Court decision granting stay of execution on YouTube ban not delivered to TİB: Minister

ISTANBUL

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The court ruling for a stay of execution on the YouTube ban has not yet been delivered to Turkey’s Telecommunications Authority (TİB), Communications Minister Lütfi Elvan has said.

The TİB will make the necessary evaluations once it has received a notification about the order, Elvan said on May 8, adding that talks between the company and the Turkish government were still continuing.

Ankara’s 4th Administrative Court granted a stay of execution for the block on YouTube on May 6 following an appeal by the company’s lawyer, Gönenç Gürkaynak.

Elvan stressed that the TİB blocked the popular video sharing site on the grounds of a law incriminating insults to Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder of the Turkish Republic, adding that the content that led to the ban had still not been removed.

YouTube was banned after the emergence of a recording containing voices believed to belong to top officials including Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu and Intelligence Chief Hakan Fidan. However, the court decision referred to by the TİB did not cite any law that potentially penalizes the leak of secret files.

On April 4, the Gölbaşı Court of Peace ordered that access to the website be unblocked following an appeal from the Union of Turkish Bars Associations, but that decision was ignored.

The ban on YouTube, coming less than a week after a similar move against Twitter, fueled concerns over the government’s tightening grip on the Internet, as the TİB was also recently given the authority to directly block access without a court order.