TURKEY LIFTS BAN ON YOUTUBE

About – News & Issues, NY
March 12 2007

Why did they ban it in the first place? Because there apparently were
some videos on there insulting Ataturk. (For the record, there are
videos on there insulting everybody.) According to the Associated
Press, a court ordered the popular video-sharing site blocked on
Wednesday pending demanded removal of the Ataturk stuff. Then,
suddenly:

"Ahter Kutadgu, head of corporate communications for Turk Telekom,
told the Anatolia news agency his company had been notified of a
court decision to lift the ban.

Kutadgu did not elaborate on the court’s reasoning. ‘As soon as the
court decision lifting the ban reached us, we immediately opened
YouTube,’ he said."

In 2005, Turkey outlawed "insulting Turkishness" and "insulting
Ataturk"; slain Armenian journalist Hrant Dink was convicted on the
Turkishness article.

Yet in addition to the regular clamps on freedom of expression seen
in such countries, the willy-nilly YouTube ban has an ominous edge
against citizen journalists. After all, it’s not the videos of people
performing "Jackass"-style stunts that such governments fear, but the
increasing use of video-sharing sites to distribute home footage of
government activities or protests around the globe.

__________________________________________ __________________________________________
Finding fabulous fares is fun.

Let Yahoo! FareChase search your favorite travel sites to find flight
and hotel bargains.

c-14795097