Originally published March 8, 2007 at 12:00 AM | Page modified March 8, 2007 at 2:01 AM
Turkey blocks YouTube after icon insulted
Looking to check out the latest videos of cavorting kittens and lovelorn lip-synchers on YouTube? If you live in Turkey, you're out of luck...
Los Angeles Times
ISTANBUL, Turkey — Looking to check out the latest videos of cavorting kittens and lovelorn lip-synchers on YouTube? If you live in Turkey, you're out of luck.
A Turkish court, acting on a prosecutor's recommendation, on Wednesday ordered the blocking of access to the enormously popular free video-sharing Web site because it featured clips that allegedly insulted Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of the modern Turkish state.
Turkey's largest telecommunications provider, Turk Telekom, which has a near-monopoly in Internet access in this country of 70 million, said it had voluntarily agreed to block the site. The company took no position on whether the video clips in question had in fact denigrated Ataturk, a revered figure here.
YouTube, which is owned by Mountain View, Calif.-based Google Inc., issued a statement expressing disappointment in the Turkish government's ban.
"The Internet is an international phenomenon, and while technology can bring great opportunity and access to information globally, it can also present new and unique cultural challenges," YouTube said. "We respect the authorities in Turkey and are committed to working with them to resolve this. We should note, however, that the video in question is no longer on the site."
It's not the first time YouTube has been banned. The Australian state of Victoria recently banned it from government schools in a crackdown on cyber-bullying after a gang of male students videotaped their assault on a 17-year-old girl on the outskirts of Melbourne.
In Turkey, it is a crime punishable by imprisonment to denigrate "Turkishness" or Ataturk. The statute is sometimes used to prosecute people who criticize official government policy on a wide range of sensitive issues.
The national taboo on freewheeling debate took a lethal turn in January, when newspaper editor Hrant Dink, who had campaigned for Turkey to acknowledge that the deaths of millions of Armenians in 1915 constituted a genocide, was gunned down in daylight outside the offices of his bilingual newspaper.
The Hurriyet newspaper reported on Wednesday that YouTube had received tens of thousands of e-mails protesting the depiction of Ataturk as a homosexual, and that the video clips in question had been removed.
Copyright © 2007 The Seattle Times Company
Service sector shrinks less than expected in June
UPDATE - 04:30 PM
Obama, Medvedev agree to deal to cut nuke weapons
Ousted Honduras leader blocked from return by air
Pakistan attack targets nuclear lab workers
UPDATE - 03:29 PM
Appeals loom in GM plan to sell assets

2009 fireworks time lapse
With strict parking rules enforced at this year's July 4th celebration on Wallingford Ave North, less cars and more spectators filled the streets.
Entertainment | Top Video | World | Offbeat Video | Sci-Tech
shopping

events for Monday, Jul. 6th
- Blackbird Spring Half-Yearly Sale
- Posh on Main Semiannual Sale
- REI Summer Sale and Clearance
- Market Street Shoes and Market Street...
editors' picks
More shopping guides- Seattle may allow homeowners to build backyard cottages
- Landmark Smith Tower mostly vacant
- Police: McNair's girlfriend bought gun Thursday
- Property taxes: Appeals shoot up in King, Snohomish Counties
- Mariners Blog | What the Seattle Mariners learned on their road trip
- Palin links resignation to 'higher calling' and blasts media in Facebook posting
- Former NFL MVP McNair killed
- Climber who died in fall was Duvall woman
- Hard times for tourist towns means good deals for travelers
- New laws help tenants evicted due to foreclosure
- Palin links resignation to 'higher calling' and blasts media in Facebook posting
216 - What Mariners learned on this road trip
149 - Tent City on campus: UW stalls decision
117 - FBI denounces rumors: Palin not investigated
91 - Seattle may allow homeowners to build backyard cottages
91 - New laws help tenants evicted due to foreclosure
72 - 2 wounded in Central District drive-by shooting
63 - Bicyclist fatally hit by SUV outside Bremerton
63 - Bellevue ordinance would fine retailers for not collecting runaway shopping carts
61 - Mariners did their part, now they need help
51
- Seattle may allow homeowners to build backyard cottages
- Property taxes: Appeals shoot up in King, Snohomish Counties
- Researchers stunned by inmates' success raising endangered frogs
- Hard times for tourist towns means good deals for travelers
- Landmark Smith Tower mostly vacant
- 250 gather in field near Twisp for fairy congress
- New laws help tenants evicted due to foreclosure
- Microsoft warns of serious computer security hole
- Plasma and LCD beware; OLED screens ready to go mainstream
- Seattle safety project: A snake shelter on Beacon Hill



