YouTube Gets Second Ban From Turkey

Ankara, Turkey (AHN) - The popular video sharing website YouTube was banned for the second time by a court in Turkey, due to some posted videos that allegedly sent out insults to the country's founding father, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.

The court order deprived Turkish residents Internet access to the website as of Friday, with them receiving instead an Internet notice saying "Access to this web site has been suspended in accordance with decision no: 2008/55 of T.R. Ankara 12th Criminal Court of Peace."

Although there was still no clear specification as to which video had caused the ban, the offensive posting was said to have compared Ataturk with a monkey. The video was said to have subverted a law that deems it illegal to insult Ataturk, the reverence for whom is shown by his portrait being on every government office since his death 70 years ago.

There was still no announcement on how long the ban would last, according to the Denver Post.

Turkish court had instigated a two-day ban from the website back in March of 2005 for the same reason. The ban was lifted after the offensive videos had been taken down.

According to Xinhua, YouTube had previously been banned from Thailand back in 2007, with allegations saying that several posted clips were "offensive" towards the country's monarch, King Bhumibol Adulyadej.

The Thailand ban lasted for four months.