San Francisco - The Turkish government has banned access to photo slideshow service Slide in the country, after a local court found that the site was "harboring pictures and articles that are considered to be insulting to Ataturk," in a country where insulting the founder of the republic is a crime, according to a Slide spokesperson.

"We've contacted the government of Turkey in an effort to resolve the situation but have not received a response so far," the spokesperson said.

"We pledge to do everything we can to enable Turkish citizens to access their Slide applications. In the meantime, we are supporting Reporters Without Borders and have reached out to other companies that have been affected by this ban."

Along with Slide, the Turkish government has also banned access to YouTube.

Other countries, including Pakistan, Thailand, Morocco and China have at various times blocked access to YouTube, MySpace, Facebook and other sites that allow user-generated content.

Related Links:
http://snipurl.com/22lcd (Reuters)

http://www.slide.com