BEFORE LAHORE HIGH COURT LAHORE
WP: 958/2013
Bytes for All
v.
Federation of Pakistan etc
A
Brief Overview of the Case Law Available On Blocking of Websites
Internationally
Respectfully
Sheweth:-
That Your Lordship
had instructed me to collect existing case law internationally that pertains to
our case. The following case law is instructive:-
1. Yildrim v. Turkey (December 2012)
-
In this case European Court of Human
Rights (ECHR) decided that a Court order blocking access to “Google Sites” in
Turkey was a violation of Article 10 of the European Convention of Human Rights
(ECHR Law).
-
In 2009 the Denizli Criminal Court
ordered the blocking of an Internet site whose owner had been accused of
insulting the memory of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder of Modern Turkey.
The order was issued as a preventive measure in the context of criminal
proceedings against the site’s owner.
-
The blocking order was submitted for
execution to the Telecommunications Directorate (“TİB”). Shortly afterwards,
the TİB asked the court to extend the scope of the order by blocking access to
Google Sites, which hosted not only the site in question but also the
applicant’s site. The TİB stated that this was the only technical means of
blocking the offending site, as its owner lived abroad.
