Blogger.com banned in Turkey

A Turkish court has blocked access to the popular blog hosting service Blogger (Blogger.com and Blogspot.com owned by Google), since Friday, October 24th, 2008. According to BasBasBas.com, a Dutch blogger based in Istanbul

Turkish Internet users are seeing this message when trying to visit Blogger.com and all blogs hosted on blogspot.com hosting service: “Access to this website has been suspended in accordance with decision no. 2008/2761 of the TR Diyarbakir First Criminal Court of Peace.”

read more on Defending Free Speech Online  http://advocacy.globalvoicesonline.org/

A brief list of things I cannot do on the Internet in Turkey

1. Watch videos of sneezing pandas and cats playing the piano. A Turkish court banned access to YouTube in March 2007.
2. Download Ubuntu Linux for my laptop. A Turkish court blockaded the Pirate Bay and other torrent trackers in September 2007.
3. Visit the crappy website I made in middle school. A Turkish court censored Geocities in February.
4. Read the writing of one of my favorite thinkers, Richard Dawkins. A Turkish court blocked his website last month.
5. Keep up with my friends Dan, Anne Marie, Ke, Angela, Janet, Will, Paul, Jess, and Kasia. A Turkish court banned their blogs today.[1]

TURKISH AUTHORITIES STEP UP CENSORSHIP OF INTERNET WEBSITES

TURKISH AUTHORITIES STEP UP CENSORSHIP OF INTERNET WEBSITES

By Gareth Jenkins

Friday, October 3, 2008

In the early hours of October 4, 2005, Turkey officially began accession negotiations with the EU. Over the previous four years, in order to secure a date for the opening of negotiations, successive Turkish governments had eased many of the restrictions on freedom of expression in the country. Since October 2005, however, the process has ground to a halt. Indeed, in some areas, it appears to have gone into reverse, particularly in the increasing attempts to censor the Internet.

blogger.com banned in Turkey

Since today, whoever tries to access Blogger or any *.blogspot.com domain from Turkey will get the following message on my screen:

“

this site banned …

“

This is the same message we get if we try to visit YouTube, which is also banned in Turkey. In the past blogging platform WordPress.com has been banned as well (read more), to much dismay of many Turkish bloggers.

read more on  http://www.basbasbas.com

ban on Richard Dawkins’ website

Turkish court has set a ban on Richard Dawkins’ website.

The Guardian UK reports

A Turkish court has banned internet users from viewing the official Richard Dawkins website after a Muslim creationist claimed its contents were defamatory and blasphemous.

Adnan Oktar, who writes under the pen name of Harun Yahya, complained that Dawkins, a fierce critic of creationism and intelligent design, had insulted him in comments made on forums and blogs.

According to Oktar’s office, Istanbul’s second criminal court of peace banned the site earlier this month on the grounds that it “violated” Oktar’s personality.

His press assistant, Seda Aral, said: “We are not against freedom of speech or expression but you cannot insult people.

“We found the comments hurtful. It was not a scientific discussion. There was a line and the limit has been passed.

“We have used all the legal means to stop this site. We asked them to remove the comments but they did not.”

The Blue-eyed Giant, The Miniature Woman and the Honeysuckle

yellow tulips, Istanbul Tulip Festival, Pentax K10D

THE BLUE-EYED GIANT, THE MINIATURE WOMAN AND THE HONEYSUCKLE

He was a blue-eyed giant,
He loved a miniature woman.
The woman’s dream was of a miniature house
with a garden where honeysuckle
grows in a riot of colors;
that sort of house.

The giant loved like a giant,
and his hands were used to such big things
that the giant could not
make the building,
could not knock on the door
of the garden where the honeysuckle grows
in a riot of colors
at that house.