YOUTUBE AND USER-CREATED CONTENT

Court blocks access to YouTube in Turkey

A court in Turkey on Wednesday ordered blockage of all access to YouTube, the popular video-sharing Web site, over a video deemed insulting to Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of modern Turkey.

The ban followed a week of what the media in Turkey dubbed a “virtual war” of videos between Greeks and Turks on YouTube and came as governments around the world — including France — grappled with the freewheeling content now readily posted on the Internet.
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YouTube expressed dismay over the move, adding that the offending video had been removed and that the company was working with the government to resolve the situation.

“We are disappointed that YouTube has been blocked in Turkey,” the company said in a statement. “While technology can bring great opportunity and access to information globally, it can also present new and unique cultural challenges.”
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YouTube faced a court-ordered national ban in Brazil for several days in January after footage of a model cavorting in the sea with her lover kept reappearing on the site.

Separately, activists in France this week warned that a recent law against posting video of violent acts would stifle free expression.

The French law, which was intended to criminalize “happy slapping” — acts of violence committed for posting on the Internet — could also criminalize the recording of police brutality, activists said.

“I don’t think the French government intended to attack user-generated content, but that is the effect,” said Julien Pain, a spokesman for the press freedom organization Reporters Without Borders. “If someone films a policeman wrestling someone to the ground, that can be considered a criminal act.”

While the French law has provisions to protect professional journalists or those who record violence to turn it over to the authorities, passersby remain liable for fines of as much as €75,000, or nearly $100,000, and five years in prison, Pain said.

“This law removes protection for citizen-journalists or bloggers who would want to record the violence if riots start again in the Paris suburbs,” Pain said. “The distinction between professional and amateur journalists is no longer valid since all Internet users are now in a position to create and disseminate information.”

You know, after watching the News Wars documentary, I was somewhat disillusioned about the possibilities for legitimate journalism to be conducted over the internet. I thought, ‘bloggers aren’t journalists; they are regurgitating and reprocessing information provided by journalists without appropriate compensation. Not only is that unfair, but it threatens the very livelihood of journalism and ultimately our access to primary sources of information.’

But then situations like this rolls around, and I become radically egalitarian again. I think, ‘information and speech should be free, and bloggers should be afforded the same rights and privileges as any other journalist. Recording a video on your cell phone and uploading it to YouTube is no different in kind from reporting via satellite.’

“New and unique cultural challenges” is an understatement, YouTube. The cognitive dissonance is overwhelming.