Access ban on Sendika.org still not lifted despite Constitutional Court ruling in March

Duvar English

An Ankara court has not still lifted a long-standing access ban imposed on the news site Sendika.org despite a ruling of the Constitutional Court in March that said the ban constitutes a violation of freedom of expression.

Reviewing Sendika.org’s October 2015 application in March of this year, the Constitutional Court ruled that blocking access to the entire website violated freedom of expression and asked the criminal court of peace that ordered the access ban to revoke its order.

The first access ban on sendika.org was imposed on July 25, 2015 by an order of the now-defunct Directorate of Telecommunication and Communication (TİB). Since then, the website has been blocked 62 more times and it currently operates under the domain name Sendika63.org.

Yaman Akdeniz, a prominent Turkish academic and cyber-rights expert, said that Ankara Gölbaşı Criminal Court of Peace has not still revoked its access ban on Sendika.org although the Constitutional Court's decision was taken seven months ago.

“In this seven-month-long period, the Constitutional Court in a very swift way declared the application of http://Sendika.Org to the government and requested an opinion from the government in July. Despite all this, criminal court of peace judges are continuing to completely disregard the decisions of the Constitutional Court,” Akdeniz wrote on Twitter.

Bu 7 aylık süreçte AİHM bile https://t.co/kEeI23tmCf'un başvurusunu çok hızlı bir şekilde Hükümete duyurdu ve Temmuz ayında Hükümetten görüş talep etti. Tüm bunlara rağmen Anayasa Mahkemesi kararları sulh ceza hakimleri tarafından hiçe sayılmaya devam ediliyor.

— Yaman Akdeniz (@cyberrights) September 15, 2020

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