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ANKARA Online encyclopedia Wikipedia has appealed to Turkey's constitutional court against a government decision to block access to its website, broadcaster CNN Turk said on Tuesday, a case that has heightened concerns about censorship in Turkey.

Turkey's telecommunications watchdog said two weeks ago that access to Wikipedia had been blocked, citing a law allowing it to ban access to websites deemed a threat to national security.

The block on the site was prompted by two Wikipedia entries accusing Turkey of links to Islamist militant groups, local media have reported. The communications ministry has said Wikipedia was attempting to run a "smear campaign" against the country, saying some articles purported that Ankara was coordinating with militant groups.

A Turkish court on Friday rejected an appeal by the Wikimedia Foundation, which operates Wikipedia, against the blocking, saying that while freedom of speech was a fundamental right, it can be limited in cases where there is a "necessity for regulation".

The Wikimedia Foundation has called for the Turkish government to restore full access to the site.

(Reporting by Tuvan Gumrukcu; Editing by David Dolan)

SEOUL North Korea sent a rare letter of protest to the U.S. House of Representatives on Friday warning that a new package of tougher sanctions would only spur its development of nuclear weapons, North Korea's state media reported.

SEOUL Russia's President Vladimir Putin told his newly elected South Korean counterpart, Moon Jae-in, in a phone call on Friday that he is ready to play a "constructive role" in resolving North Korea's nuclear threat, the South's presidential office said.

ERBIL, Iraq Iraq's Shi'ite paramilitaries launched an offensive on Friday to drive Islamic State from a desert region near the border with Syria as security forces fought the militants in the city of Mosul.

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Wikipedia appeals to Turkish constitutional court over website's blocking: CNN Turk - Reuters

Internet encyclopedia Wikipedia is appealing to a top Turkish court to overturn a government order that blocks access to its website for users in Turkey, broadcaster CNN Turk reported Tuesday.

The website appealed to Turkeys constitutional court, the countrys highest legal body. The ban on access to Wikipedia, which came down from the Turkeys telecommunications watchdog on April 29, followed two entries on the site that linked the Turkish government to Islamist militant groups.

The watchdog justified the decision by using a law that allows it to ban sites it deems to be a threat to national security. The communications ministry has accused the site of a smear campaign against the government, Reuters reported.

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The appeal to the top Turkish court comes after an Ankara court rejected an earlier appeal by the Wikimedia Foundation against the decision on Friday. The site, in its petition to the court, referred to freedom of expression clauses in the European Court of Human Rights and Turkeys constitutional court.

It said banning the entire site because of several pieces of content was not a legal basis for the decision. But, in rejecting the appeal, the local court said such sites could be restricted in some cases, referring to the countrys state of emergency, which remains in place since the failed military coup attempt last July.

Read more: Turkey lifts brief ban on Twitter as site takes down hostage pictures

Wikipedias block has resurfaced concerns about internet censorship in the country. The government has previously banned social media platforms including Twitter and YouTube because of content on those sites.

A laptop computer displays Wikipedia's front page showing a darkened logo on January 18, 2012 in London, England. Turkey has blocked access to the internet encyclopedia. Peter Macdiarmid/Getty

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has also previously censured the constitutional courts decisions, pressuring the institution to tow the governments line on censorship and national security.

In March 2016, he slammed the court for freeing two newspaper editors critical of his leadership as a move against the country. Turkish authorities detained Can Dundar and Erdem Gul, then editor-in-chief and Ankara bureau chief of opposition newspaper Cumhuriyet, in November 2015 for allegedly publishing state secrets. They held the pair for three months, until the court ruled that their jailing was unlawful because it violated their freedoms.

It subsequently ordered their release in February 2016. Erdogan said further actions by the court that opposed the governments position would bring into question the need for the courts existence.

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Wikipedia Appeals to Top Turkish Court Over Access Ban - Newsweek - Newsweek

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Berkeley Professor Michel Gelobter has faced a backlash in the Wikipedia communityafter his students labeled Trump racist and sexist in edits that were eventually removed. Gelobeter has since been blocked indefinitely from Wikipedia.

Acourse description for Gelobters course on environmental justice activism at UC Berkeley posted on Wikipediaargued that the first few months of the Trump administration have been uniquely anti-environmental, sexist, and racist.

This semester represents a unique moment in historythe first few months of a historically unique U.S. President whose agenda has been explicitly anti-environmental, sexist, and racist. This course will use this moment in two ways: First, as a learning opportunity for students to engage with critical issues as they emerge on the social, economic, policy, and political landscape; Second, to be of service by documenting key developments and creating a neutral source of information about them.

