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An order issued by a Turkish court on 17 January 2008 blocked once again the access to Google's YouTube Web site on account of allegedly insulting clips referring to the country's founding father, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.
The ban lasted for 6 days and as no statements have been made by Turk Telekom which has implemented the ban or by YouTube representatives, it is not yet known whether the ban was lifted because the clips under question were removed.
The situation seems to be a repeated pattern as YouTube was first banned in March 2007 for similar allegations until the video considered disrespectful were removed by the site. A second time, in September, a Turkish court from the eastern city of Sivas decided to order the ISPs to block the access to YouTube for a video considered offending to Ataturk, President Abdullah Gul, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the Turkish army but the ban was not implemented.
The bans on YouTube are an expression of the problems Turkey has with freedom of expression. Turkish writers and journalists have been on trial for having allegedly brought insults to "Turkishness" and the country, which is seeking European Union membership, is already under EU pressure to improve the situation. The EU also asks Turkey to abolish an article in its penal code considered to violate free speech.
This situation is highly criticized in the country as well. Journalist Emre Aköz from Sabat considers that this ban places Turkey into the range undemocratic regimes and gives those that oppose the adherence of Turkey to the EU the occasion to say: "We told you these guys are pro-ban. They lack tolerance. They cannot bear hearing criticism. Here is the evidence." Posta journalist Mehmet Barlas' opinion is that "Can we now say that we have taken the virtual world under our control by banning YouTube? No. The virtual world is incredibly large, it is both close and far away and a digital world," and also added: "Blocking full access to a Web site, although possible to block only those controversial videos in this information era, is like blocking access to a school due to an unruly student or banning civil aviation due to an accident".
Turkey is not the only country having blocked YouTube. In 2007, the Thai government banned the site for almost four months for some clips considered offensive to King Bhumibol Adulyadej, Thailand's monarch and in Morocco the site could not be accessed after some users posted videos that were criticising the way in which Morocco was treating people of Western Sahara. The government has not admitted having blocked the site trying to accuse a technical fault but being unable to explain why the fault affected only YouTube site.
Turkey Bans YouTube for Second Time (20.01.2008)
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5iKUx9hP8rzGIKGJC5_Ml7OViYraQD8U9PRM...
Access to YouTube Resumes in Turkey (24.01.2008)
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5iKUx9hP8rzGIKGJC5_Ml7OViYraQD8UCF7L...
YouTube ban reduces Turkey to the ranks of backward states (23.01.2008)
http://www.todayszaman.com/tz-web/yazarDetay.do?haberno=132231
Turkey once again blocks access to YouTube (22.01.2008)
http://www.todayszaman.com/tz-web/detaylar.do?load=detay&link=1321...
EDRi-gram: Turkey blocks again YouTube (26.09.2007)
http://www.edri.org/edrigram/number5.18/turkey-youtube