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Turkish Commission Bans Offending Web Sites

Only weeks after a Turkish court decided to ban access to YouTube on a temporarily basis, a parliamentary commission in Turkey approved a proposal to block certain sites from the public Many young people use YouTube`s video service, and after some clips were reported of insulting Ataurk, Turkish authorities managed to ban the site for two days. Now, a decision was mad on Thursday and address web sites that contain deeming information about the founder of modern Turkey. Although a date has not been declared, the Turkish parliament will vote on the decision in the near future.

It seems that the Turkish people do not feel as comfortable about the Western form of freedom of expression as other Western countries. Lawmakers in the country are now debating where or not to expand this form of online censorship to include web sites that question the principles of the Turkish secular system or sites that address the unity of the country. As it is illegal in Turkey to speak about breaking up the state, blocking access to sites that portray such illegal content does not seem that farfetched.

Sites that insult Ataturk, the man who founded modern turkey, are considered to be sites that promote illegal activities, and as such ? will be banned. Several journalists and writers in the country have been tried in the past for taking a stand against Ataturk and what the man stands for. Turkey does not want people to insult the "turkishness" of the country, and it does not want people to be exposed to such content online.