Lawsuit filed to stop BTK's Instagram access ban

The Lawyers' Rights Group has filed a lawsuit at the Ankara Administrative Court seeking a stay of execution and the cancellation of the Information and Communication Technologies Authority's (BTK) decision to block access to Instagram.

The petition for the lawsuit includes references to national and international regulations concerning freedom of expression and the press, primarily the Constitution. The petition requests a stay of execution and the cancellation of the decision to block access to Instagram. Furthermore, rulings issued by the Constitutional Court (AYM) and the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) regarding press freedom were also highlighted in the petition.

The petition states, "It is necessary that not only 'news' and 'ideas' that society and the state perceive as positive, correct, or harmless, but also news and ideas that the state or a segment of the public finds negative or incorrect, or that disturb them, must be able to be expressed freely, and individuals must be certain that they will not be subject to any sanctions due to these expressions."

At the same time, it was stated that making the platform completely inaccessible on the grounds that some publishers with Instagram memberships committed catalog crimes listed in the Turkish Penal Code violates many fundamental rights guaranteed by the Constitution, and a stay of execution and cancellation were requested.