Turkish court reverses government’s ban on YouTube
Reporting from Ankara, Turkey — Turkey’s highest court on Thursday ruled that the country’s ban on YouTube is a violation of freedom of expression — a setback for Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who had advocated shutting down the video-sharing website.
The Constitutional Court ruled that blocking access to YouTube amounted to a violation of constitutional rights. The court said it would notify telecommunications authorities of its decision that access be restored, the state-run Anadolu Agency reported.
The restrictions on YouTube were imposed in late March after an audio recording of a government security meeting was leaked. In the recording, senior officials appeared to be discussing a possible military intervention in Syria.
Early last month, the high court ordered Turkish authorities to stop blocking access to the micro-blogging site Twitter. The moves by authorities to block the social networks have provoked widespread criticism by Western governments and human-rights organizations.
Following the high court ruling on Twitter, Erdogan said his government did not respect the decision but would comply with it.
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