"In today’s Chamber judgment in the case of Cengiz and Others v. Turkey the European Court of Human Rights held, unanimously, that there had been a violation of Article 10 (freedom of expression) of the European Convention on Human Rights," the ruling read.
Serkan Cengiz filed the case together with two other Turkish law professors five years ago after an Ankara court blocked access to YouTube between 2008 and 2010 over a number of videos deemed to insult the first President of Turkey Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.
The seven Chamber judges sided with the academics that Ankara had "affected their right to receive and impart information and ideas."
"The Court also found that there was no provision in the law allowing the domestic courts to impose a blanket blocking order on access to the Internet, and in the present case to YouTube, on account of one of its contents," it was stated in the ruling.
This year, a Turkish court blocked access to 166 websites, including YouTube, Facebook and Twitter on April 6, following the posting online of a video of a prosecutor being held at gunpoint by far-left radicals.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused the national media of being "accomplices" in the killing of Prosecutor Mehmet Selim Kiraz for publishing "terrorist propaganda."
European Parliament President Martin Schultz told Turkish television in April that the social media ban was "inappropriate."