Maybe they're confused by the example the French are setting (see other thread). Perhaps they think that to join the EU one has to close down User Generated media outlets and imprison citizen journalists. Remember the French legal ruling in 2000 to censor Yahoo?
I'm sure it won't last. A political football, but one worthy of a lot of protest. I hope the voters give them hell. Turkey is, for all the bad press it gets, not a backward country. It's easy for us to look at it through an orientalist lens. It has a fast growing economy and a thriving democratic government that tries to achieve a separation of (Islamic) church and state. But there are certain laws there that restrict freedom of speech - mostly to do with insulting Turkey, its history and heroes, it seems. Feelings can run pretty hot on this stuff - last month a journalist was shot on the street for accusing Turkey of genocide in 1915. Nobel laureate novelist Orhan Pamuk was almost taken to trial for talking about the same thing. But YouTube, from what I gather, was shut down because some Greek people called Ataturk gay. That may seem pretty backward, but I think it's interesting to think about how such a thing could easily happen in our own backyard. We don't have total freedom of speech in the UK - for instance, last year Blair made it against the law to incite religious hatred in the UK. "Incitement to religious hatred" might be open to interpretation. And I can see how a modern European country like the UK or France could end up fighting something like this in the courts. That's what worries me. And I can see the 'happy slapping' law from France coming here, too. Rupert On 7 Mar 2007, at 17:18, Charles Hope wrote: And then they're confused as to why they're finding difficulty joining the EU. It's called the 20th Century, guys. Join it. > -----Original Message----- > From: videoblogging@yahoogroups.com > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Gokcen Karan > Sent: Wednesday, March 07, 2007 11:10 > To: videoblogging@yahoogroups.com > Subject: [videoblogging] Turkish goverment banned YOUTUBE!... > Please forward everybody!... > > Dear Friends; > > Turkish goverments banned www.youtube.com in Turkey. > Somebodies put a video about Ataturk in youtube (Ataturk is > founder of Turkish republic) and defamation about him. Of > course it's not a good thing but banned a website I think is > not a democratic movement. Because only one video is included > this bad thing why other thousands videos are banned? I don't > understand why? And this reason Turkish goverment banned > youtube today. > > And if you type www.youtube.com on your internet browser > anywhere in Turkey you will see below message. > > > * > __________________________________________________________ > __________________ > * > > *Bu siteye eriþim mahkeme kararýyla engellenmiþtir !...* > > *www.youtube.com* <http://www.youtube.com> sitesine eriþim > Ýstanbul 1. Sulh Ceza Mahkemesi'nin 2007/384 sayý ve > 06.03.2007 tarihli kararý gereði engellenmiþtir. > > Access to *www.youtube.com* > <https://mail.google.com/mail/www.youtube.com>site has been > suspended in accordance with decision no: 2007/384 dated > 06.03.2007 of Istanbul First Criminal Peace Court. > > __________________________________________________________ > __________________ > > Gokcen Karan > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] > > > > ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor > --------------------~--> Yahoo! Groups gets a make over. See > the new email design. > http://us.click.yahoo.com/hOt0.A/lOaOAA/yQLSAA/lBLqlB/TM > ---------------------------------------------------------- > ------~-> > > > Yahoo! Groups Links > > > > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
