Minister Yıldırım: YouTube or any Other Ordinary Person...

Transport Minister Binali Yıldırım joint the discussion on the access ban imposed to the video sharing site YouTube two years ago. "Everybody in this country is obliged to abide by the laws. We do not meddle with anybody's freedom to do internet commerce. Turkey is a state of law. Everybody should be tied to the force of law", the minister said.

Yıldırım had a message for the people protesting the internet censorship as well, "They might be willing representatives and passionate advocators; that is not of our concern".

Yıldırım reminded the fact that the Turkish government initiated the process to become a member of the European Convention on Cyber Crimes. Member states of the convention correspond with each other whether legal exchange should be carried out regarding any incident, he argued.

YouTube treated like any ordinary person...

During a speech delivered at the award ceremony of the "IT 500" survey carried out by the Interpromedia Research Service, Yıldırım said, "YouTube is treated just like any other ordinary person".

As reported by the news channel CNN Türk, Yıldırm stated that "shortcuts have already become a tradition" in Turkey. He continued, "This is a global brand, blah blah blah... 'Sir, how can you stick up to this huge company'. If you believe in universal law and if you respect the sovereignty of the countries, you have to stick to the country's rules regardless of who you are dealing with. A citizen from the country 'X' does not have priority in country 'Y'. This conception is incompatible with democracy and modernity".

"Unfortunately, there are people in our country defending this issue on behalf of modernity. That hurts. Everybody is obliged to abide by the law of this country. Nobody has priority. This can be a willing representative or a passionate advocator, it does not concern us".

"We say, 'go ahead, if you do business in this country, you will be treated before the law just as any other ordinary person in the Turkish Republic. We are not concerned with anybody's freedom regarding internet commerce. Turkey is a state of law. Everybody should be tied to the force of law".

"Informatics does not get on well with the legislation"

Minister Yıldırım indicated that informatics and legislation do not get on well with each other. He argued that informatics is an area that ruins memorization, abolishes conservatism and creates a change of attitude. Legislation on the other hand pursued to keep everything under control, he said.

Assoc. Prof. Dr Mustafa Akgül, president of the Internet Technologies Association İNETD, filed a criminal complaint against restrictions of certain Google services. He also applied to the administrative court in respect to the "temporary access ban" imposed on YouTube on 5 May 2008 which is still in effect today.

The file concerned with the access ban to the YouTube side has also been forwarded to the European Court of Human Rights. (EÖ/VK)