ECHR Rules Tuesday in Turkish Case Involving Restricted Access to YouTube
Judges on the European Court of Human Rights are expected to announce their judgment Tuesday on a complaint by three Turkish nationals who said the Ankara Criminal Court of First Instance violated their rights when it blocked access to YouTube…
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because "some ten videos ... were insulting to the memory of Atatürk," said an ECHR release. Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, who was prime minister and then president of Turkey from 1920 to 1938, is credited as the founder of a modern and secular Republic of Turkey. The Turkish court blocked access to the website from May 5, 2008, to Oct. 30, 2010, when the blocking order "was lifted by the public prosecutor's office following a request from the company owning copyright of the videos in question," said the ECHR. It said the three nationals -- Serkan Cengiz, Yaman Akdeniz and Kerem Altıparmak, who teach law at their respective universities in Turkey -- said the restriction had infringed on "their right to freedom to receive or impart information and ideas" and they also didn't get a right to a fair hearing. The release said the three invoked articles 6 and 10 the European Convention of Human Rights, which Turkey ratified in 1954. It said the three also want ECHR under Article 46 to "indicate to the Turkish government" actions it can take "to put an end to the situation." The Turkish court had rejected the three's request to lift the measure since it was "imposed in accordance with the law and that the applicants did not have standing to challenge such decisions," the release said. That ruling was upheld by the Ankara Criminal Court.