Turkey to block ‘insulting’ Web sites
CNN.com
April 12, 2007

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — A parliamentary commission approved a proposal
Thursday allowing Turkey to block Web sites that are deemed insulting
to the founder of modern Turkey, weeks after a Turkish court
temporarily barred access to YouTube.

Parliament plans to vote on the proposal, though a date was not
announced. The proposal indicates the discomfort that many Turks feel
about Western-style freedom of expression, even though Turkey has been
implementing widespread reforms in its bid to join the European Union.

On Thursday, lawmakers in the commission also debated whether the
proposal should be widened to allow the Turkish Telecommunications
Board to block access to any sites that question the principles of the
Turkish secular system or the unity of the Turkish state — a
reference to Web sites with information on Kurdish rebels in Turkey.

It is illegal in Turkey to talk of breaking up the state or to insult
Ataturk, the revered founder of modern Turkey whose image graces every
denomination of currency and whose portrait hangs in nearly all
government offices.

Ataturk is held to be responsible for creating a secular republic from
the crumbling, Islamic Ottoman Empire.

Several prominent Turkish journalists and writers, including Nobel
Prize winner Orhan Pamuk, have been tried for allegedly insulting
Ataturk or for the crime of insulting "Turkishness."

European calls for free speech have angered some nationalist Turks,
who view the recommendations as interference in their internal
affairs.

Last month, Turkey blocked access to the popular video-sharing site
YouTube after a complaint that some videos insulted Ataturk. The ban
was lifted two days later.

Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.