People's Democracy

Unprecedented Internet Censorship

C T Suresh Kumar

WILL it not be a surprise if some news of importance involving 17 countries get published in one part of the world but blacked out in the rest of the world? Well, get set to experience the surprise. Here is a news item which has been widely reported in the European press but totally blacked out in US and other parts of the globe.

On October 7, 2004, in an unprecedented internet censorship, the US intelligence agency FBI has shut down about twenty odd anti-war and anti-globalisation web sites hosted by Independent Media Center known as Indymedia using some British servers.  The FBI in an unparalleled operation has seized several London-based servers of an alternative media network. The FBI took the servers from hosting firm Rackspace’s London offices, with apparently no explanation. But this unprecedented action has affected services and data in some 17 countries where Indymedia used the servers to host local media collections and radio streams for several stations and other miscellaneous open-source projects. The Independent Media Centre said it has no idea why the servers had been seized. But the FBI said the action was taken at the request of Italian and Swiss authorities, under the Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty, which provides for cooperative efforts by various national police agencies against international terrorism, kidnapping and money laundering. Rackspace, an American-owned web hosting company in Uxbridge, Middlesex, which also hosts Indymedia sites, told that it had been served with a court order under the Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty, under which countries assist each other in investigations. The invocation of such a treaty against a group of Left-wing web sites with no link to any form of terrorism is an outrageous smear.  The UK Indymedia site is now working, because it was backed up on another server, unlike others which are still shut down. While almost the entire European media have published coverage on this, it is quite amazing, none from US or in other parts of the world thought it fit to publish.

PLAUSIBLE REASONS

Though no official explanation has been given for the action, it can easily be deduced as to the political motive behind this fascist move. It may also be linked to the ensuing US presidential election. This unprecedented action came just barely one week before the start of the third session of the European Social Forum (ESF), a large gathering of anti-war and anti-globalisation activists, scheduled to take place in London from October 15 to October 17, 2004. The Indymedia was established by organisations to provide live on-the-spot coverage during the 1999 World Trade Organisation protests in Seattle. This initiative was prompted by the failure of the the mainstream media to adequately cover the protest. It is common knowledge today that major part of mobilisation for anti-war and anti-globalisation protests is being carried out through such web sites. Perhaps the latest action was to thwart such mobilisation for the ESF, which normally would be hectic during the last week before such gatherings. Further, one of the servers was to be used to stream web radio coverage of the European Social Forum meetings in London next week and the ESF was to be broadcast live via streaming video on many of the Indymedia sites.

Another possible reason could be the exposure by Indymedia about Swiss undercover police. According to a statement issued by the group, it was asked by the FBI last month to remove a story posted on one of its member sites about Swiss undercover police. The said web site news coverage contained photographs of two secret police officers who had acted as agent provocateurs during the anti-globalisation protests last year outside the G-8 summit meeting in Evian, France. The news coverage also elaborately narrated how those two Swiss policemen had engaged in violent actions in the center of Geneva, the Swiss city adjacent to Evian, where most of the anti-globalisation protests took place. The coverage is categorical that these provocations resulted in police attacks on peaceful demonstrators. The Indymedia report also gave the names and addresses of the undercover cops and their photographs.

Reports appeared in some of the web sites about Indymedia being investigated for its possible support to terrorism by Marina Plazzi, the federal prosecutor for the Italian City of Bologna. The federal prosecutor claims existence of a link between the group and attacks on Italian soldiers in the Iraqi City of Nasiriya last year. It is also reported that Plazzi had contacted FBI and the Italian Department of Justice in this connection. It may be noted that the National Alliance, a partner in the Italian coalition government headed by Silvio Berlusconi, has been demanding the total shutdown of Indymedia sites since long.

The intrusive action by FBI has also a possible connection with the ensuing US presidential election. Some Indymedia activists were instrumental in exposing serious security flaws in the electronic voting machines that are going to be used in the forthcoming US presidential elections. A court case, in connection with these exposures, was heard on September 30 this year in California in which the federal judge Jeremy Fogel ruled in favour of two Swarthmore College students and the Online Policy Group, an Internet service provider that hosts an Indymedia site. From the fact that the US media are unusually silent about all these, it can be understood that the US administration is jittery about these exposures, which possibly explains the FBI taking the extreme step of shutting down the Indymedia web sites.

Aidan White, general secretary of the International Federation of Journalists, in a statement condemning the FBI actions has said, “We have witnessed an intolerable and intrusive international police operation against a network specialising in independent journalism.... The seizing of computers and the high profile nature of this incident suggest that someone wanted to stifle these independent voices in journalism.” Reporters Without Borders, an international group defending freedom of the press, condemning the seizure, has written an open letter to David Blunkett, the British Home Secretary stating, “This intervention is the responsibility of the British authorities because it relates to a hosting company operating on their territory. Closure of websites is a serious step, the reasons for which should definitely be made public.”  Tim Gopsill of the NUJ in a statement has also criticized the closure of web sites and said, “If the security services of the UK or US can just walk in and take away a server, then there is no freedom of expression.”

While the US administration through its agencies has indulged in such an unprecedented and undeclared censorship over independent internet news portals, it is quite strange as to why majority of media worldwide are keeping mum over it.  They must realise that it is only matter of time before the strong arm extends to garrotte their throats too?

(Sources used: The Guardian, The Star, Indymedia Website, WSWS, Computerworld Inc.,  & www.vnunet.com)