The post was ultimately removed, as Wikipedia prevents unsourced negative claims about living people. A Wikipedia editor said that the line about the Trump administration was a blatant BLP [Biography of Living Person] violation,which means that commentary on a living person does not come from a neutral point of view.

As part of Gelobters course, students created Wikipedia articles that advanced an anti-Trump agenda, containing in-depth critiques of Trumps EPA policy among others.

Wikipedia edit projects are now common in the social justice sectors of academia. Feminists at Oberlin, Bucknell, and Temple University hosted Wikipedia Edit-A-Thon events during the 2016-2017 academic year.

Commenting on this trend, Wikipedia user Jytdog argued that academia does not have the right to take over articles for the purpose of education.

Wikipedia is the commons and governed by community policies and guidelines. Just like companies dont have the right to dump things into public waters, classes dont have the right to take over space in the commons for classwork. Can you see that? he wrote.

Tom Ciccotta is a libertarian who writes about economics and higher education for Breitbart News. You can follow him on Twitter @tciccotta or email him at tciccotta@breitbart.com

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UC Berkeley Professor Banned From Wikipedia Over Anti-Trump Edit Project - Breitbart News

Known as theChinese Encyclopedia, the countrys national encyclopedia was first published in book form in 1993. The new online edition will go live for the first time in 2018 and will be the largest and most comprehensive version so far in the series.

The Chinese Encyclopedia will however, not be open to editing by the army of volunteers that currently add and edit articles like they do on Wikipedia.Instead, Chinese officials have said that the articles will be written by a team of scholars and experts from universities and research institutes.More than 20,000 people have allegedly been hired to work on the project, and the Chinese encyclopedia will feature some 300,000 articles, each about 1,000 words in length.

At over 720 million users, China has the worlds largest internet user base, but it also has some of the worlds most restrictive internet laws. Content on Wikipedia is routinely blocked by Chinas Great Firewall, a highly sophisticated system that blocks content critical of the ruling Chinese Communist party.

The Chinese Encyclopedia is not a book, but a Great Wall of culture, said Yang Muzhi, the editor-in-chief of the Chinese Encyclopedia, in April. He went on to say that China was under pressure internationally to commit to producing an online encyclopedia that would guide and lead the public and society.

Chinese internet companies like Qihoo 360 and Baidu currently have their own online encyclopedias, but are small in comparison to Wikipedia. China is also not the first country to create a rival to Wikipedia. In 2014, Russiaalso announced plans for an alternative version of Wikipedia, with the stated aim of providing better information about the country than was available on the platform, but which has been criticized for its pro Putin stance and revisionist view of history.

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China To Launch Own Version Of Wikipedia In 2018 - FileHippo News

ANKARA A Turkish court on Friday rejected an appeal by the online encyclopedia Wikipedia against a government decision to block access to its website, the state-run Anadolu news agency said, a case that has heightened concerns about censorship in Turkey.

An Ankara court rejected the appeal from the Wikimedia Foundation, which operates Wikipedia, Anadolu said. It quoted the court as saying that while freedom of speech was a fundamental right, it can be limited in cases where there is a "necessity for regulation".

Turkey's telecommunications watchdog said last week that access to Wikipedia had been blocked, citing a law allowing it to ban access to websites deemed a threat to national security.

The block on the site was prompted by two Wikipedia entries accusing Turkey of links to Islamist militant groups, local media have reported. The communications ministry has said Wikipedia was attempting to run a "smear campaign" against the country, saying some articles purported that Ankara was coordinating with militant groups.

The Wikimedia Foundation has called for the Turkish government to restore full access to the site.

(Reporting by Tuvan Gumrukcu; Editing by David Dolan)

WASHINGTON The Trump administration is likely to expand a ban on laptops on commercial aircraft to include some European countries, but is reviewing how to ensure lithium batteries stored in luggage holds do not explode in midair, officials briefed on the matter said on Wednesday.

Britain's opposition Labour Party will pledge to nationalise energy, rail and mail, The Daily Telegraph reported on Wednesday, citing a leaked copy ofLabour's draft election manifesto.

BEIRUT U.S.-backed Syrian militias said they fully seized the town of Tabqa and Syria's largest dam from Islamic State on Wednesday, a major objective as they prepare to launch an assault on Raqqa city.

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Turkish court rejects Wikipedia's appeal over website's blocking: Anadolu - Reuters