19 April 2008...6:48 pm
censorship//inaugural 1st real post
Welcome to the first Letto post! It’s taken me a while to get my act together, but as you can see, we’re ready to roll. Cihan and I have been sifting over the logistics since late December, a hard task over winter break, since WordPress was banned in Turkey. Basically, we would send screenshots back and forth until we agreed about anything. Luckily, her opinion matters much.
It seems that the ban opened many Western eyes to the slowly-emerging firewall project in Turkey, who has joined China, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Syria and others. In China’s case, the high-profile Golden Shield Project (ironically dubbed The Great Firewall of China) made waves with Google, when the internet giant agreed to comply with Beijing’s censorship regulations. Interestingly enough, earlier in the year, Turkish access to YouTube was suspended (when videos were uploaded criticizing Ataturk, the so-called “father of modern Turkey”), and then lifted after a widespread outcry.
The current ban was instigated through a religious/defamation conflict via Adnan Oktar and his lawyers. Help-Pakistan writes:
the new Turkish Pro-Islamic Government has now decided to clamp down on all blogs hosted on WordPress.com, and also on Blogcu.com, since one specific site adnanoktar.wordpress.com had hurled insulting remarks against Adnan Oktar, a leading Muslim advocate of creationism, who is an active leader in the creation vs. evolution debate, subscribing to the Old Earth Creationism concept…
Seven months later, the ban continues. Mideast Youth has started a petition urging to lift the ban, and The Great Firewall of Turkey has instructions for how to access WordPress via Wordprexy. Amit Agarwal over at Digital Inspiration has also compiled other ways to bypass government censorship initiatives.
We at Letto stand in solidarity with these communities, and the continued struggle for freedom of expression under state power.
– Joyce
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