Indy Media Watch

Many people have requested or suggested that Indymedia exercise editorial control over various libellous, racist or offensive material which populates so much of it. These requests are either of a general nature, by people who wish Indymedia well but identify a critical failure to act responsibly, or are a response to a specific posting which the respondent has clearly identified as untrue, offensive etc.

They will also recall a response that in many cases amounts to "no way, that would be censorship and censorship must be avoided". I have previously pointed out the "censorship chip on their shoulders".

As a result of this failure to differentiate between censorship and responsible editing, many Indymedia sites who follow this line tend to have the editorial quality of the back of a toilet door in a bad neighbourhood.

Evil Pundit has linked to my exposure of the disgraceful trash on New Orleans Indymedia. He has also pointed out that the site is censoring comments to that post. In an email, he writes:

I posted a reply which didn't appear. Also, two posts were headlined "racist" -- probably by the editor -- and today they have vanished.

Reading Evil Pundit's blog suggests he is not exactly coming from the same angle as most of the whackos whose material is hidden being too bad even for Indymedia.

But gee, considering what they do allow on the site, I do wish they'd be more consistent...