Turkish court shuts down YouTube

By Vincent Boland in Istanbul
Financial Times

Published: March 7 2007 17:05 | Last updated: March 7 2007 17:05

Turkey’s largest internet services provider shut down access to the YouTube
video-sharing web site on Wednesday after a court ruling that some of its
content insulted Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of modern Turkey.

The decision followed days of furious insult-sharing among Turkish and Greek
users of the popular and controversial site.

The result was a flood of complaints to the site and to the media from
Turkish users angered by what one newspaper said were "fanatic Greeks
broadcasting videos" insulting Ataturk.

Turk Telekom acted first by removing the offending items, but a court
ordered access to the site to be blocked late on Tuesday after prosecutors
brought a case against YouTube.

A message posted on the site late on Wednesday said access had been
suspended following a decision by an Istanbul court. One video posted on the
site allegedly claimed that Ataturk and Turks were "homosexuals". Ataturk,
who died in 1938, is a revered figure in Turkey and it is a crime to
"insult" him or state institutions. Many writers, including the Nobel
literature laureate Orhan Pamuk, have faced trial for work that allegedly
breaches this law.

Paul Doany, chief executive of Turk Telekom, said the company had received a
faxed copy of the court’s decision on Tuesday. "YouTube’s services have been
suspended in Turkey in accordance with this decision," he said.

The site would remain blocked until the court decided otherwise.

The decision to shut off access to the site was not a judgement on the
material broadcast, he added, but a response to a legal decision. The
government has promised to look at ways of amending article 301 of Turkey’s
penal code, under which prosecutions of writers can be brought. But it
appears unlikely that the article will be abolished, as campaigners have
urged.