YouTube awaits Turkey's return
ISTANBUL, Turkey (AP) - March 27, 2008 The videos, which a Turkish prosecutor deemed insulting to the
country's revered founding father, were removed, YouTube said in a
statement e-mailed to The Associated Press on Thursday.
"We reviewed the videos that led to the most recent ban on
access and removed them because of their content, which violate
YouTube's content policy," it said in Turkish.
Two weeks ago a court in the capital, Ankara, imposed a ban on
access to the site at the request of a prosecutor who had argued
the clips were disrespectful to Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, a war hero
who founded Turkey from the ruins of the Ottoman Empire in the
1920s.
Access to the site in Turkey remained blocked on Thursday
morning, and Turkish authorities could not be reached for comment
on when access might resume.
Turkey has imposed temporary bans on access to YouTube on
similar grounds in the past, but access was restored in each case
after the Web site removed videos that had drawn Turkish
complaints.
Under Turkish law, it is a crime to insult Ataturk, who died
seven decades ago.
The YouTube bans in Turkey have highlighted the country's
troubled record on free expression, which Turkey wants to improve
as part of its bid to join the European Union.
