YouTube files petition with Turkey’s Constitutional Court

PanARMENIAN.Net - A lawyer representing YouTube has filed a petition with the Constitutional Court, which recently reversed a ban on Twitter, to overturn a ban on the video-sharing website that has been in place since March 27 in Turkey, Today’s Zaman reports.

The company also petitioned the Ankara 4th Administrative Court, seeking an injunction against the ban.

The Twitter ban, which started with a court ruling, was reversed by a Constitutional Court decision on April 2. Yet access to YouTube remains blocked, even after the court that initially ordered the ban reversed its own ruling.

The Gölbaşı Criminal Court of Peace, which blocked nationwide access to YouTube, reversed its ruling on April 4, following an appeal.

The ban came after a meeting between top security officials was leaked onto the video-sharing website.

The Telecommunications Directorate (TİB) cited the March ruling by the Gölbaşı Criminal Court of Peace when it implemented the ban.

Following the Constitutional Court's Wednesday ruling that blocking access to Twitter is a violation of free speech, the Gölbaşı court last week changed its ruling, this time ordering blocks on only 15 videos on YouTube instead of the entire site. The court ventured into self-criticism in its latest ruling, calling its earlier ruling a “major intervention into freedom of speech, a fundamental value of a democratic society.”

However, the Gölbaşı Prosecutor's Office challenged the liberal ruling on the grounds that the video that was the subject of the YouTube ban had not yet been removed. The Gölbaşı Criminal Court of First Instance, a higher court, ruled to keep the ban in place until the “criminal content” is removed from the site.

After the Constitutional Court ruled that the Twitter ban violates freedom of speech, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan publicly expressed his disapproval, accusing the court of behaving “unpatriotically.”

On Monday, April 7, Constitutional Court President Haşim Kılıç responded to the criticism, saying the members of the high court understood that there could be some “emotional responses” to their rulings. However, he said that the court's decision was in line with universal standards, according to Today’s Zaman.

Kılıç also said that some government officials had indicated that the Constitutional Court hadn't waited long enough to allow lower courts to issue decisions on the ban. “The Constitutional Court doesn't have to wait for the legal process to be brought to completion. For example, if a person who is facing deportation cannot file a petition with an administrative court because that would take a long time, such a person might petition the Constitutional Court or the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), and these courts might hear the application without waiting for all legal remedies to be exhausted first.”

In the recording widely believed to have instigated the ban on YouTube, Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu, National Intelligence Organization (MİT) Undersecretary Hakan Fidan, Foreign Ministry Undersecretary Feridun Sinirlioğlu and Deputy Chief of General Staff Gen. Yaşar Güler can be heard discussing a possible intervention in Syria and potential responses from the international community.