Turkish court blocks Twitter for hours, issues media ban over bombing

Hacer Boyacıoğlu - ANKARA





A Turkish court blocked Twitter for more than two hours after ordering a publication ban on photos and videos of the deadly bombing in southeastern Turkey in the latest instance of a gag order on the media after major crises.At least 32 political activists and aid volunteers were killed in a municipal cultural center in Şanlıurfa’s Suruç district on July 20, right before they were due to cross the border to help with rebuilding the Syrian Kurdish town of Kobane.The Suruç Magistrate of Peace banned “the publication of visual material related to the terror attack” by newspapers and televisions on July 22, state-run Anadolu Agency reported.The court also blocked Internet access to the images, the agency added.The ban was revoked after two hours when Twitter complied with all the court requests.Daily Hürriyet has learned that the court ordered Twitter to remove 107 pieces of content. Twitter quickly complied by removing 50 articles, but failed to remove the remaining 57 before the four-hour deadline imposed by the court, which led to the censure.The hashtag #TwitterBlockinTurkey entered the worlwide trending topics list on Twitter soon after the fresh ban.The ban was revoked after two hours when Twitter complied with all the court requests.“If you had expended efforts to safeguard national security instead of blocking Twitter, we would neither have experienced these tragedies nor would we have had our access blocked,” Republican People’s Party (CHP) chairman Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu said, addressing to the government.The CHP is currently in talks to form a coalition government with the AKP after the ruling party lost its parliamentary majority in the June 7 general election.From 2010 to 2014, Turkish media faced over 150 gag orders , Hürriyet reported last year. The subjects of the bans have included deadly attacks, corruption cases, the wiretapping of officials, a mining disaster and even football match-fixing claims.In March, Turkey blocked access to Twitter , hours after then-Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan vowed to close down the social media platform. The access was later restored by Turkey’s Constitutional Court, which cited a violation of citizen rights.On July 21, the governorate of Şanlıurfa, announced a ban on rallies , marches and similar gatherings in order to prevent any future potential incidents.