Metin Kıratlı, a former bureaucrat who used to serve at President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s presidential palace and was appointed to Turkey’s Constitutional Court in July, has had courts block access to nearly 40 pieces of online content about him, including news reports and social media posts, the Bianet news website reported on Wednesday.
The appointment of such a close figure to Erdoğan to the top court has led to much controversy, sparking a fresh debate about the independence of the Turkish judiciary.
A news report by Bianet is among the online content that has been censored by an Ankara court for being of a nature that would “harm the reputation and dignity” of Kıratlı.
The censored news report on Kıratlı’s appointment to the Constitutional Court also included allegations of Turkish mafia boss Sedat Peker about him. The report said Kıratlı had been in the spotlight as the highest-paid public employee in 2021, receiving a total monthly salary of TL 84,702 ($2,474) from three different institutions.
The report also cited Peker as saying that it was necessary to obtain permission from Kıratlı, then head of the Directorate of Presidential Administrative Affairs at Erdoğan’s palace, in order to conduct billions of dollars worth of illegal trade with Syria, including crude oil, tea, sugar, aluminum, copper and used cars.
Peker, the head of one of Turkey’s most powerful mafia groups and once a staunch supporter of Erdoğan, left Turkey in early 2020 following the publication of a report related to arms trafficking to Syria that was allegedly carried out under the guise of humanitarian aid.
The mob boss sent shockwaves across the country in the summer of 2021 through scandalous revelations on social media about state-mafia relations, drug trafficking, corruption and murders implicating former and current state officials and their family members.
It is common in Turkey, where online censorship is widespread, for Erdoğan and members of his family and government to have courts block access to news reports and social media posts that include criticism about them.
Turkish authorities on Wednesday blocked access to Discord, a popular instant messaging app, due to allegations that the platform has been used for child abuse, blackmail and online harassment. X, YouTube, Facebook and Instagram have suffered similar temporary bans in recent years and months. In August the gaming platform Roblox was also blocked due to child safety concerns.
President Erdoğan’s administration has been accused of suppressing freedom of expression and information, with Turkey ranking among the “not free” countries in terms of internet freedom, in the 2023 Freedom on the Net report published last October by the US-based nonprofit Freedom House.