OREANDA-NEWS. OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media Arlem Desir welcomed the decision of the Turkish Constitutional Court to declare blocking the Wikipedia online encyclopedia a violation of citizens' rights to freedom of expression. 

“I welcome the decision of the court, which recognized that the blocking of Wikipedia since 2017 has been a violation of freedom of expression. I urge the authorities to comply with this decision and guarantee freedom of access to online information for everyone”, he wrote on Twitter on Friday. The decision was made on Thursday by a vote of ten members of the Constitutional Court. Six of them recognized this step as a violation of human rights.

Turkish authorities blocked access to the electronic encyclopedia on April 29, 2017. The next day, the Ministry of Transport, Shipping and Communications of Turkey explained this by the fact that Wikipedia allegedly denigrated the country's image, in particular, talked about Ankara’s ties with terrorist organizations. The department added that the leadership of the encyclopedia was informed about the need to refuse to post "false and unreasonable information", however, despite repeated warnings, the resource refused to delete the content.