ISTANBUL: Turkish authorities on Saturday blocked access to the online encyclopaedia Wikipedia, the latest in what critics say is a crackdown on free speech.
"After technical analysis and legal consideration ... an administrative measure has been taken for this website (Wikipedia.org)," the telecommunications regulator BTK said in a statement on its website.
It cited a law that allows it to block access to individual web pages or entire websites for the protection of public order, national security or the well-being of the public. It did not respond to follow-up calls seeking elaboration.
The watchdog is required to submit such measures to a court within 24 hours. The court then has two days to decide whether the ban should be upheld.
A block on all language editions of the Wikipedia website was detected at 8am local time on Saturday, the monitoring group Turkey Blocks said on its website.
"The loss of availability is consistent with internet filters used to censor content in the country," it said.
When attempting to access the webpage using Turkish internet providers, users received a notice that the site could not be reached and a "connection timed out" error.
Monitoring groups have accused Turkey of blocking access to social media sites such as Twitter or Facebook, particularly in the aftermath of militant attacks.
The government has in the past denied that it blocks the internet, blaming outages on spikes in usage after major events. But technical experts at watchdog groups say the blackouts on social media are intentional, aimed in part at stopping the spread of militant images and propaganda.
The Wikipedia ban drew criticism from the largest opposition party CHP, which is challenging the government of Prime Minister Binali Yildirim over what it says were large-scale irregularities at an April 16 referendum that expanded the executive powers of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s office.
“The government can’t get enough of censorship. This time the victim is Wikipedia,” said CHP lawmaker Baris Yarkadas. “If there was a slander, lie or a pornographic content, this could have been removed via dialogue with the website management."
Turkey last year jailed 81 journalists, making it the world's top jailer of journalists, according to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists.