Istanbul (AFP)
The Constitutional Court, the highest legal body in Turkey, ruled on Thursday that the government's blocking of the online Wikipedia encyclopedia constituted a "violation of freedom of expression," Turkish media reported.
The majority of its members have ruled that the ban on access to Wikipedia, which has been blocked since April 2017 due to two articles linking Ankara and extremist organizations, is illegal.
The Wikimedia foundation, which hosts the Wikipedia site, had filed a complaint with the highest Turkish court of justice for infringement of freedom of expression, after a court of first instance rejected in May 2017 its request to end blocking.
The effective lifting of the block must now be examined by this same court, taking into account the decision of the Constitutional Court.
Turkish authorities have said the blockade will remain in effect as long as the two Wikipedia articles in question, which portray Turkey as "one of the actors behind the civil war in Syria and (a state) who supports and weapon of terrorist organizations ", have not been withdrawn.
Turkish authorities have repeatedly used the temporary blocking of certain sites, such as Facebook and Twitter, in recent years, usually after the attacks.
In May 2019, Wikimedia announced that it had also lodged a complaint with the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) against the ban on its online encyclopedia in Turkey.
© 2019 AFP