Animal Rights Activists Face Further Ostracism
blink and it's gone | 22.02.2009 15:16 | SHAC | Animal Liberation | Indymedia | Repression | Cambridge
In the aftermath of the indymedia server seizure, animal rights activists involved in the Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (SHAC) campaign now face the possibility of being deprived access to open publishing on indymedia.
With SHAC activists now serving a total of 60 years in prison for crimes relating to little more than running a campaign website, it is not surprising that there is a sense of panic and paranoia in the air. Last months seizure of an indymedia server in Manchester and the subsequent arrest of a man in Sheffield have worried even people unrelated to animal rights struggles. Now the divide and rule tactics of the police are starting to bare fruit as one long time indymedia admin 'garcondumonde' has proposed blocking SHAC activists posts from the open publishing newswire.
In his proposal to imc-uk-process list (
http://lists.indymedia.org/pipermail/imc-uk-process/2009-February/0221-46.html) he accuses animal rights activists of having "overstepped the line" and blames them for the arrest of a server sysadmin. His issue with the SHAC campaign predates both the server seizure and arrest, frequently raising objections against proposals for feature articles about the campaign. In one recent email ( http://lists.indymedia.org/pipermail/imc-london/2009-February/0221-x8.html) he refers to SHAC activists motives as "despicable".
Given just 24 hours for debate the proposal could set a dangerous legal precedent for indymedia if agreed and raises serious questions about who is administering the UK indymedia site.
In his proposal to imc-uk-process list (
http://lists.indymedia.org/pipermail/imc-uk-process/2009-February/0221-46.html) he accuses animal rights activists of having "overstepped the line" and blames them for the arrest of a server sysadmin. His issue with the SHAC campaign predates both the server seizure and arrest, frequently raising objections against proposals for feature articles about the campaign. In one recent email ( http://lists.indymedia.org/pipermail/imc-london/2009-February/0221-x8.html) he refers to SHAC activists motives as "despicable". Given just 24 hours for debate the proposal could set a dangerous legal precedent for indymedia if agreed and raises serious questions about who is administering the UK indymedia site.
blink and it's gone
Additions
Hiding this post
22.02.2009 22:26
Discussion of IMC UK editorial policy happens (as is noted in the thread below) on imc-uk-moderation e-mail list, which is why the post referred to above is on that list. The newswire is a news resource not the place for discussion of the newswire policy (as explained in the editorial guidelines). I sincerely hope everyone who is actually bothered about IMC UK has actually read the editorial guidelines and have taken the time to understand how IMC UK actually works? 24 hours is the usual period to test if there will be any objections to a proposal. Incidentally, the proposal to pre-moderate anything with the word 'shac' in it has been blocked.
random imc admin
Comments
Display the following 32 comments