Turkey's Decision to Block Wikipedia Prompted by Website's 'Smear Campaign'

The Turkish authorities have blocked access to the online encyclopedia Wikipedia as some of the articles on the website were a part of a "smear campaign" against the country, alleging Ankara's ties with terrorists, Turkey's Ministry of Communications said Saturday.

ANKARA (Sputnik) — Earlier in the day, Turkey’s Information and Communication Technologies Authority said that an access to the website was blocked in the country after an analysis and consideration based on the country's legislation regarding internet regulation.

"Instead of coordinating against terrorism, it has become part of an information source which is running a smear campaign against Turkey in the international arena," the communications ministry said commenting the issue, as quoted by the Turkish Anadolu news agency.

According to the ministry, several articles published on Wikipedia portrayed Turkey as a country coordinating its efforts with various terrorist groups.

The ministry added that the access to the could be restored if the website removes the controversial content.

Turkey's crackdown on journalists and restrictions on freedom of speech has been condemned by the international community, including the United Nations, the United States, the European Union, Russia and the Reporters Without Borders (RSF) organization. Turkey ranks 151th out of 180 countries in the RSF 2016 press freedom index.