Richarddawkins.net banned in Turkey

[muhtesem insan]

Yep it's banned. Probably because of Harun Yahya thread.

[Randy Ping]

What are they scared of.... oh yeah, truth.

[Strontium Dog]

Yep it's banned

So how come you're posting on here then if your location is Istanbul?

[Timnotgod]

What are they scared of.... oh yeah, truth.

Why then is the first link I find to Harun Yahya proclaiming it an invitation to truth?
I wouldn't think they are scared of the truth just scared that their nonsense isn't as the truth as they proclaim, and are all victims of one of the best con artists the world has known.

I also would like to put forward that the ban in turkey could be because the God Delusion book was accused of inciting religious hatred a year ago in Turkey.

muhtesem insan, If you are in Istanbul doesn't that mean you are being a smooth criminal by viewing this wonderful website?

[Secularist]

Yep it's banned. Probably because of Harun Yahya thread.

you can use proxy.
http://www.torproject.org/

[God Hand]

What thread now?

Muhtesem insan, has this been on the news in Turkey or is it just under the radar?

[mulder]

Hi guys from Turkey!
at around 17:00 GMT I just wanted to check out the news at http://www.richarddawkins.net, however, I was faced by a white blank screen,in the middle saying in red ''Access to this site has been denied by court order'' Disgruntled and also frustrated,I am now using indirect links to tell you guys this unjust action taken by the government.

[Darwinsbulldog]

Hi mulder,

and a warm welcome to you.

It is very unfortunate that your government has decided to go the way of censorship. I mean, if they think that their way of life is so obviously the best one, then any criticism of that should not matter. Anyway, I sympathise. Enjoy the discussions!

Surf carefully, and cover your tracks!

[Randy Ping]

Yes, it's been brought to our attention in Politics & Current affairs. THanks though.

[spaghettifier]

proxy server?
anyway i'm glad that no matter how bad egypt is at protecting rights, they wouldn't ban any sites... anyway if hey do i would get around it

th government is scared that you would learn the truth, or they got in a fight with richard

[Double Bass Atheist]

It would seem unlikely that there has been been a court order banning RDnet exclusively... any idea how many other websites are now banned as well?

[God Hand]

Multiple thread. Merge please.

[articulett]

So Turkey is afraid of people thinking freely. Hurray for those who are able to find away over the barriers! I hope the more they try to "censor", the more people will be eager to see exactly what it is their government finds so in need of censoring.

[Ashish Lahiri]

Hi guys from Turkey!
at around 17:00 GMT I just wanted to check out the news at http://www.richarddawkins.net, however, I was faced by a white blank screen,in the middle saying in red ''Access to this site has been denied by court order'' Disgruntled and also frustrated,I am now using indirect links to tell you guys this unjust action taken by the government.

That's very encouraging. That shows that the medicine is working. The sooner the masks of tolerance are torn off the religious rulers, the better. We should only wait for such things to happen in that citadel of democracy, the USA.

[balper]

Second time I'm writing, don't know what happened. Just connected (thanks blackberry) and wanted to ask if they would be anyone from Turkey to take this matter to the European Human Rights Court?

You can best reach me via email. Don't know if I'm allowed to write it but as this is a force majeur case thoght I'd try: basaranalper(@)gmail.com

[solas]

.... wanted to ask if there would be anyone from Turkey to take this matter to the European Human Rights Court?

That is a very good point, not from the legal perspective but from the European one. I am not a lawyer but I doubt very much if any action on this issue through the EHRC would succeed (it would take years in any case). However, the Turkish establishment is very sensitive to any issue which might impede them in their negotiations to join the European Union. Political action is therefore more likely to bring results than legal acion. If a lot of Turkish individuals and organisations simply wrote to the EU Commission protesting at the undemocratic, and very anti-European, policy of the Turkish authorities in banning a legitimate website, then I think that such a protest could yield significant results.

It would also help greatly if individuals and organisations in existing EU member states wrote to the Commission making the point that this incident shows that Turkey is not yet ready to be accepted as a candidate for EU membership. My letter is already winging it way to Brussels.

[muhtesem insan]

well technically we don't need proxy to access to site. Because law lets to prohibit access to a web site not a server so by using a dns server outside turkey (using root dns right now) i can easily access here. And there's no prosecution risk for me, this ban binds isp's and host's not users.
They can't ban a site because it's spreading atheism, but this harun yahya crowd usually use personal insult as an excuse and bans the access to these sites. But i don't know if this is the case, one of the largest community sites in turkey ek$i sozluk suffered from same fate but with efforts of some lawyers in the community, court revoked the ban. but especially small sites and foreign sites suffer from this. Youtube is banned for months.

[vsop44]

I hope it's not because of my signature and avatar !

[sunny]

Outrageous. I for one shall never eat another turkey again so long as I live.

[slhamilton]

Outrageous. I for one shall never eat another turkey again so long as I live.

Sunny, you are a man of great wisdom and courage. You are an inspiration to us all.

[f451]

WARNING TO ALL USERS:

I'm a Richarddawkins.net member from Turkey and Turkish government banned richarddawkins.net to all Turkish users.

I've changed my DNS servers to reach this site.

The comments about Adnan Oktar on this link is the banning reason to the court:
http://richarddawkins.net/article,2583, ... ce,Reuters

The desicion of the court is a shame for free-thinking!

This is not first case of Adnan Oktar (or Harun Yahya)

Turkish court banned whole (!) wordpress for a complaint of Adnan Oktar because of the comments on the some blogs about him!

Is there a way to contact with Mr. Dawkins about this issue.

This is very important!

[Paula Kirby]

Can anyone provide a link to an official report about the ban (preferably in English, of course)? I'd love to see the reasons given by the court.

[NineBerry]

While we have so many turkish people on this thread:

Could someone please translate this article:
http://www.ankarahaber.com/news_detail.php?id=17785

?

Thanks

[f451]

The site can be reached at the moment.

There is no legal explanation and we are in doubt that this can be a hacking issue.

We were unable to reach the site but then it is released suddenly. In the banned message there was a warning of "this site has been banned in accordance with the legal action" but normally there has to be an explanation and number/date of the court taken. Here is the screen capture: http://img220.imageshack.us/img220/1560/richardddm3.jpg

This Turkish source -not official of course- claims that the site is banned because of some comments on the related link:

http://sozluk.sourtimes.org/show.asp?t= ... apatilmasi

[Matt H.]

Astonishing. I thought Turkey was proud of being secular. Of course, thats just a facade, but I thought they'd make some effort to make it look as if they were still secular.

By the way I'm talking about the Turkish State, not its people.

One only needs to look back at Turkish history to see how they love silencing opposition, particularly relating to their revolution and its leader. For example, Boris Johnson's great grandfather was lynched by a mob simply by writing newspaper articles critical of the revolution. It's seen as a taboo to speak against the revolutionaries in Turkey, much like it is seen as taboo in the U.S. to speak against the founding fathers. Difference is, the U.S. doesn't block websites.

I know there are lots of people in Turkey that do desire secular democracy, and I can only hope they win the struggle.