Indonesia blocks access to YouTube over anti-Koran film
- April 9th, 2008
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JAKARTA (Reuters) – At least four Indonesian firms providing Internet services have blocked access to the YouTube Web site for carrying a Dutch lawmaker’s film that accuses the Koran of inciting violence, an information ministry official said on Tuesday.
The move follows a government ban on broadcasts of the film by Geert Wilders, leader of the Dutch anti-immigration Freedom Party, which alternates images of the September 11, 2001 attacks and other Islamist bombings with quotations from the Koran.
Titled “Fitna,” a Koranic term sometimes translated as “strife”, it also shows an image of the Prophet Mohammad primed to explode and says the rising number of Muslims in Europe threatens democratic values.
Sukemi, the information ministry spokesman, said telecommunication firms PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia (Telkom), PT Telekomunikasi Selular (Telkomsel) and PT Exelcomindo Pratama Tbk, and Internet provider Indonet had blocked access to YouTube.
If you think this is an example of people and governments infringing on the freedom of speech and the press, you may want to think again. This film contains images that infringes on freedom of religion too. One of the images the film has Mohammad with a bomb under his turbin, clearly an insult on the Islamic faith. I’m Catholic, and if I heard someone say “tear out pages” of the bible I would be just as upset as Indonesians. – Proxima

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