A Turkish court has prohibited access to the 2021 report on internet censorship in Turkey published by the Freedom of Expression Association’s EngelliWeb initiative.
The report, compiled by Professor Yaman Akdeniz and researcher Ozan Güven, revealed that Turkish courts blocked access to over 107,000 websites and domains, including thousands of news links in 2021. The restrictions were imposed due to alleged violations of personal rights, mainly involving government officials such as President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his son, as well as ruling party members.
The court’s decision to restrict access to the report was based on a request by yoga instructor Akif Manaf, who claimed a violation of his personal rights. Academic and cyber-rights activist Akdeniz criticised the court’s decision, claiming that the court had not read the report, and vowed to appeal and file a complaint.
Turkey has faced criticism in recent years for cracking down on websites, social media accounts, and news critical of President Erdoğan and his ruling party. Press freedom has been a major concern, with accusations of imprisonment of journalists, shutting down of media outlets, control of media ownership and use of regulatory authorities to exert financial pressure. Reporters Without Borders ranked Turkey 165th out of 180 countries in its 2023 World Press Freedom Index, with 90 per cent of the national media owned by pro-government entities.
In the lead-up to Turkey’s 14 May elections, Twitter complied with court orders and blocked access to certain content, a move that Elon Musk defended as necessary to ensure the platform’s availability in the country. This led to a disagreement between Musk and journalists, when Bloomberg employee Matthew Yglesias accused Musk of complying with censorship requests from the Turkish government. Musk responded by questioning whether Yglesias preferred a complete closure of Twitter or limited access to some tweets. Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales joined the discussion, emphasising the importance of freedom of expression. Wales stated that if Musk prioritised profit over freedom of expression, he should openly admit it, while highlighting that Wikipedia remained committed to its principles in Turkey and underscoring the significance of freedom of expression as a core value.
