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Censorship alert!!!

Thomas J | 18.06.2002 21:53

An article on this newswire has dissppeared in the last few hours

This link takes you to a article that the Indymedia have hidden from general view. Why I do not know. I didn't actually agree with what this man had to say, in fact I thought he was being a bigot, but I would have liked to checked up on the replies. I know a duplicate of this was removed the other night, which is fair comment, but only now do the decide to remove the whole thing! I know some have likened what was in here to Nazism, and I am certainly not symphising with this author of this. However, as some of you may be aware, I have strong views against any form of censorship on Indymedia, particular since in my view other people have posted fascist/Nazi/etc material here and had their stuff kept on the newswire. I am against fascism and the far right, but I am also strongly against censorship since it can lead to the twisting of the views and opinions that you read on Indymedia, so only certain approved views are allowed (much like the corporate media!)

Thomas J
- Homepage: http://uk.indymedia.org:8081/front.php3?article_id=34021&group=webcast

Comments

Hide the following 6 comments

NO TO CENSORSHIP

18.06.2002 23:01



The last time i checked freedom of speech was protected.

Whats the point of having an independant media forum if all thats allowed is marxist or socialist posting and people holding the dicks of the people posting by congratulating them on how great communist ideology is?

The point is, surely, that this site is for intelligent debate on issues? Not random flaming. in reality 'Nazi' is a dead term. The word you are looking for is nationalists, or fascists, depending on which camp of right wing idelogy a person subscribes to.

You cant just ban a whole section of political thought because you personally disagree with someones view point.

How i see it, is that people are going to have widely differant opinions on issues and should have the right to say what these are.

mike
mail e-mail: mjpann@essex.ac.uk


Not sure I agree

19.06.2002 00:34

Um.. I'm also opposed to censorship. However, I'm not sure that removing a post which is in clear opposition to Indymedia's stated objectives and editorial policy is any such thing.

Political censorship is a state activity to suppress expression of a particular view. The extreme right have plenty of websites, mainstream newspapers (reports on the Daily Mail picket, anyone?) and other channels to express their opinions. There is absolutely no freedom of speech issue for the far-right in the UK - in the current environment, removing posts like this from Indymedia is no more an act of censorship than refusing to let the BNP paint slogans on your walls.

Additionaly (though I can't say in this case, as I hadn't read the post), a UK IMC has a responsibility to respect British race-relations law if it doesn't want to run into legal problems. I wouldn't want to see this valuable site forced offline because a misguided attempt to preserve 'free-speech' allowed extreme right groups to post illegal material.

I understand that once you start removing some posts there are people who will argue that you are at 'the thin end of the wedge'. However, most of the users (and I would hope, moderators and editors) of this site seem intelligent, sensitive people. Give them some credit! I don't think a minimal set of criteria preventing the use of this one site (out of thousands available) for posting of sexist, racist or homophobic material will inevitably lead us to the point where Indymedia becomes a sterile, ideologically straight-jacketed wasteland for one particular branch of radical politics. And if it does, I for one will just go somewhere else, since I change my mind about which branch I belong to about once a week!

tr


lets go surfing now everybody's learning how

19.06.2002 11:14

I have a feeling that the British Newswire is filling up with the same tripe that befell the world wire (or what ever it was claled). Actually I dont mind tripe, but it seems a shame if it watersdown the messages of a group, in this case Britain (whatever that means). Perhaps it is time to bring back a wire where most people can post?

holyghost


lets go surfing now everybody's learning how

19.06.2002 11:14

I have a feeling that the British Newswire is filling up with the same tripe that befell the world wire (or what ever it was claled). Actually I dont mind tripe, but it seems a shame if it watersdown the messages of a group, in this case Britain (whatever that means). Perhaps it is time to bring back a wire where most people can post?

holyghost


lets go surfing now everybody's learning how

19.06.2002 11:14

I have a feeling that the British Newswire is filling up with the same tripe that befell the world wire (or what ever it was claled). Actually I dont mind tripe, but it seems a shame if it watersdown the messages of a group, in this case Britain (whatever that means). Perhaps it is time to bring back a wire where most people can post?

holyghost


lets go surfing now everybody's learning how

19.06.2002 11:14

I have a feeling that the British Newswire is filling up with the same tripe that befell the world wire (or what ever it was claled). Actually I dont mind tripe, but it seems a shame if it watersdown the messages of a group, in this case Britain (whatever that means). Perhaps it is time to bring back a wire where most people can post?

holyghost


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