A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

Indymedia Sweden In Violation: Unilaterally Dumps Open Publishing Policy

Polar Wind | 01.11.2003 22:00 | Indymedia

Despite fierce criticism from most left-wing and democratically progressive quarters in Sweden, the local Indymedia team takes the unprecedented step of unilaterally scrapping the Open Publishing Policy that has shaped the network internationally since its founding. Readers complain of "Neo-Nazi" tactics and "fascism" on the part of the Swedish editors, and call for them to be removed.

Indymedia Sweden has taken the decision to liquidate the Open Publishing Policy on its website.

The new draconian regime will affect not only the publishing of articles, but also the individual personal comments that readers can post beneath each article in order to express opinions on it.

Anybody may still post articles and comments, but the material will not be immediately visible on the site. This is because the ranking system has been modified, so that each post will initially receive a '0'- ranking. For the article or the personal comment to be shown on the site, the editors will personally have to "approve" it, by giving the article or comment a '+1' ranking.

In effect, this means that even personal opinions (comments) will have to be individually OK'd by Indymedia's censorship panel.

The move has been vociferously protested and opposed my most readers and contributors to Indymedia Sweden (including the respected independent left-wing news service Ryter), but apparently without effect. Readers say the editors have started to act like the fascists they claim to oppose, and to use tactics aimed to stymie free debate. Others have complained about the apparent racism of the editors, since censorship has been particularly harsh regarding comments or articles from specific ethnic groups.

The regime-change is apparently going ahead anyway.

The Swedish editors try to defend the move, claiming that it is the only way to fight spamming. They also maintain that registered readers will be able to alter their ranking options, so that contributions ranked below +1 would still be visible to those registered readers.

This purported technical feature does not work, at the time of this posting.

In essence, the Swedish Indymedia has violated one of the most crucial tenets of the Indymedia Network, effectively shutting out even comments, unless they obtain the explicit approval of the Swedish IMC Censor. It remains to be seen whether Indymedia, globally, will accept this new censorship, and the blatant dumping of the fundamental principles that has constituted the 'raison d'etre' of Indymedia.

If you would like to add your opinion on this intolerant regime-change, you can do so in English by clicking the link below, and submitting your comment. Unfortunately though, you will have to await possible approval from the Censor before it will be posted and visible for most viewers.

LET INDYMEDIA SWEDEN KNOW WHAT YOU THINK OF THIS:

http://se.indymedia.org/newswire/display/50860/index.php

Polar Wind
Homepage: http://se.indymedia.org

Comments

Hide the following 20 comments

Well done Sweden

01.11.2003 23:03

So long as people can opt to view the unfiltered "0" rated articles, there is no censorship. I think that IMC UK should consider a similar technical fix. At the moment there is a lot of noise clogging up the signal, "noise" which is deliberately generated by our enemies, and also generated by a few people with particular obsessions (and lunacies). Sometimes the line degenerates into abusive exchanges.

Perhaps each IMC collective should offer a number of possible "filters". ((I'd pay good money for a filter which would hide all the posts from PC "Ram" and PC "Harlequin")

Yes this puts some creative control and responsibilitiy into the hands of the IMC collective, but no one needs to accept their filter.

Indypendance

Are you suggesting I am

01.11.2003 23:48

a Pig Constable?

Are you dumb or what.

A PC does not even know how to scribble few records.

Anyway I like your use of the word clog. My other option is to flood.

qasem

This is fascism

01.11.2003 23:48

Actually this is completely crazy! I've tried the site, and as the article above states, there is no possibility of seeing all posts even when the tolerance level is put down.

Anyhow, this is pre-censorship and NOT open publishing.

I vote fo the Swedish team to be ousted from the Indymedia Network.

We don't need fascists INSIDE our community, while fighting them outside!

Drake

Swedish editors accused of racism against which ethnic groups?

02.11.2003 00:15

So the Swedish editors have been accused of racism because
"censorship has been particularly harsh regarding comments
or articles from specific ethnic groups."

Which ethnic groups?

This isn't something to do with (*tries to be diplomatic*)
differing views about the Middle East, by any chance, is it?

D

Dave

swedish troll

02.11.2003 03:28

Yes Dave, he is talking about the conflict in the middle east. This perosn is a very annoying troll who has made IMC sweden his perosnal playground.

I would ask the readers of this article to consider that this is from a troll who is comparable to the worst trolls you have here on IMC UK or on IMC internationally. You should take everything this perosn says with a grain of salt, in other words.

IMC sweden-supporter

Now that is productive

02.11.2003 10:24

Calling for qasemto be ignored or boycotted is a healthy attitude.
Compare this with lets ban her/him. Lets filter electronically. Lets use that IP address block etc.

