Turkey blocks again YouTube

A Turkish court from the eastern city of Sivas decided on 18 September 2007
to order the ISPs to block the access to YouTube, considering that one of
the video hosted there insulted Turkey’s founding father, Mustafa Kemal
Ataturk, President Abdullah Gul, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the
Turkish army.

Anatolia news agency reported that the order “has been forwarded to the
state regulatory body, the Telecommunications Board, to be put into
effect.” YouTube declared it was ready to cooperate with Turkish authorities
to resolve the dispute.

The trial has been initiated by a citizen from Sivas, who complained to the
Turkish prosecutors on that video content.

The decision triggered prompt reaction from Reporters Without Borders:
“Blocking an entire website because of a few videos is a disproportionate
measure,” the press freedom organisation said. “We urge the authorities to
reverse this decision.”

Turkey is not at the first case of this kind, in March 2007 a court
obtaining the blocking of the entire YouTube website for two days until some
videos allegedly insulting Ataturk were removed from the website.

Another trial related to a video uploaded on YouTube was brought against a
Turkish punk band, that produced a song considered to have insulted the
Turkish authorities by complaining about a university entrance exam.

The song of the band “Deli” or “Crazy” was several years old, but came into
the prosecutors attention after a teenager posted it on the video sharing
site last year. The song says that “Life should not be a prison because of
an exam” or “I have gotten lost/ You have ruined my future …”

However, a court decided on the 25 September this year to drop the charges
considering that the crime of insulting had not been proved.

Court orders YouTube blocked (20.09.2007)
http://www.turkishdailynews.com.tr/article.php?enewsid=83842

YouTube access again blocked by court order because of “insulting” videos
(20.09.2007)
http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=23714

Turkey orders YouTube blocked over clips (20.09.2007)
http://www.businessweek.com/ap/tech/D8RP94F80.htm

Court clears punk band of charges of insulting authorities (26.09.2007)
http://www.turkishdailynews.com.tr/article.php?enewsid=84424

EDRI-gram: YouTube blocked for 2 days in Turkey (14.03.2007)
http://www.edri.org/edrigram/number5.5/youtube-turkey