A Turkish court ordered access to YouTube's website blocked Wednesday, after a prosecutor recommended the ban because of videos allegedly insulting the founder of modern Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.

Paul Doany, head of Turk Telekom, Turkey's largest telecommunications provider, said his company had immediately begun enforcing the ban.

During the past week, Turkish media publicized what some called a "virtual war" between Greeks and Turks on YouTube, with people from both sides posting videos to belittle and berate the other.

The video prompting the ban allegedly said Ataturk and the Turkish people were homosexuals, news reports said. The CNN-Turk website featured a link allowing Turks to complain directly by e-mail to YouTube about the "insult."

On its front page Wednesday, the newspaper Hurriyet said thousands of people had written to YouTube and that the Ataturk videos had been removed from the site. "YouTube got the message," the headline said.

Insulting Ataturk or "Turkishness" is a crime in Turkey punishable by prison.

Turkey, which hopes to join the European Union, has been roundly condemned for not doing enough to curb extreme nationalist sentiments and to protect freedom of expression.

It's not the first time YouTube has been banned. The Australian state of Victoria recently banned it from government schools in a crackdown on cyber-bullying after a gang of male students videotaped their assault on a 17-year-old girl on the outskirts of Melbourne.

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Court upholds ban on bin Laden book

http://www.smh.com.au/news/National/Court-upholds-ban-on-bin-Laden-book/2007/06/14/1181414454661.html

Civil libertarians have failed to overturn the ban on the sale of two books, one containing a preface written by Osama bin Laden.

In the Federal Court on Thursday, Justice Richards Edmonds dismissed an application by NSW Council for Civil Liberties Inc relating to the books Join the Caravan and Defence of the Muslim Lands.

The Classifications Review Board banned their sale last July after concluding both books "promote, incite or instruct in matters of crime or violence".

But the civil libertarians took issue with that conclusion, also arguing the two decisions involved errors in law.

The books originally were allowed for sale, but were banned after the federal attorney-general asked for a review of the December 2005 Classification Board decision.

Justice Edmonds said the review board noted the author of Join the Caravan, Sheik Abdullah Azzam, was often referred to as the Godfather of Jihad.

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Russia needs Internet censorship: official

http://www.smh.com.au/news/breaking-news/russia-needs-internet-censorship-official/2007/06/22/1182019356682.html

Internet sites in Russia should be censored to combat extremist material, a senior legal official says, the newspaper Kommersant reported Friday.

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Decision awaits in Sun journalists case

http://www.smh.com.au/news/National/Decision-awaits-in-Sun-journalists-case/2007/06/24/1182623722297.html

Two journalists for the Melbourne-based Herald Sun newspaper should not be sent to jail for contempt of court because it will have a damaging effect on democracy in Australia, according to a key union.

Victoria's chief County Court judge Michael Rozenes is expected to hand down his decision on Monday in the case of reporters Michael Harvey and Gerard McManus.

Harvey and McManus pleaded guilty to contempt of court for refusing to disclose the source of a leaked story about a federal government proposal to slash war veterans' benefits.

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'Citizen journalism' battles the Chinese censors

http://www.smh.com.au/news/breaking-news/citizen-journalism-battles-the-chinese-censors/2007/06/25/1182623808683.html

In the strictly controlled media world of communist China, "citizen journalism" is beating a way through censorship, breaking taboos and offering a pressure valve for social tensions.

In one striking example this month, the Internet was largely responsible for breaking open a slave scandal in two Chinese provinces that some local authorities had been complicit in.

A letter posted on the Internet by 400 parents of children working as slaves in brickyards was the trigger for the national press to finally report on the scandal that some rights groups say had been going on for years.

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Malaysian blogger says his detention aimed at scaring govt critics

http://www.smh.com.au/news/breaking-news/malaysian-blogger-says-his-detention-aimed-at-scaring-govt-critics/2007/07/19/1184559956067.html

A Malaysian blogger detained for comments posted to his personal website linking a deputy minister to corruption, said Thursday the detention was an attempt to strike fear among government critics.

Nathaniel Tan, a Webmaster for the opposition People's Justice Party, was arrested Friday under the Official Secrets Act on suspicion that he had official documents related to claims that Deputy Internal Security Minister Johari Baharom took bribes to free several gangsters.

Tan was released Tuesday. He has not been charged but has to report back to police on July 31.

Looks like muslim countries are oppressing people in a new way.

Thailand Shuts Down Political Web Site

http://news.smh.com.au/thailand-shuts-down-political-web-site/20080106-1kgp.html

Thai authorities have shut down a political Web site that spoke out against the monarchy, the site's operator said Sunday, in another move to punish critics of Thailand's most revered institution.

Visitors posted comments on the sameskybooks.com bulletin board, questioning claims in the Thai media that the entire country was in mourning over the death Wednesday of Princess Galyani Vadhana _ King Bhumibol Adulyadej's older sister _ and criticizing official calls for the public to wear black as a sign of mourning, said Thanapol Eiwsakul, who operated the site.

The Information and Communication Technology Ministry threatened local Internet provider Netservice with closure unless it took the action against sameskybooks.com, which was closed Friday, Thanapol said.

http://news.smh.com.au/thailand-shuts-political-web-site-that-carried-comments-critical-of-the-monarchy/20080106-1kgn.html

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China Cracks Down on 'Vulgar' Video

http://news.smh.com.au/china-cracks-down-on-vulgar-video/20080106-1kfu.html

China is launching a nationwide crackdown on sexually suggestive video and audio products, in the latest effort by government censors to curb content considered to be in bad taste.

During the three-month campaign, audio and video producers should stop making "vulgar" products and recall those that are already on the market, China's General Administration of Press and Publication said.

"Some of the video and audio products are coarsely made, containing materials of bad taste," the regulator said in a notice on its Web site.

The questionable material includes suggestive language and partially nude images used to promote sales, it said.

Spot checks will be conducted throughout the country and companies that continue to make and sell the prohibited products will be punished, it said.

http://news.smh.com.au/popular-blogger-arrested-in-myanmar-opposition/20080130-1p22.html

A popular Myanmar blogger who belongs to Aung San Suu Kyi's pro-democracy party has been arrested in Yangon, apparently for violating the nation's tough Internet controls, a party spokesman said Wednesday.

Blogger Nay Phone Latt and another man were arrested Tuesday, according to Nyan Win, spokesman for the National League for Democracy (NLD) party.

Nay Phone Latt's blog was written in Burmese and in the style of a novel. He used it as a forum to discuss the difficulties of daily life, such as the power outages that last most of the day and the rising cost of living.

Myanmar's military rulers exert tight controls over the Internet, banning access to news sites and even to web-based email services such as Yahoo or Hotmail.

Enterprising young techies have found ways to bypass the controls and have developed a lively online community.

The military was outraged by the bloggers during pro-democracy protests in September, when they provided detailed running accounts of the violence and helped spread the news from a country where media access is severely curtailed.

The junta cut off the nation's Internet links at the height of the violence, choking off the flow of information about the crackdown.

The United Nations says at least 31 people were killed during the suppression, and 74 remain missing.

The NLD says about 100 of its members are still in detention since the crackdown. The party's leader, Nobel peace prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi, has been under house arrest for 12 of the last 18 years.

Ten leaders of the protests have been charged with violating the nation's strict publishing law, a crime punishable by up to seven years in prison, according to the NLD.