Hello everyone, For the past two years, Turkish authorities have blocked access to Wikipedia across all languages -- the most expansive form of blocking of Wikipedia ever imposed. During that time, the Wikimedia Foundation has been working to lift the block through many different efforts, including legal action in Turkish courts, good faith conversations with Turkish authorities, and speaking directly to the public to raise awareness of the block and its impact on both Turkey and the rest of the world. Recently, we have also seen China censor Wikipedia across all languages to the same extent. Therefore, we are announcing today that we have filed a petition in the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), the international court hearing cases of human rights violations within the Council of Europe, in order to lift the more than two-year block of Wikipedia in Turkey. In our filing, we argue that denying access to Wikipedia violates fundamental freedoms of expression—freedoms that have been denied to the more than 80 million people in Turkey who have been impacted by the block — but also to the rest of the world, which has lost the perspectives of residents of the country in contributing, debating, and adding to Wikipedia. Turkey is a long-standing party of the Convention, which protects the right to freedom of expression including the right to receive and share information. We are making this petition to stand for these fundamental human rights and freedoms, and to ask the court to order that the Turkish government lift the block of Wikipedia. You can learn more about our and the ECHR in our announcement on the Wikimedia Foundation blog: https://wikimediafoundation.org/2019/05/23/wikimedia-foundation-petitions-t… As part of this filing, we're also inviting Wikimedia affiliates, communities, and the rest of the world to join us in amplifying the about this action through a social media campaign. The campaign will focus on raising awareness of Wikipedia being blocked in Turkey, and educating people on why we took the step of filing with the ECHR. We will also tie into the broader narrative around “knowledge is a human right” to make clear the ECHR filing is one of many steps we need to take to ensure Wikipedia is accessible to everyone. We invite you to join us in amplifying the messages of the campaign on social media and sharing our statement with your networks. More information on how to participate and translate into your language: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Communications/Unblock_campaigns This next action in the ECHR is part of an ongoing, resolute commitment and strategy to protect everyone’s right to freely access knowledge. While the focus of our action today is on the block in Turkey, we are also continuing to explore our options and ways to support our readers and contributors in China. We have more work to do, but I’m grateful for the steps we can take today to realize that commitment. Finally, and perhaps most importantly -- I want to thank the Turkish community for their continued efforts to stay involved, active, and present in the Wikimedia projects and global community, despite these adverse circumstances. We stand with you today in support of your continued efforts on our projects. With gratitude, Katherine -- Katherine Maher (she/her) Executive Director Wikimedia Foundation <https://wikimediafoundation.org/> _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l New messages to: Wikimedia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, <mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe>