Sat 10 Oct 2009 In: International News View at Wayback View at NDHA
Two of Turkey's most popular gay news and information websites have been shut off to Turkish users by its government, despite not containing any pornography or illegal material. Blocked: Hadigayri.com The southeastern European country's newly-created Telecommunication Directorate believed that hadigayri.com and gabile.com "allowed prostitution". "These sites are mainly used by people to meet each other and they give news about LGBT issues in Turkey," a gay project coordinator there told The Nation. "We are concerned about them being blocked. It's a kind of violence against freedom of expression. There are very few places in Turkey where gay people can gather and meet each other, and these two websites are among them." It's not the first time a website has been blocked by the country's government. No-one in the country can legally access YouTube since May of last year, after clips mocking modern Turkey's founder Mustafa Kemal Ataturk were posted on the popular video sharing website.
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News Staff
First published: Saturday, 10th October 2009 - 10:16pm