Deutsche Welle has confirmed the blocking of its website in Turkey. The offers were blocked there on Thursday evening in all 32 broadcasting languages, the German foreign broadcaster announced on Friday in Bonn.
The Turkish broadcasting supervisory authority RTÜK had previously announced the move. The US foreign broadcaster Voice of America (VOA) is also affected.
Deutsche Welle (DW) announced that it would take legal action against the ban. In the social media, users could find out how censorship can be circumvented.
Months ago, the Turkish control authority had asked foreign broadcasters to apply for a license for Internet offerings. Deutsche Welle said: “DW did not comply because licensing would have enabled the Turkish government to censor editorial content.”
Intendant Peter Limbourg said that this was personally explained to the head of the authority. For example, licensed media are obliged to delete online content that RTÜK deems inappropriate. “That is simply unacceptable for an independent media provider.”
The request to apply for a license is based on a regulation that came into force in 2019. The Islamic conservative government has introduced far-reaching controls over Internet platforms that distribute films, videos or radio content.
