Kurdish websites forbidden in Turkey

[Vladimir]

A black humorist named his business the Virüs Internet Café. It is located down a side street in Doğubayazıt, and is heated by a woodstove; still, everybody keeps his winter jacket on. Trying to log onto Kurdish Web sites such as kurdmedia.com, interkurd.com, or undertaking a Wikipedia search for �Kurdistan� all generate the following message: �Bu Sayfa Yasak Siteler Listesinde Kayıtlı ve Bloklandı.� Translation: �This site is listed as forbidden and has been blocked.�


Reporters sans Frontières, the independent advocacy group that campaigns for and monitors freedom of the press, reports that in Turkey �Cybercafé owners were ordered in December 2003 to install filters to block access to pornographic Web sites and to prevent their premises being used to promote gambling, pornography, political separatism or any challenge to the structure of the state. Two-thirds of Internet activity in Turkey occurs through the country's 15,000 or so cybercafés.�

http://www.turkishdailynews.com.tr/arti ... wsid=63934

Turkish trouble on the Internet, from Zone-H.org and Info-Turk:


A bill has been recently approved in Turkey as a countermeasure against indecent broadcasting and online gambling. This measure will give the national Information technology Security Agency the authority to block any broadcast that is believed to threaten state security, as stated in Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code.

As reported on January 4th by the Turkish web newspaper Yeni Safak, the approval of the bill has re-opened the debate about freedom of expression on the Internet in Turkey because according to the new draft , the IT Security Agency will work as a sort of “huge eyes” with the task of suing any violation of the controversial Article 301.

[ . . . ]

Amnesty International considers that the attempt to draw a distinction between criticism and denigration is highly problematic...especially on the Internet, where people is used to express their opinion quite “freely” in forums, blogs and other digital spaces.

Turkish web surfers are now seriously threatened by constant intrusions in their private “digital life” and they could be persecuted for any action that in some way could be considered as against “Turkishness”.

[dyaoko]

who had told me, in turkey Unlike iran at least they have freedom of speech ? there is no true freedom of speech in turkey.

[dyaoko]

can anybody check if Roj Bash site is blocked too ?