Freedom on the Net 2013 – Turkey

Freedom on the Net 2013 (Freedom House) October 3, 2013, pages 719-732

This report covers events between May 1, 2012 and April 30, 2013.

Turkish authorities added several thousand websites to its blocking list, increasing the total to almost 30,000 (See Limits on content ).

Ruling in favor of a Turkish user, the European Court of Human Rights found Turkey in violation of Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights for blocking access to the hosting platform Google Sites (see Limits on content ).

Several users received fines, prison time, or suspended sentences for comments made on social media, including renowned pianist Fazil Say. Say was handed a 10-month suspended sentence for insulting religious values on Twitter and will appeal. Meanwhile, a Turkish-Armenian linguist and columnist was handed a 10-month sentence on similar charges related to a blog post (see Violations of User Rights).

Freedom on the Net 2013 is the fourth report in a series of comprehensive studies of internet freedom around the globe and covers developments in 60 countries that occurred between May 2012 and April 2013.

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