providers".

On Wednesday morning (2 March), the company also removed this announcement from publication again.

Thousands of protest messages

After the access ban to blogspot.com, thousands of internet users started to send protest messages on social networks like Twitter under the subject of "#blogumadokunma" - 'don't touch my blog'. Thousands of people registered on the "Don't touch my blog" site on facebook.

The protest messages condemn the internet ban and include calls to boycott Digitürk, information on methods to change DNS settings and criticism on the internet law as the base of the ban.

The bloggers posted an announcement on the BlogumDokunma.tumblr.com website in which they called on all internet users to join their movement against censorship. They also urged all members of the press to support freedom of expression.

On the occasion of the first ban of the site in 2008, Reporters without Borders had said in a written statement, "Law No. 56 51 has to be amended as soon as possible. It must be possible to ban only the contents on subject of the discussion instead of banning a whole site". (EÇ/VK)