Telecommunications Directorate (TİB) has blocked access to a number of news websites over a failed coup attempt by a group of military officials in Turkey.
Among the banned daily websites and news portals are Rotahaber, Gazeteport, Karşı daily, ABC daily and Medyascope.
Ünal Tanık, editor-in-chief of Rotahaber news portal said on this Twitter account on Sunday that access to the website was blocked although there was not any technical problem.
Medyacope released a statement after censorship, saying, “Unfortunately TİB has blocked access to our website. We do not know the reason.”
ABC daily also condemned the censorship on social media and said, “This is a blow to the free media, we will not be silent.”
Access to the website of the Yeni Hayat daily (yenihayatgazetesi.com), one of the few remaining independent dailies in Turkey, had also been blocked due to its lead story around 8.30 p.m. on June 30, without any notification or justification. The story claimed there are currently 150 potential suicide bombers linked to the terrorist Islamic State and the Levant (ISIS) in Turkey.
A group of soldiers attempted a military coup that started around 10 p.m. on Friday, when military tanks rolled onto the streets of Ankara and İstanbul and soldiers blocked the Bosphorus Bridge and the Fatih Sultan Mehmet Bridge. The military’s claim of a takeover was read on state broadcaster TRT. The anchor said the military imposed martial law and declared a curfew until further notice.
However, the coup attempt lost momentum after President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan returned from vacation at the seaside resort of Marmaris.
At least 208 people, including soldiers and police, were killed and 1,491 others were injured, while 7,543 people were detained and 316 were arrested so far, according to Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım’s statement on Monday.