Just because we use electronic means which happens to be quite efficient at times does not mean we have to loose our human intelligence and ability.

I used few words above like 'fuck' that might not be acceptable in an ideal world but this is a wordl where we are directly killing babies in cold blood just because we need that pertol tank full. Things are changing and we better bloody wake up to reality.

Having an open publishing policy but living in the dark ages of Oxford press phoney values on conduct and all is bad.

Can't believe the Swedish fuck could not understand the reality of the world and absorb middle eastern suffering soul and compromised the beauties of open publishing.
It is them (swedish IMC) who is to be blamed for starting an IMC without having a clue as to what they could possibly do to help humanity.

Open publishing is the friend of humanity.
Lets not fuck it up too.

qasem (yes it is ram with new ID for a purpose)

The truth

02.11.2003 13:50

One of the IMC Sweden editors has RECOGNIZED (below) that this news is correct, and that he doesn't like the Open Publishing policy. But the remaining IMC Sweden editors have still not totally rejected the Open Publishing policy. Yet.

De la lista IMC-Sweden-Editorial:
"You can take your hippie open publishing policy and shove it somewhere"
en sueco: "Ni kan fan ta och stoppa upp allt vad jävla öppen
publicerings-hippiegrejer heter."

http://lists.indymedia.org/pipermail/imc-sweden-editorial/2003-November/004847.html

Actually, they don't get spammed at all. Theyr merely allow nazis and extreme anti-zionists to post hatefilled comments. OK. But they erase everyone who tries to answer the hate-tirades! That's selective censorship, and that's why IMC Sweden deserve all the so-called spam they get.

The problem is self-induced by them, and can only be remedied if they allow normal peace-minded people to respond to their fascist- and nazi posters.

Fredrik

Criticism probably premature

02.11.2003 14:30

As the original article noted, there were still some TECHNICAL problems. Well gee, I think Sweeden IMC should at least be allowed to get the new system up and running before being dumped upon. Especially considering the particular complaint, becuase......

a) As far as I am concerned, over 50% of the Indymedia sites I have visited (>50?) have a "technical" problem related to viewing "hidden" posts. I include in this category not having a CLEARLY VISABLE link to "hidden". Sorry, as far as I am concerned if I need to spend several minutes exploring the site to find out how to get to "hidden" then that IS a violation of "open".

b) REGISTRATION --- Not a bad idea. Keep in mind that there is no check that you are registering your REAL identity. So don't bother with bullshit like "isn't anonymous". What it prevents is the VERY SERIOUS violation we have seen every now and again of FORGED material, material posted as if it came from some other poster. SORRY -- but that is NOT something anybody has a right to do since it violates the right to post of the persons whose posting identiy is being "faked". The point is, we do not (should not) have the "right" to discredit other posters in thisd manner.

c) My two cents about "censorship" ---- Causes most trouble when people can complain about having been unjustly "hidden". There are a few sites which have all "hidden" articles marked with a "by which editor" and "why". Guess what. Such sites have little trouble with complaints about "censorship" because it is perfectly obvious to everybody WHY some piece was "hidden" (and anybody complaining looks like an ass UNLESS it really was a case of unjustified conesorship).

We need to keep in mind that a great many posts ARE a violation of policy without necessarily being an intentional violation and so may be mysterious to the poster, appear to him or her to be censorship. For example, almost all sites have a rule against duplicate posting -- you aren't allowed to keep posting the same story over and over so that it stays on "page one" day after day. Hiding subsequent postings tagged "duplicate of ..." makes things like this clear.

Mike
mail e-mail: stepbystepfarm mtdata.com

Who decides what is 'news'?

02.11.2003 15:42

Removal of 'non-news' posts is already policy at Indymedia Netherlands, without any special technical effort. Most items are now uncommented - a far cry from some other IMC's.

It is justified, they say, simply by the nature of Indymedia as a news medium, not a forum. And what's more, it has to be action-related news. I suspect most IMC's will end up with this type of policy. In a sense it is a reversion to the original nature of IMC, as an "activist's newsetter".

---

"Censorship"

02.11.2003 19:39

Moving posts from the front-page newswire to another accessible page isn't censorship, subtle or otherwise. If you're wondering why you can't see a posting from 27.10.2003, look again at the UK newswire. The oldest post on there as I write this is from 29.10.2003. Older posts then show up in the archive, as indicated at the bottom of the column. That way we don't need to keep 280,000 stories on the front page newswire.

