The Indymedia-Istanbul website, an independent news website, has been blocked to access since 21 March, after a decree by the Gaziantep Araban Criminal Court of Peace in the southeast of Turkey.

Turkey has banned access to the video-sharing website www.youtube.com again and again, and ranks high in suppression of webspace. The country has been criticised for blocking access to websites because of individual contributions to a site.

"Censorship is technically impossible" 

Indymedia was formed in January 2003 to counteract the dominance of mainstream media in supporting the status quo. Website representatives released a statement saying, “There are attempts to silence Indymedia with censorship, but these are only attempts. Prosecutors have not yet learned that censorship is technically impossible on the Internet.”

For now, the website can be accessed through http://istanbul.bbm.indymedia.org or http://anonymouse.org/anonwww.html, or by changing the DNS settings of net connections.

For the last two weeks, access to Youtube.com has also been blocked, because the Ankara 1st Criminal Court of Peace decreed that a video insulted Mustafa Kemal Atatürk.

Previous condemnation by RSF 

The Reporters without Borders (RSF) organisation had previously condemned the complete blocking of access to Youtube because of the content of one or several videos,  saying that this kind of penalty was “radical” and “disproportionate.” Brazil and Iran have carried out similar punitive measures.

The Wordpress.com website was blocked to access in August 2007 after a decree from the Fatih 2nd Civil Court of First Instance, and is still not accessible.

Previously, the Eksi Sözlük website, an alternative “dictionary”, and the Antoloji.com website were blocked. (EÖ/GG/AG)