President Abdullah Gul certainly broke new ground when he became the first Turkish leader to set up his own Twitter stream. But a recent tweet by Gul created something of a stir online, leading to speculation that the President might be watching pirated films in the comfort of the presidential residence.
As the Hurriyet Daily News reports, on Saturday Gul sent out this update to his Twitter account: "“I watched ‘The King’s Speech’ with my wife. It is really a very good film … I suppose the film will be subject to many discussions and be awarded with many prizes.”
But as many of Gul's online followers noted, the Oscar-nominated film has yet to be released on DVD and has not even opened in theaters in Turkey. Did someone slip Gul a pirated copy of the film, some wondered?
Defending Gul, the director general of the Turkish body that oversees cinema and copyright issues, sent out a Tweet of his own, saying the President was provided with a "special copy" of the film at his request.
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