Access ban on three news accounts at the request of the Communications Directorate

At the request of the Presidential Communications Directorate, access to three more of Turkey's prominent digital news platforms has been blocked. The restriction decision regarding the BPT, Boşuna Tıklama, and Zam Haber accounts, which operate on the social media platform X (formerly Twitter), was issued by the Ankara 11th Criminal Court of Peace on March 29.

The Freedom of Expression Association (İFÖD), which announced the access ban to the public, stated that the court decision in question was issued upon the application of the Presidential Communications Directorate.

BPT: THE DECISION HAS REACHED US, IT DOES NOT EVEN HAVE A JUSTIFICATION

BPT Haber, which has over 1 million 340 thousand followers on the X platform, stated in its announcement regarding the matter that the X management has not yet implemented the decision, but that the court decision in Turkey has reached them.

In the statement, it was expressed that the access ban was issued without providing any concrete justification, and the following remarks were included:

“It is impossible for us to accept that our 10 years of hard work is being disregarded so easily, without justification, and lacking legal basis. We are an institutional media company based in Istanbul with over 10 employees. All our identification information is available to state institutions, and we are ready to provide testimony in any possible situation. However, having such a decision taken without even knowing which news reports led to it is a disregard for our 10 years of effort and struggle.”

“WE STARTED WITH A DREAM, WE WILL CONTINUE OUR LEGAL STRUGGLE”

In its statement, BPT also pointed out that this digital news project was started 10 years ago by two young people at the age of 25, emphasizing that the access ban in question targets not just an account, but years of effort and journalism.

“Today, we manage this project as two young people who are 25 years old, with a dream that started 10 years ago. It was not easy to bring one of Turkey's largest digital news accounts to this point. However, we see that all this effort is being wiped out in one stroke. We hereby inform the public that we will use all our legal rights to the fullest against this unfair decision. We invite everyone who stands for impartial journalism, free information, and justice to stand with us and add their voice to ours.”

News Source: 12punto