Out-Law.com, UK
March 8 2007

Turkey blocks YouTube

OUT-LAW News, 08/03/2007

Turkey has taken steps to prevent access to YouTube after a video
insulting Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of modern Turkey, was
posted on the site.

By John Oates for The Register.
This story has been reproduced with permission.

Turk Telecom took the action on orders from a court. The telco said
it would lift the ban, with the approval of the court, if the
offending video was removed. YouTube has seen a violent slanging
match between Greeks and Turks with dozens of response videos posted.

Paul Doany, head of Turk Telecom, said: "We are not in the position
of saying that what YouTube did was an insult, that it was right or
wrong. A court decision was proposed to us, and we are doing what
that court decision says."

The original video was posted by a user called Stavraetos. Greeks and
Turks, and the odd Armenian, used the video sharing site to chuck
insults at each other. The mainstream Turkish media took up the row.

Insulting Ataturk is a criminal offence in Turkey punishable by
prison.

In another blow for the brave new world of user-generated content,
France is banning anyone except reporters from videoing violent acts.
The legislation, proposed by Nicholas Sarkozy, aims to stop incidents
of happy slapping by imposing big fines on anyone filming such
attacks.

But the law is so widely drafted that several bloggers and Reporters
Sans Frontieres have pointed out it could be used to stop genuine
reporting.

Macworld noted that the law came exactly 16 years after an amateur
videographer filmed the beating of Rodney King by Los Angeles police
officers. Under the new law French police should be protected from
such an invasion of privacy.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress