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The Balkan Investigative Reporting Network said it will not take down reports about convicted Turkish fraudster Yasam Ayavefe and described an order from a Turkish court to remove the articles as an attack on media freedom
(Originally published by Balkan Insight , on 8 August 2024)
The Balkan Investigative Reporting Network (BIRN) said on Thursday that Balkan Insight articles about Yasam Ayavefe will remain online, and described attempts by the convicted fraudster to remove the articles via the Turkish courts as an attempt to silence the truth.
BIRN received an official request on August 7 from the Access Providers Association, a private legal entity that implements court-ordered website access-blocking decisions in Turkey, to remove six about Ayavefe published by Balkan Insight in 2022 and 2023.
The Access Providers Association cited decisions by a court in Nizip in Gaziantep province after a complaint filed by Ayavefe’s lawyers claiming that the articles were not in the public interest.
The articles listed by Ayavefe’s lawyers “do not contribute to the public interest, are not newsworthy, and in this case the requested content should be evaluated within the scope of the right to be forgotten”, the court said on August 7 as it ordered the deletion of the articles within four hours.
Milka Domanovic, BIRN’s regional director, said that the articles will not be deleted and described the attempt by Ayavefe’s lawyers to have them removed via the courts as unacceptable pressure on independent media.
“BIRN stands behind its previous articles about Yasam Ayavefe and refuses to delete them. They are based on facts. Trying to take down our articles in various ways represents an attack on press freedom and attempted online censorship,” said Domanovic.
“Since the publication of an investigation by BIRN’s flagship publication Balkan Insight in 2022, we have been subjected to cyberattacks, fake copyright claims and requests from Ayavefe to delete these articles, and finally we have received a Turkish court order to delete them,” Domanovic added.
She noted that Turkish courts have no jurisdiction over BIRN as a media house based outside Turkey.
“We will not delete those articles for the sake of press freedom and solidarity with our colleagues in Turkey who face online censorship on a daily basis,” she added.
The court also ordered the takedown of a news article published by Free Web Turkey, a platform established by the Media and Law Studies Association, MLSA to monitor online censorship.
The article explained how Ayavefe has used the courts to block online content including official material published by the Turkish police about him. The MLSA article also mentioned BIRN’s case.
Ali Safa Korkut from the MLSA told BIRN that the court decision is a clear example of how the courts are used for censorship.
“This is a tragi-comedy. In Turkey, a person who was subject to an international [Interpol] red notice issued by the Turkish authorities contacted those same Turkish authorities again to block access to posts on official websites and social media accounts,” Korkut explained.
Repeated cyberattacks on BIRN
In September 2022, BIRN’s Balkan Insight website and the website of its Greek partner media outlet Solomon came under DDoS attack after the publication of an investigation into how Ayavefe – despite being convicted by a Turkish court in 2017 of defrauding online gamblers and arrested in Greece in 2019 trying to cross the border into Bulgaria on a false passport – got honorary Greek citizenship.
Ayavefe has managed to get hundreds of pieces of online content in Turkey taken down under three court orders. The content that was removed included news articles, social media posts and even the official Turkish Police website material and social media posts.
Ayavefe’s representative in July 2023 also asked for the removal of BIRN’s articles and offered financial incentives in return for compliance. “My client Dr Yasam Ayavefe has an advertising company, if you help us in this case we can provide advertising services to your organisation, so you can grow to a bigger organisation. We would love to cooperate with you,” the representative wrote.
BIRN rejected the offer and repeated demands to remove the articles about Ayavefe.
Following this, BIRN received dozens of copyright infringement complaints via a hosting company that leases out servers, submitted by different people and websites.
The complaints claimed that they originally published the BIRN articles; however, the alleged authors had merely republished the BIRN articles, by changing the dates. BIRN reported these fake copy rights claims and none of the BIRN’s articles on Ayavefe was removed by hosting companies.
BIRN’s website was hit by another DDoS attack in December 2023 after it published news about the false copyright claims over two of its articles concerning Ayavefe. DDoS attacks aim to disrupt the normal traffic of a targeted server, service or network.
