Turkey orders YouTube blocked
A journalist watchdog group criticized Turkey on Thursday for ordering a ban on accessing the video-sharing Web site YouTube because of clips that allegedly insult the country’s leaders.
A court in the eastern city of Sivas on Wednesday ordered the country’s telecommunications company to block access to the popular Web site because of a video insulting Turkey’s founder, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, as well as President Abdullah Gul, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the army.
It was the second time Turkey has blocked access to YouTube, which is owned by Google Inc. In March, the site was blocked for two days after a complaint that some clips insulted Ataturk. The ban was lifted after the offending clips were removed.
“Blocking an entire Web site because of a few videos is a disproportionate measure,” the Paris-based Reporters Without Borders said. “We urge the authorities to reverse this decision.”
The site could be accessed on Thursday, and it was not clear when the ban would come into effect.
But the bans highlight Turkey’s shaky record on permitting free expression.
It is illegal in Turkey to insult Ataturk, a revered figure whose portrait hangs in nearly all government offices.
Several prominent Turkish journalists and writers — including Nobel literature prize winner Orhan Pamuk — have been tried for allegedly insulting “Turkishness.”
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