“Atheism Association Censorship is Only the Tip of the Iceberg”

The blocking of 49 websites including that of Turkey’s only Atheism Association and Charlie Hebdo magazine once more revealed the arbitrariness and significance of internet censorship.  

The aforementioned order was issued by Ankara Gölbaşı Peace Court. According to Turk-internet.com, Service Providers Union (ESB) has so far censored 16,600 URLs after receiving 3,094 court orders.

Yaman Akdeniz, a professor of law at Istanbul Bilgi University underlined on the fact that the censorship came after the complaints by Turkey’s Telecommunications Authorities (TİB).

Akdeniz: TİB exceeded its duties

Akdeniz said that TİB has exceeded its duties as the block request came according to Law No 5651 Article 9 on the violation of personal rights - a regulation that TIB is incompetent.  

He also added that a block request on the violation of personal rights could only be submitted through a court or prosecutor and not until necessary according to Law No 5651 Article 9/4. 

Romano: We submitted a motion 

“Our association website is constantly under the scope of Associations Desk of the Governor’s Office,” Atheism Association Press Commission President Onur Romano told bianet. “Prior to submitting any content to the website, our team of 15 experts are closely checking. When the content is submitted, 50 people already have viewed. There is possibility that they can find insults.” 

“On the other hand,” he added, “Nihat Hatipoğlu [professor of theology] attended a TV program and pronounced the expression ‘sons of the devil’. When we submitted a complaint about this to a prosecutor, saying that ‘it was suitable to religion’ and ‘thoughts can’t be blocked’. They blocked our website when somebody made a similar complaint on us.” 

Reminding that they learnt about the blocking of their website from the net, Romano said they already submitted a motion. (EA/BM)

* The association website can be reached in the following link.

* Click here to read the article in Turkish.