LOC22:57
19:57 GMT
ANKARA, Oct 31 (KUNA) -- Turkey has lifted a two-year ban on YouTube, which
was imposed after the website had allowed the posting of videos deemed
insulting to the country's founder Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.
The ban was lifted after the offending videos were removed from the site,
it was announced in a staff address by the head of the country's prosecution
authority, according to the Turkish-based Anadolu news agency Sunday.
The prosecution called on state bodies to remove the Turkish ban imposed
since May 2008.
Meanwhile, civil society organisations welcomed the decision, expressing
the view that the law should not prevent freedom of expression or compromise
the right to information sources, also calling on bans of other sites to be
lifted.
Turkish Transport and Communications Minister Binali Yildirim had told
reporters on the matter, that Turkey is a nation controlled by the rule of law
and that everybody in the country is subject to the law.
The Turkish constitution forbids any insult to the founder of the
transformed secular republic. In the past, a number of writers and journalists
were jailed and fined after carrying out such an act.
Turkey remains to have bans on thousands of websites on moral, political
and security grounds.
Despite this, many Turks resort to internet proxy sites to overcome these
bans. (end)
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