TURKEY SHOOTS DOWN YOUTUBE OVER INSULTING VIDEO
Tom Sanders in California

Computing, UK
VNUNet.com, UK
March 7 2007

Video rulted offensive to nation’s founder Ataturk

A Turkish court has ordered local ISPs to block access to the Youtube
video sharing service in response to the publication of a video that
mocked the nation’s founder Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.

The video displayed pictures of the founding father of the modern
Turkish with insults written over it in English.

Youtube has since removed the video and the ban on the website has
reportedly been lifted. It’s unclear when access to Youtube will
be restored.

The video was reportedly uploaded by an ethnic Greek from Cyprus.

Turkey and Greece have been battling each other over control of the
island. Turkey in 1974 invaded the territory and created the Turkish
Republic of Northern Cyprus that is only recognized by Turkey.

Turkey has an uneasy relation with freedom of speech. The nation’s
penal code makes it a crime to insult "Turkishness". Courts routinely
press charges against writers and journalists for mentioning the
Armenian genocide of 1915-1917. Turkey denies that a coordinated
ethnic cleansing ever occurred and blames the deaths on collateral
war and natural circumstances.