How many websites does Turkey block?

By EDRi · June 2, 2010

This article is also available in:
Deutsch: [Wie viele Webseiten sperrt die Türkei? | http://www.unwatched.org/node/1972]

That information hasn’t been updated since May 2009. This is why Prof Yaman
Akdeniz, who teaches Internet law at Istanbul’s Bilgi University, has
initiated a trial, based on the Turkish law on access to public information.

In May 2009, the number of websites blocked was already 2601, with a huge
increase since May 2008 when the number was only 433. No further public
information was provided by the High Council for Telecommunications (TIB),
who is the authority in charge of enforcing the blocking under Turkish Law
on cyber-crime.

Yaman’s action is publicly supported by Reporters without Borders that
commented: “The TIB provides information about the content on the blocked
websites but omits the most important information, the number of websites
that have been blocked. This deliberate lack of transparency is disturbing
and we call on the authorities to reveal and explain the scale of the
current censorship.”

Earlier this year, the OSCE (Organization for Security and Cooperation in
Europe) Media Freedom representative asked the Turkish Government to change
their Internet law in order to observe OSCE commitments and other
international standards protecting freedom of expression.

A survey commissioned by OSCE has shown that the Turkish authorities were
able to block the access to Internet of about 3700 websites, including
foreign websites such as YouTube, Geocities, DailyMotion and Google.

Telecom authority accused of concealing blocked website figures (19.05.2010)
http://en.rsf.org/turkey-telecom-authority-accused-of-19-05-2010,37511.html

Trial against High Council for Telecommunications for “providing
information” (only in French, 26.05.2010)
http://www.ifex.org/turkey/2010/05/26/information_censored/fr/

EDRi-gram:OSCE asks Turkey to change the laws allowing Internet blocking
(27.01.2010)
http://www.edri.org/edrigram/number8.2/turkey-internet-blocking-osce