All of Ake's submitted articles about finnish jews and finnish cops and finnish social workers, including all his continual re-posts of identical articles to multiple regional UK newswires, can be seen on the "view all posts" unmoderated page and archive:

https://publish.indymedia.org.uk/en/viewallposts.html

We have moved most of these Ake's submissions from the front page newswire to the unmoderated newswire. He did on the other hand recently post an interesting piece on the finnish authorities allegedly drugging an immigrant family before deporting them. We kept that on the front page, even though half of the article text and all of its web links were in finnish. Maybe someone can post an english translation in the comments next time to help him out.

S : Infact Iraq was liberated

02.11.2003 20:13

Yes Saddam was ousted.
Saddam was a bad dictator.
etc etc etc

This does not justify the sanctions or the illegal invasion.

Do you get it?

Hiding posts instead of deleting it does not make it a good action in itself?
Why not have a one step mechanism for those who object and want to live in the past whereby the posts that are now being hidden are filtered instead?

qasem

Getting it

02.11.2003 21:27

Hello qasem/ram. Yes I get it fully. Your link to the Al Jazeera article about Iraq, number 279764, is already on the UK newswire front page, "Do not forget Iraq", 01-11-2003 03:42 | 0 comment(s).
It's currently about halfway down, between "letter from La Paz" and "empty mexican embassy". Have a look.

http://indymedia.org.uk/

http://indymedia.org.uk/en/2003/11/279764.html

Your repeated re-posts of the same article, on the other hand, have been moved from the front page to the unmoderated page. This is not because anyone disagrees with the content, but because no-one needs to see multiple copies of the same article on the front page.

Cheers,

Look...

02.11.2003 22:36

Its very simple. The way to deal with trolls is to ignore them. Works every single time. If everyone could just keep their mouths shut and not reply to any bullshit articles, there would be absolutely no problem, i guarantee it. The only time you have a problem is when people feed the trolls. That is what they thrive on.

Dont reply to trolls.

townie

true or false

03.11.2003 01:14

Yes,obviously IMC is changing their editingpolicy. So that is true.But it is NOT censorship, that is false. Everything else the person says is just bullshit, as you can prolly tell by his posts.

IMC supporter

Idiot

03.11.2003 02:22

This is what the troll wrote:

"Yes,obviously IMC is changing their editingpolicy. So that is true.But it is NOT censorship, that is false."

Great argument there, punk! Just because you SAY its not censorship, we are supposed to agree with you? Is that it?

What are brain-dead loosers even DOING on Indymedia, let alone on the editing staff?

Troll hater

Sweden site problems

03.11.2003 17:01

Drake, i just got off of a long IRC session with Sweden. it turns out the reason you can't see all posts right now is that their new server setup is broken. Give it a little time, and see if you can't view all posts once they've fixed it. Then decide whether or not it's working. You can learn swedish while you're waiting for the fix... :-)

We do have a bit of a problem with spam on this newswire. I don't know myself what the best solution is just yet, but I'm open to persuasion.

The Dreamtime

03.11.2003 18:46

Anybody who believes that UK Indymedia operates an open newswire policy is dreaming... if what you write suits them, fine, otherwise you're a "lunatic"; and presumably lunatics should have no voice, should be given no explanation, and ought to be sent to compulsory re-education centres, and then maybe the mobile Zyklon-B vans immediately.

Mad Ted
mail e-mail: madted@riseup.net

The policy of IMC-Sweden stinks

03.11.2003 23:01

I just don't understand why the Swedish editors have been so hush hush about their new censorship of the open Newswire, and their apparent divorce from Indymedia?

What do they have to hide? How come this was totally unknown to other IMCs? The Swedish editors know very well that only Swedes will be able to read their editorial mailing lists (unless you take a quick Swedish class). As far as I have read about this on

http://www.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=359237&group=webcast , they are extremely harsh on contributors and commentators who don't conform to their own opinion. While every IMC combats spamming, not many will actually censor the opinions of people. It is as if IMC-London were to delete some of the above posts criticizing this IMC. You don't. Right, S?

And one of the Swedish editors masterminding the censorship policy has admitted to hating the OP policy, and asked other crew to "shove it" (se link above).

Is this really how Indymedia should evolve?

Harry

International solidarity

05.11.2003 02:47

Gee, thanks for the support "comrades". I guess you trust what some rightwing,sionist apologist, troll says more than the well-respected and experienced leftwing activist who works at IMC-sweden. Well, fine.Whatever.

IMC sweden supporter
Homepage: http://www.socialism.nu

the masterplan of a troll

05.11.2003 02:53

By the way, knowing how this perosn operates i would guess that half of all the posts here was made by the same person--namely him!

But whatever.

IMC-sweden supporter
Homepage: http://www.socialism.nu

Global IMC Network