Wikipedia launched a campaign with the hashtags #WeMissTurkey in 2018 after the website banned by the government. (Bia News)

Wikipedia Takes Turkey to the European Human Rights Court Over Blanket Ban

Wikipedia announced on Thursday (5/23) that it has just filed an application to Europe’s top human rights court in Strasbourg over its two-year battle with Turkey for banning the website in the country. The move was an escalated attempt to overturn the ban after its bid to the Turkish court failed to bear fruit.

Since April 2017, Wikipedia has been blocked in Turkey. Turkish authorities stated that concerns on national security were the reason in rolling out the blanket ban on Wikipedia. It came amid a wider tightening control over freedom of speech under the administration of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. He previously ordered the imprisonment of hundreds of journalist and political opponents following a failed military coup in 2016.

The chief executive Katherine Maher of Wikimedia Foundation, the nonprofit behind the online encyclopedia, said that the ban followed with Turkish Government’s demand to remove two articles from the website—about Syrian civil war and state-sponsored terrorism.

She considers the ban as a violation of fundamental freedoms, including the right to freedom of expression, which the European Convention guarantees. She also said the ban was not only cut the information accesses provided by Wikipedia to the country’s 81 million citizens but also has taken away their voice from discussion and debate. Since Wikipedia is a global source that everyone can actively contribute to the process of writing which makes the website becomes more useful, more comprehensive, and more representative.