By Emre Peker
ISTANBUL--Turkey's top court ruled on Thursday that a two-month
YouTube ban is unconstitutional, paving the way to lift the
blockade after the government cut off access to Google Inc.'s
video-sharing website for publishing leaked state secrets just days
before the country's critical March elections.
The Constitutional Court in Ankara sided with individual appeals
filed by Google's local attorney, opposition lawmakers and the
Union of Turkish Bar Associations in its decision, ruling that
YouTube's blockade breached their rights, according to state-run
Anadolu news agency.
Judges will now write up their detailed decision and send it to
Turkey's telecommunications watchdog, known as TIB, and the
Transport, Maritime Affairs and Communications Ministry for the
authorities to implement their ruling, and lift the ban.
The YouTube blockade started on March 27, just hours after a
two-part voice recording surfaced on the website that purportedly
disclosed a top-secret conversation about a potential attack
against rebels inside war-torn Syria, just across Turkey's southern
border. The alleged recordings involved high-ranking officials,
including Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu and the spy agency
chief, Hakan Fidan.
A week before banning Google's video-sharing website, Turkish
authorities had blocked microblogging siteTwitter Inc. Turkey's top
court overruled that blockade as unconstitutional as well, freeing
the site on April 3.
Write to Emre Peker at emre.peker@wsj.com
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