YouTube banned twice in Turkey within a week
AKP Watch January 23rd, 2008
YouTube managed to be banned twice in Turkey within a week by having rulings from two separate courts consecutively.
The initial ruling came from Ankara Criminal Court on 17th January. Four days later, YouTube stated that they removed alleged videos and filed an appealed to lift the ban. However very same day, in another city, the Criminal Court of Sivas ruled to ban YouTube again. As of today, there are two seperate court orders to ban YouTube in Turkey.
As Turkish Traditional Media is almost totally under ruling Islamic AK Party’s control, YouTube emerged as an alternative free speech platform for opponent voices such as Yalcin Kucuk, Tuncay Ozkan and Nihat Genc. For this reason, surpression of internet based opposition is the one of highest priorities of Islamic AK Party government.
Although Turkish Courts are doing great job to silence internet based opposition, recently Islamic AK Party passed a new internet legislation to form an internet authority enabled by unrestricted powers to ban any internet site without court ruling.
Meanwhile yet another free speech platform, WordPress is still banned in Turkey since last six months.
