By Arife Yildiz Unal
ANKARA (AA) – Turkey’s telecommunication authority demanded Wikipedia — an online encyclopedia — to remove from its website the content ‘showing the country in coordination with terrorist groups’.
“Some pages have not been removed yet by Wikipedia unfortunately,” Omer Fatih Sayan, president of Information and Communication Technologies Authority (ICTA), said at an informatics event in Ankara.
He added: “Turkey is a state of law. It is not possible to open the access to Wikipedia as long as the decisions [country’s demands] are not implemented.”
Wikipedia was blocked on April 29 due to its articles and comments that Ankara believes falsely linking Turkey with various terrorist groups, according to the communications ministry.
The telecommunications authority — which is required to take such measures to a court within 24 hours — made this decision by citing a law, which enables it to ban access to the websites deemed a threat to national security.
A day later, an Ankara court ruled to ban the Wikipedia.
“If Wikipedia gives information, it should also confirm it. My call is to resolve the problems that led to Wikipedia ban and rehabilitate the system if necessary,” Sayan said.
“Everybody should do what is necessary within the framework of law. Nobody has a right to say ‘I do not recognize Turkish courts’,” he added.
In his speech, Sayan underlined the importance of accessing correct information.
“We are attaching importance to the developments about the international fight against fabricated news on the internet,” he said adding: “The fight against fabricated news is in everybody’s interest.”
The ICTA president also stated that they were ready to give every kind of support in order to lift the ban.
