Youtube receives thousands of visitors despite censorship in Turkey

In Turkey, censorship affects hundreds of Internet sites deemed obscene or insulting, but surfers scoff at that and go beyond the prohibitions with a few clicks, so Youtube, banned for two years, is the fifth most visited site by Turks.

The access to Youtube, famous video site, was banned on 18 September 2007 by a court in Sivas (east) following the complaint of an individual who reported the spread of clips which insulted the founder of the Turkish Republic, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk.
Atatürk (1881-1938), is considered a hero by most Turks, so that the videos were involved in a battle of Greeks and Turks surfers at the point of clips.

Attempts to access Youtube now have a website where you can read: "Access to that site is blocked by court decision."
Youtube is still the fifth most visited site in Turkey, according to statistics from Alexa Internet, a database on site attendance. In the internet cafes around the world know the addresses that make it possible to easily access the banned sites.

With two or three movements, Mehmet, a student of 16 years found an internet cafe in Istanbul's bohemian, shows how you can access the page of Youtube.
"I learned with friends, everyone can do it," said Young, who believes Internet censorship "meaningless and useless."

The proof is theoretical since in establishing a small set of computers provides access to YouTube.
"The only person in Turkey who can not get to Youtube is the judge who banned" joked the manager, Ayaz dine. Youtube is not the only one affected by censorship: until 11 May 2009, 2601 sites were banned in Turkey, including 81.4% for sexual content and 8.6% for insulting Atatürk, according to the Institute of information technology, and communication (BTK), quoted by the daily Birgün.

Une situation denounced by defenders of freedom of expression that bothered by the lack of clarity in legislation and the opacity of procedures that lead to censorship of sites.
"At the beginning the law was concerned only pornography, but later added other things, pornography in general, the glorification of drugs and suicide, insults to Atatürk and betting online ... They created a Frankenstein sort of legislative" considered Özgür Uçkan, a specialist in new media Bilgi University in Istanbul.

For both militants, widespread disrespect to censorship by Internet users - including the Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan admitted last year that came to YouTube, according to the press - not a solution to what they consider a violation of their rights.
"As everyone can get in (to the banned sites), people get used and is unaware of the reality of censorship," said Deniz. And so "it might be better than anyone could access," he added.