Once again, YouTube is in the news for all the wrong reasons. A Turkish court has banned the Web site for hosting video clips that allegedly insult Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, Founder and First President of the Republic of Turkey.
All said, this is the second time that YouTube has been banned in Turkey. Earlier in March 2007, it was banned for the same reasons. However, the ban was lifted two days later when the offending videos were removed from the Web site. This time, though it isn't clear exactly which videos are found disrespectful of Ataturk, there's a general consensus that the video comparing Ataturk with a monkey is the one to blame for the ban. Under Turkish law, it is illegal to insult honorable Ataturk, whose picture still hangs faithfully in most government offices, nearly 70 years after his death. Those now trying to access YouTube in Turkey will be served a notice saying "Access to this Web site has been suspended in accordance with decision no: 2008/55 of T R Ankara 12th Criminal Court of Peace." Meanwhile, Turkey isn't the first country to ban YouTube. Last year the popular video sharing Web site was banned by the Thai government for hosting defaced images of their revered monarch, King Bhumibol Adulyadej. The ban was lifted not before four months later, when Google-owned YouTube agreed to block all videos deemed offensive to the Thai people. In a similar vein, Youtube was also banned in Morocco (North Africa) for posting videos showing the kind of treatment meted out by Morocco to the people of Western Sahara, a territory that was taken over by Morocco in 1975.
