Monday, June 27, 2005
Another Indymedia Server Seized by Police
Bristol Indymedia's server was just seized by police.
If this is the sort of person who uses Indymedia, why would any normal person wish to be associated with it?
The background to this situation is that on approx 17 June an anonymous post to the Bristol Indymedia newswire reported an 'action' in which objects were dropped onto a freight train carrying new cars somewhere near Avonmouth (I think).Gotta love those "contextualized actions" don't you?
The action was contextualised as highlighting climate change/car use/over-consumption etc in the run up to the G8 summit. Rumours suggest the action caused around 100k damage. One regular poster to Bristol Indymedia, and expelled ex-collective member, Mark Watson (of Zaskar films) then posted a comment saying he morally disagreed with the action, that the post breached BIM guidelines, and that he had contacted the police & advised them BIM kept IP info (since denied by BIM).
There was then a period of dialogue between BIM, Liberty & the police, in which Liberty/BIM argued that any info on the server was in any case subject to special rules covering journalistic info, and the server could not be seized using a standard search warrant (see BIM press release 24/6/05). No links to Bristol Indymedia are included here as the site is presently down!
If this is the sort of person who uses Indymedia, why would any normal person wish to be associated with it?
