Please note: This blocking was overturned in the courts and was because of some people in Turkey watching live football via the blogs I believe and I think that Digiturk complained to the courts. So blogspot.com is once again active so this story is old.
The title above says it all. Whether it is this site that made us get banned, which I doubt it very much, or whether it was someone else's who maybe said something about Ataturk, religion or the Turkish state. Or maybe even someone mentioned that the flag would look nice with two stars on it or with a hint of blue. Whatever and whoever it was probably didn't say anything that out of order but unfortunately at the moment the whole of Turkey is experiencing change. Although on the surface everything seems fine, they are implementing changes in the legal system, the health system and other areas of importance but they are jumpy at the moment and are cracking down on anything and everything anti-Turkish, anything deemed pornographic and against Turkishness. Crazy! I know!! If you have a voice you should be able to use it, if you have a pen you should be able to write with it and if you have a computer you should be able blog with it and interconnect with all manner and types of people. It is through communication with many different people that we educate ourselves.
I thought this was a small time thing blocking sites to disable the act of foreign people and local Turkish people reading what they want to read and deciding for themselves whether the facts are true or not, whether the site is suitable for them or not, but it turns out that is not allowed in fact - It is FORBIDDEN!! Why! Because believe it or not the average Turk has to have an imaginary mummy telling them what is allowed and what isn't. This isn't the reality but unfortunately the state or dark figures in the shadows believe it is. So they have banned blogspot.com, so they have banned google videos because of an offending video. What's next, they can't ban everything, or can they? Maybe it is possible like in China but who is this helping if on the surface it looks like Turkey is modernising but underneath they are actually going backwards full steam ahead to the dark ages. I feel sorry for Turks, the internet is being advertised everywhere nowadays and it is getting cheaper and cheaper but what really is the point of getting accessing to the world wide web (www) if all you will be able to access is sites with the local clergyman praying, Turkish music (as long as it is only love ballads and not that satanic rock music) and sites about how wonderful Turkey is. That may be good for a while but it is a like a sandwich without the filling. Turkey has good things but it has it's dark side too. By limiting people's ability to decide for themselves they are enslaving their own population, what's next sharia law. Turks still have a voice, how will the state stop Turkish people conversing with foreigners?
Stop all international travel.
All foreigners entering Turkey should have their mouths stapled shut and their hands cut off to prevent them writing as well as speaking truths about the world.
Foreigners should carry around a plackard saying, "DO NOT TALK TO ME I AM A YABANCI (foreigner) AND YOU MAY START THINKING DIFFERENTLY."
All foreigners who have full access to the internet will be confined to their rooms when in Turkey.
All Turkish resort areas shall stop immediately selling alcohol and the traditional belly dance will be banned also.
Turkish people will be banned from going abroad, and if they do go abroad they shall have to wear an electronic bracelet so that if activated via suspicious activity on banned sites outside of Turkey, or if they talk to any foreigners about anything that is banned by BIG BROTHER, then immediately they will be buzzed with 100,000 volts of electric pacifying energy.
It may seem far off but believe me once you start to ban things everything becomes an option to ban.
Let's hope that they don't take this too far but maybe they already have!!
I could only access my blog by a tunneling program which bypasses normal means of traversing the net but these program are well known. They are not actually stopping people from viewing these iste but just making it harder for them to access. Probably thinking that people will give up and not bother. What they are not considering and putting in to the mix is that people have a thirst for knowledge and once you have opened pandoras box the only option is to allow access, you cannot nail the lid shut. If this occurs people start to believe you are trying to hide something.
So with my blog at that time, because of the banning of blogspot.com a google offshoot, the only people who could possibly read my Izmir blog for local ex-pats and for local Turks if they are interested in reading it, is people outside of Turkey, which is not what it was intended for. So if you were outside ofTurkey you could have read this blog but if you were in Turkey, you wouldn't have been able to read it! If you wanted to read the blog or any blog on blogspot.com whilst in Turkey then you had to use a tunneling site like Z Tunnel
Censorship in Turkey including list of blocked sites and reasons.
Information on Blogspot.com
Banned writer and wordpress banned
YOU TUBE Banned Again
Funny video referring to Censorship - Censored Art ADULTS ONLY - if they had removed the censorship!
The banning of blogspot.com was only a temporary measure and freedom once again reigned supreme. But other bans are more permanant.
Happy surfing knowledge hunters in Turkey and beyond!
Izmir-2-Blogger
E-mail your contributions *here*
27 October 2008
Unbelievable - Blogspot banned in Turkey - Why! God only knows!!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
Why is it that the Turkish state thinks all of their citizens are small children who should be shielded from anything and everything that they disapprove of. Your citizens are grown adults and grown adults the world over are allowed to decide for themselves on all major decisions that affect their lives. Even if these are wrong decisions that they make it is up to them or the people they rely on to help them in their decisions. However it should definitely not be left up to the hidden state, whos only job is to control the public and their views.
Peace and Freedom to all Turks!!
Xerox Seller.
Copying freedom but never propaganda!!!
Living abroad.........
Hey, was laughing my socks off as I read your piece on driving in Turkey from October, I live in NZ and your writing is very witty and cheered me up bigtime. Thankfully being an ex-pat from UK, in NZ we drive on the same side of the road as Britain, still there are mad drivers here also, they think nothing of running up the inside or outside of you, anywhere at anytime. They also have 3 lanes on some normal roads which seem like a motorway only you can't go over 40 miles an hr. The roads are also really wide giving you a false sense of space until the bus/lorry decides to waver out of their lane! There is a strange rule,when you are turning left into a junction, if no one is travelling past you in the same direction, and there is someone approaching to turn right into the same junction, even though you are free to go, you have to let them go first, even if it means the arse of your car is still stuck out of the corner, ready to be clipped by someone who thinks you will be outa the way quicker than you actually will be!
Being couteous seems a good way to get your arse end of your car bashed. Most cars in NZ have bumps on them. Mine was in a car park for half an hr and some kind person bumped the back of my car as I was in the bank, arranging my car insurance! typical. Yet the car parks are huge with plenty of space! Trouble is in our area there are lots of elderly folks who perhaps should go to the optical suppliers to update their specs! Thanx for reading....
Post a Comment