Great news! Even if the court's decision isn't implemented by the current Turkish government, it is important to have established that the block was a violation of constitutional principles.
Mike On Thu, Dec 26, 2019 at 4:40 PM Katherine Maher <kma...@wikimedia.org> wrote: > Hi all, > > I have some good news to share with you all -- after nearly three years of > Wikipedia being blocked in Turkey, the Turkish Constitutional Court has > ruled that this is unconstitutional. We hope that access will be restored > soon in light of this ruling, and will keep you updated as we hear further > developments. > > Please join me in congratulating the Wikimedia community in Turkey, the > millions of Wikipedia readers in Turkey, and all of those struggling under > censorship around the world, on this critical affirmation of the > fundamental right to knowledge. > > Imposed in April of 2017, the block has prevented the 80+ million people > in Turkey from accessing and participating in all language versions of > Wikipedia. It also prevented members of our community in Turkey from freely > engaging with the projects and impaired our movement’s global effort to > represent the sum of all knowledge. > > As many of you might recall, we had filed an urgent application to the > European Court of Human Rights in April 2019. Our petition on the legality > of the access ban is currently before the ECHR and we are evaluating our > next steps based on this latest ruling. > > A team from within and outside the Wikimedia Foundation has been working > diligently since the block was instituted to restore full access in Turkey. > Throughout this process, we have been guided by our Wikimedia values and a > belief that Wikipedia must be accessible in its entirety; with no > censorship of any kind to be tolerated. We worked closely with Wikimedia > community members in Turkey to understand and act in a way that reflected > their needs, wishes, and local context. We also benefited greatly from > conversations with experts around the world. > > We will be posting more information on the Foundation website soon. In the > meantime, I wanted to offer my sincere appreciation and admiration to the > members of our community in Turkey -- you have shown great integrity, > courage, and dedication. Your unwavering commitment to the Wikimedia > projects, despite the obstacles placed in front of you, is an inspiration > to us all. > > Thank you to every Wikimedia community member around the world who showed > support for the Turkish community. Your commitment to our sense of > community and the strength of our global movement is an inspiration. > > Finally, I would also like to thank the many Foundation staff and others > involved over the past months for your exceptional diligence, > professionalism, and tact in handling a delicate situation. > > While this is a favorable ruling for our case in Turkey, it remains to be > seen whether the Turkish government will indeed restore access in Turkey. > And serious threats to free knowledge remain around the world. Today's > ruling is a reminder of the work we still left to do. > > But at this moment, let us celebrate this important recognition that the > right to information is fundamental to every human, with happy anticipation > of the return of Turkey to our global community of editors, readers, and > knowledge seekers. > > Katherine > > -- > > Katherine Maher (she/her) > > Executive Director > > Wikimedia Foundation <https://wikimediafoundation.org/> > > _______________________________________________ > Please note: all replies sent to this mailing list will be immediately > directed to Wikimedia-l, the public mailing list of the Wikimedia > community. For more information about Wikimedia-l: > https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l > _______________________________________________ > WikimediaAnnounce-l mailing list > wikimediaannounc...@lists.wikimedia.org > https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaannounce-l > _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, <mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe>
