Muammer Dilek, the ex governor of Sanliurfa, claimed that there were defamatory comments about him on the Sanliurfa.Com website. The Court ordered Muhammet Tascilar, the owner of the company hosting the website to pay 5 billion TL (€2500) to the governor of Sanliurfa, for the alleged defamatory comments made on the sanliurfa.com website by an unidentified blogger. (Related domestic laws: Press Code and Turkish Criminal Code).
Access blocking is a legal remedy for intellectual property infringements provided under supplemental Article 4 (see Annex 4, Amendment: 3.3.2004-5101/25 within the English text linked above) of the Law No. 5846 on Intellectual & Artistic Works. This provision was introduced in March 2004 and provides a two-stage approach. Initially the law requires the hosting, content or access providers to take down the infringing content from their servers upon “notice” given to them by the right holders. The providers need to take action within 72 hrs. If the allegedly infringing content is not taken down or there is no response from the providers, the right holders can ask the Public Prosecutor to provide for a blocking order, and the blocking order is executed within 72 hours.
Internet intermediaries could be faced with blocking orders as precautionary injunctions, which are issued by civil courts with regard to the violation of personal rights and defamation claims (Article 24, 25).
Coskun Ak was a forum moderator operated by Superonline, a well known ISP in Turkey. He was sentenced to 40 months in prison due to a particular message about human rights abuses in Turkey that was sent to the forum by an anonymous poster. The public prosecutor claimed that Mr. Ak’s position was similar to the editor of a newspaper. The court decided to sentence Ak for insulting and weakening the Republic of Turkey, the Military Forces, the Security Forces, and the Ministry of Justice, to one year in prison for each insult separately, totalling four years. On 14 November, 2001, the 9th Criminal Chamber of the Court Cessation reversed this ruling.
Coskun Ak, a former moderator of various forums operated by Superonline, one of the largest ISPs in Turkey was sentenced to 40 months in prison due to a particular message about human rights abuses in Turkey sent to a Superonline forum by an anonymous poster. The message that triggered a prosecution under article 159 of the Turkish Criminal Code was sent anonymously in May 1999. The court decided to sentence Ak for insulting and weakening the Republic of Turkey, the Military Forces, the Security Forces, and the Ministry of Justice, to one year in prison for each insult separately, totaling four years. Later, his sentence was reduced to 10 months for each insult, totaling 40 months. And on 12 March 2002 Istanbul Criminal Court No. 4 passed a second verdict against Coskun Ak. The sentence of 40 months' imprisonment was...