Internet censorship in Turkey (Google)

Important decision for all members of the Council of Europe
The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) is examining the application against internet censorship filed by Turkish nationals Ahmet Yıldırım and Yaman Akdeniz. The international court expects an item of written comment from Turkey until 9 June.
According to a written statement published by the Cyber-Rights.org.tr news site on 7 March, the ECHR merged the files regarding the access ban to Google sites and to LastFM com on 31 January.

The restrictive decision (No. 2009/337) on the Google services was given by the 2nd Magistrate Criminal Court of Denizli  on 23 June 2009. Access to the music sharing site LastFm.com was banned by the Istanbul Public Chief Prosecution on 26 June 2009 (decision no. 2009/45).
On 16 February, the ECHR posted the particularities of both applications on its website together with a list of questions forwarded to the Turkish authorities.
The court allowed time till 9 June for Turkey to respond to the questions. Cyper Rights org tr reported that the court in Strasbourg announced 24 April as the deadline for non-governmental organizations that applied for co-plaintiff status to submit their point of view.

echr , European , google , news , Turkey

Google Censorship in Turkey

In October, 2010 Turkey lifted a ban on YouTube that had been in place for two years.
About 600,000 Turkish bloggers are thought to use the Google tool to publish their personal journals. The ban has been imposed because Turkey’s copyright protection laws allow for entire services to be shut down.
Google confirmed the Blogger ban in a statement and said those with worries about piracy should turn to its easy-to-use takedown systems rather than seek a wholesale shutdown. “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 spokesperson. “that way, people in Turkey can continue to enjoy Blogger whilst we respond to the specific complaint.”

Digiturk said it went to court to protect its right to broadcast Turkey’s Spor Toto Super League games on its Lig channel. Digiturk said the ban had not curbed all piracy as other sites beyond Blogger were still showing pirated streams of football matches.

blogger , google , Turkey