Turkey blocks access to YouTube after putting a ban on Twitter. The reason for doing so is that some audio recordings were spread via these social media. The recordings are of a sort that may damage Turkey’s reputation, according to their local media.

In the audio recordings several officials were discussing a possible scenario for military actions in Syria. The leak was characterized by the foreign ministry of the country as a “vile attack “and “espionage” against Turkey’s national security. The Turks also claim that some part of the conversation had been “distorted” as it was just a common practice of trying to protect their property from terrorists.

Another reason for blocking YouTube is that the Prime Minister Erdogan has appeared in the center of a large corruption scandal due to these leaks. Turkey’s government claims their step of banning YouTube and Twitter is just a “preventive measure”.

According to the government, they are not against Internet, but they view social networking websites like Twitter and YouTube as ways of spreading such illegal recordings as those that were leaked. The Turkish government claims that this hurts the reputation of their citizens, as well.

The thing is that Turkey may lift the ban if YouTube agrees to remove those audio recordings. However, it is not known whether Google will agree to that, as the company refused to remove the videos connected with the corruption scandal.

It is interesting to note that this is not the first time Turkey blocks access to YouTube. The service was blocked in 2007. The reason was that there appeared some videos that were insulting Turkey’s political leader Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.

As you can see, Turkey is doing its best to suppress people’s right of free speech. The government is just trying to hide certain facts that are not in their favor especially in the period when the elections are ahead.