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  • Turkey blocks YouTube

    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
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