Within the scope of the 'My Family is Safe' investigation, T24's internet and social media accounts were decided to be closed by the Istanbul 1st Criminal Court of Peace.
After official access to the site was blocked, T24 shared a statement on its social media account.
The explanation is as follows:
"Access to T24, which was ranked first among the "mediums used by artificial intelligence platforms to verify Turkish information" in the Stanford University research, the results of which were announced in July, which is also used as a reference in the world, was blocked.
We understand from the decision that the process regarding T24, the leading channel of mainstream journalism in Turkey, started upon the application of the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor's Office. Again, from the decision text, we learned that the Istanbul 1st Criminal Judgeship of Peace first rejected the application, but this time decided to block access upon the objection of the chief prosecutor's office.
The decision about T24; It is based on the claim that "118 articles published in T24 in the last year were aimed at disrupting the Turkish family order and weakening the Turkish family structure" and it is stated that access to T24 and social media accounts was blocked "in order to prevent crime and protect public order".
We do not currently know how the Istanbul 1st Criminal Judgeship of Peace, which rejected the first application of the Chief Public Prosecutor's Office, decided to block access to all contents of T24 - not just the 118 articles claimed - upon objection.
THEY LISTED 'MATERIAL ERRORS'
However, when we receive the decision that was sent to some media organizations without being notified to T24, we can see the factual error made even in the claim that "LGBTI propaganda has been made in the last year". Because 22 of the 57 writers who signed the 118 articles on which the claim is based are people who wrote and left T24 "years ago"! In other words, approximately half of the 57 writers whose "article published on T24 in the last year" was cited as the reason for the access ban decision have not been writing on T24 for years! In other words, the fiction of "preventing crime by blocking access to T24" for the future, claiming "articles published in the last year", is disintegrating at this stage.
How could T24 have disrupted the "family structure" and "public order" with the articles published years ago, and no one, including the public authority, was aware of this!
On the other hand, some of the articles that were used as justification for the decision, "published in the last year", do not contain such content, let alone "LGBTI propaganda"!
Aside from the fact that the articles in question are within the scope of freedom of press and expression, the decision based on Article 8/A of the Law No. 5651 on the Regulation of Publications Made on the Internet and Combating Crimes Committed through These Publications is also contrary to the purpose of the amendment made to the law in question. It was announced that the change in the law was made "only to prevent access to the contents subject to the lawsuit and to prevent access to all publications."
While T24 was making preparations to apply to legal processes, on the other hand, it removed from publication 118 articles subject to the decision sent to it by the Access Providers Association. He also informed the Access Providers Association that the articles in question were taken down within the specified 4 hours.
"WE ARE RUNNING LEGAL PROCESSES QUICKLY AND FILE OUR OBJECTIONS"
This being the case, in traffic rankings; Access to all contents of T24, which is in the top 3,300 among approximately 500 million active websites in the world, in the top 350 among all media/news channels in the world, in the top 70 among approximately 500 thousand sites in Turkey, in the top 20 among media/news channels in Turkey, broke a record by winning nine journalism awards this year alone, and is the first channel used by artificial intelligence platforms in information verification processes, could be blocked.
Against this truly unjust, disproportionate and disproportionate decision, we are quickly processing the legal processes and making our objections, with a team of lawyers who have been on our side from the very first moment.
The decision in question came after a slander campaign targeting T24 on social media with "the same visual and the same text" at the end of last week. We did not address those who slandered that "T24 received millions of liras of funding and made LGBTI propaganda with these funds." T24 has not received a single penny from any person, institution, fund, association or similar entity for 17 years; Dozens of our statements are on record, including that this situation was confirmed by five inspections carried out by the state. We do not know where those who target T24 with this lie come from, but T24 conducts journalism independent of ideological and financial obsessions only with the income it generates.
T24 does not make propaganda or target anyone; However, it fights to protect everyone's rights and laws, no matter who they are.
T24 does not receive a single penny of money from anywhere, from any fund, person, company, this or that. However, unlike those who consume every opportunity, including public institutions and municipality facilities, with a shameless appetite, they do not do any unregistered work and do not miss their tax and premium obligations to the state and their employees even for a day.
Dear readers, our followers, whose numbers have reached millions over the years, T24 has not been closed, journalism cannot be closed! Access to T24 content has been blocked. We are using all legal means to remove this obstacle and rectify this mistake.
We are at work!”
