It provides a distribution mechanism for the television stations you might be trying to close down for political reasons.

That's what's happening in Venezuela, where RCTV, a television station that recently lost its license for apparently political reasons, is using YouTube to continue some broadcasts. I presume YouTube is freely accessible in Venezuela. I wonder if that will change or if this will be far enough below the radar that Hugo Chavez won't care.

I'd put up a link to one of the RCTV broadcasts but, ironically, Nanny isn't letting me use the search in YouTube today. Perhaps she got a note from Hugo. 

I suppose if you can filter the searches, as China does, no need to ban the whole site. But that also depends what your intent is. The search filter is fine if you simply want to limit access to content. If, on the other hand, you want to punish a website for giving your political enemies a voice, a total ban might be the way to go.

Updated: To add the last paragraph. Plus: Some background on the RCTV case, which is more complex than a leader simply closing down a transmitter he doesn't agree with.