Turkey blocks Twitter, YouTube over publication of hostage photos
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Turkey blocked access to Twitter and YouTube on Monday over the publication of photographs of an Istanbul prosecutor held at gunpoint by far-left militants hours before he was killed in a shootout last week, officials said. Presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin said a prosecutor had sought the block on access to social media sites because some media organisations had acted “as if they were spreading terrorist propaganda” in sharing the images.
“This has to do with the publishing of the prosecutor’s picture. What happened in the aftermath (of the prosecutor’s killing) is as grim as the incident itself,” Kalin said. “The demand from the prosecutor’s office is that this image not be used anywhere in electronic platforms,” he told a news conference in Ankara. Istanbul prosecutor Mehmet Selim Kiraz died from his wounds last Tuesday after security forces stormed the office where members of the far-left Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party-Front (DHKP-C) had taken him hostage. His two captors were also killed.
The DHKP-C had published a picture of Kiraz with a gun to his head and said it would kill him unless its demands were met. “The wife and children of prosecutor Kiraz have been deeply upset. The images are everywhere,” a senior Turkish official told Reuters. “A request has been made to both Twitter and YouTube for the removal of the images and posts but they have not accepted it and no response has been given. That’s why this decision has been taken through a court in Istanbul.
via NorthEast Calling http://ift.tt/19Yy1tb
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