More and more websites are being banned in Turkey, including that of Oxford anti-religion advocate Richard Dawkins and a large newspaper, due to complaints. Courts have the power to rules sites blocked: 850 have been blocked this year
Ankara provokes controversy by censoring the internet in Turkey
By Yigal Schleifer, Source: Eurasianet
The growing number of websites being banned by Turkey’s courts and government is giving rise to concerns about Internet censorship. It is also stoking criticism of Ankara’s already troubled record on freedom of speech.
Some 850 websites have already been blocked in the country this year, the most recent being Blogger, a popular blog-hosting site owned by Google, which was recently blocked by court order because of illegal material found on a few blogs. Access to the popular video sharing site YouTube has been blocked since May, after amateurish clips mocking Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, modern Turkey’s founder, were posted on the site.
And recently a court allowed for the websites of Oxford evolutionist Richard Dawkins and one of Turkey’s largest newspapers to be banned after an Islamic creationist group complained about them.
– from e-Civicus http://www.eurasianet.org/departments/insightb/articles/eav110708a.shtml