Search results : 103

The European Court of Human Rights has reinforced the right of individuals to access the internet in a judgment against wholesale blocking of online content. A Turkish PhD student named Ahmet Yildirim claimed before the European Court that he had faced “collateral censorship” when his Google-hosted website was shut down by the Turkish authorities as a result of a judgment by a criminal court order to block access to Google Sites in Turkey. The court injunction was promulgated in order to prevent further access to one particular website hosted by Google, which included content deemed offensive to...

For the facts of this case we refer to IRIS 2010-10/1 in which the Court’s Chamber judgment of 27 July 2010 was reported. In essence Mr. Mustafa Aksu, who is of Roma/Gypsy origin, complained in Strasbourg that two publications financed or supported by the Ministry of Culture in Turkey, had offended him in his Roma identity, under Article 14 (the anti-discrimination provision) in conjunction with Article 8 (right to privacy). The action of Mr. Aksu was directed against a book entitled “The Gypsies of Turkey” and a dictionary entitled “Turkish Dictionary for Pupils”, both containing insulting, denigrating...

On 21 February 2012, the European Court of Human Rights has once again found an unjustified interference with the right to freedom of expression and press freedom by the Turkish authorities. The peculiarity this time is that the Prime Minister, Mr Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, himself lies at the centre of the violation of the European Convention by the Strasbourg Court. In the case Tuşalp v. Turkey the European Court was asked to consider whether two defamation actions taken by the Prime Minister of Turkey against a journalist for protection of his personality rights were compatible with Article 10 of...

On 22 September 2011, the Court of Justice of the European Union (ECJ) published its judgment in the joined cases C-244/10 and C-245/10 following references for a preliminary ruling from the German Bundesverwaltungsgericht (Federal Administrative Court - BVerwG) concerning the interpretation of the ban on the broadcast of programmes that incite hatred, enshrined in Article 22a of the Television Without Frontiers Directive 89/552/EEC (now: Article 6 of the Audiovisual Media Services Directive 2010/13/EU). The related national procedure concerned an order issued by the Bundesministerium des Innern...

On 4 March 2011 the Turkish Information and Communication Technologies Authority (ICTA) issued a decision concerning Internet security. The objective of the decision is to protect Internet users against unwelcome content. However, this attempt of the Authority is not highly appreciated among users and related NGOs. According to the decision, which approves “The Draft on the Principles and Procedures Concerning a Secure Usage of Internet”, four types of user profiles are regulated and Internet service providers are obliged to provide these profiles to their users. The profiles, one of which the...