Attivismo civico & Terzo settore
Its NoTube for Turkey
Turkey is one of the few countries in the world where Youtube is not accessible ...
di Bianet
Youtube, the world’s biggest video sharing website, has been inaccessible for three months for showing “offensive” images. Last week authorities closed down Dailymotion.com without explanation.
After Youtube.com, the biggest video sharing site in the internet, that cannot be accessed from Turkey since May 2008, another site, Dailymotion.com, has become inaccessible. Like Youtube, Dailymotion.com is a video sharing site. No explanation has been offered for the decision to ban the site.
No-Tube
Ankara’s 11th Criminal Court of Peace banned Youtube on April 24, 2008 and Ankara’s 5th Criminal Court of Peace ensured that the site remained inaccessible with a decision taken on April 30. The ban was extended by another decision by Ankara’s 11th Criminal Court of Peace on June 6.
“We will not open the site until the image is removed from everywhere in the world”. Speaking at the Abant meeting organized by the Ankara Bar and Turk.internet.com, press prosecutor for the Ankara Office of prosecutor Nadi Türkaslan said that Youtube.com removed the images that caused the website to be banned from its Turkish database, but not from other national databases. Until all insulting images are removed from the rest of the world, Youtube will not be accessible from Turkey.
“Youtube refuses to collaborate”
When questioned, communications minister Binali Yildirim said Youtube.com was shut down because it refused to collaborate with the internet security presidency. According to Yildirim, Youtube refuses to open a tax paying agency in Turkey and to request an authorisation document. Youtube, on the other hand, says that it cannot accept the conditions imposed as they do not physically operate from Turkey.
The guilty images that have caused such a stir are images that “insult the memory of the founder of the Turkish republic, Atatürk”.
Turkey is one of the few countries in the world where Youtube is not accessible – others include China, Iran and Thailand. But freedom of speech NGO Reporters Without Borders (RSF) did not include Turkey in the list of countries hostile to the internet.
To contact the author: hukuk@bianet.org
