Turkey’s Constitutional Court has ruled that the country’s block on accessing Wikipedia is unconstitutional.<\/p>\n
The court said the ban violated rights concerning freedom of expression, and ordered it be lifted.<\/p>\n
The Turkish government barred the website in 2017 because of entries suggesting Turkey had co-operated with jihadist militants in Syria.<\/p>\n
Turkish censors have often temporarily blocked websites carrying content critical of the government.<\/p>\n
The Wikipedia Foundation took Turkey to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR)<\/a>\u00a0in May over the ban, arguing that the blocking of the online encyclopaedia violated the right to freedom of expression.<\/p>\n Thursday’s ruling is a significant victory for the foundation, writes BBC Europe regional editor Danny Aeberhard.<\/p>\n The Constitutional Court voted by 10-6 that the ban violated freedom of speech.<\/p>\n It is expected that the authorities will lift it accordingly.<\/p>\n Turkey imposed the ban after articles on Wikipedia suggested it had co-operated with the Islamic State group and others, and made allegations of state-sponsored terrorism.<\/p>\n Under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the country is a key foreign player in the conflict in neighbouring Syria, hosting 3.7 million refugees and building a controversial “safe zone” along its north-eastern border.<\/p>\n According to the Wikimedia Foundation,\u00a0the ECHR has given its case against Turkey priority status<\/a>.<\/p>\n “The case may also help set precedent for future decisions in the area of governments limiting access to information, and comes at a time when we’ve seen a rise in government censorship online globally,” the foundation wrote.<\/p>\n Turkey figures towards the bottom of a global index for media freedom put together by the organisation Reporters Without Borders, which\u00a0rates it at 157 out of 180 countries<\/a>.<\/p>\n Source: bbc.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"What are the wider implications of the ruling?<\/h2>\n