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News :: Miscellaneous |
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SECRET GAG ON MEDIA CENTER? |
Current rating: 0 |
by The Progressive Review
(No verified email address) |
25 Apr 2001
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Prior Restraint Is The Issue |
ONLY the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, among the corporate media, has reported the apparent secret gag on the Seattle Independent Media Center, preventing it from discussing FBI actions against it during the height of the Quebec demonstrations. Paul Shukovsky's story noted that "Center spokeswoman Sherry Herndon said she and other staff have been told 'not to talk about' the incident under threat of being held in contempt of court. She referred inquiries to attorney Bob Goodman of the Center for Constitutional Rights in New York City, who also declined comment. He said the court order that was served on the IMC 'contains a fairly broad gag order; therefore, we cannot talk.'"
A story did appear during the weekend on another Indymedia site which stated, "There is a report of FBI Officers currently located within the Seattle IMC demanding the location of the person who's name is the registered name of indymedia.org. Apparently, they have an arrest warrant for Jonathan Jay because of a supposed threat against President Bush on the Montreal IMC site. They are making threats that the IMC is not supposed to send out any emails regarding this issue, according to the warrant. However, this, according to the IMC lawyer, is prior restraint, which is unconstitutional."
IMCers denied the existence of a threat and pointed out that the media centers are highly decentralized, leaving the Seattle one no authority of what went on in Montreal. The Vermont message disappeared, to be replaced by one on a number of Indymedia sites that said uninformatively, "Everything is fine at the Seattle IMC. We will keep you posted on any further developments." If the FBI had made similar moves against a corporate newspaper, or a judge had issued an order of prior restraint, it would have been top news around the country. |
See also:
http://prorev.com/indexa.htm
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This Is BIG - What's Next? |
by Mike Lehman
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
25 Apr 2001
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I ran into Bob McChesney in line for lunch at the Y on campus today. He agreed with Sam Smith's take on the raid at the Seattle IMC that the real issue is prior restraint and that it is a significant case.
If the constitutional ban on prior restraint of the press will let the New York Times print the Pentagon Papers, why can't the IMC publish the news? Obviously, the NYT has lots of money for lawyers and friends in high places. We have neither, demonstrating that the Constitution is a great document...
for those who can afford to have it enforced.
The implications for future prior restraint of the press are enormous in the our Brave New World of electronic publishing. There is the danger that IMCs will have their credibility undermined if thisis allowed to stand. The establishment press should join in opposing this, too, because they're next.
That is, if you view theDominant Media as not already totally compromised. That of course is why the IMC is here. Remember, however, that we do share with them certain interests and I hope they think long and hard about leaving us twisting slowly in the wind. |
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Wired News Reports that EFF to defend IMC |
by Paul R.
paul (nospam) mediageek.org (unverified) |
Current rating: 0
25 Apr 2001
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Journalists Protest Gag Order
By Declan McCullagh
5:00 p.m. April 25, 2001 PDT
WASHINGTON -- The Electronic Frontier Foundation will represent a Seattle journalist collective that is the target of a police probe and court-imposed gag order.
On Saturday evening, FBI agents visited the downtown offices of the Independent Media Center and handed the group a court order -- apparently related to the Quebec City trade summit -- that also instructed the media organization not to publish the contents of the order.
That unusual event grabbed the attention of the civil liberties organization, which is stepping into the fray and hopes to persuade a federal judge to lift the gag order. Other groups also may be part of the legal team.
"It is possible that the gag order may come off very soon," says Lee Tien, an EFF staff attorney. "I would be on the lookout."
It's not uncommon for law enforcment to deliver an order to an ISP or telephone company, requesting certain information that it restricts the company from discussing. But civil libertarians are comparing this incident to federal agents visiting, for example, the New York Times newsroom, and barring the paper from publishing any details of the visit.
Still unclear is what the gag order says, or doesn't say. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer reported on Tuesday that the FBI visit was connected to the online publishing of security plans from the high-level trade summit held last weekend.
Jill Freidberg, a Seattle IMC spokeswoman, said that "what was put out on the Seattle P-I is filled with unfathomable inaccuracies" but, citing the gag order, refused to provide details. She said that her group plans a press conference for sometime in the next 48 hours.
"There are a few limited situations in which there are legal gag orders," says Doug Honig, public education director for the ACLU's Washington state chapter. He gave three examples: Testimony before a grand jury, a trial where the judge tells the attorneys not to give interviews, and an out-of-court settlement.
"In this situation we don't understand why there was a gag order in the first place," Honig said. "It certainly shouldn't be the case that a government official would tell an organization that they can't talk about a situation.... Based on what we've heard so far, we don't know why there was a gag order."
Micah Anderson, another member of the left-leaning collective, said in a pair of e-mail messages that the group couldn't release information about the visit for fear of running afoul of the gag order.
"The situation is under control and we'll be passing along information as soon as we are able, once we are able to not purjure (sic) ourselves due to the gag order," Anderson said. "All will be clear, but the IMC has not been compromised in any way, no raid happened. We had a visit, but it was strictly to serve the order."
Over the weekend, a report that appeared on and then was deleted from an IMC site said the FBI had an "arrest warrant for Jonathan Jay because of a supposed threat against President Bush on the Montreal IMC site." Jay is the name that appears in the domain registration for indymedia.org, but it could be an alias or someone who is no longer affiliated with the group.
The IMC is a collective that includes hundreds of loosely affiliated journalists who produce audio, video, and print reports. It began with the 1999 World Trade Organization summit in Seattle, and then spread to other cities and other political events.
According to the IMC's self-description, it's "a grassroots
organization committed to using media production and distribution as a tool for promoting social and economic justice."
It's not the first time the group has run into trouble with the police: IMC reporters generally are sympathetic to the activists they write about, and some participate in the demonstrations they cover. A standard line from IMC organizers during orientation sessions is: "If you do a protest, take off your press pass first."
The Post-Intelligencer article originally said that "security plans intended to protect Western leaders attending a trade summit in Quebec City were stolen from a car there over the weekend and posted, hours later, on a Seattle-based Web site."
On Wednesday, the newspaper added an editor's note saying that the original report that computer records were seized was inaccurate.
Ryan Sager contributed to this report.
Copyright (C) 1994-2001 Wired Digital Inc. All rights reserved. |
See also:
http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,43339,00.html
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Link Here For More U-C IMC Reports |
by ML
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
25 Apr 2001
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This link takes you to our previous reporting on the "raid" and gag order.
You can also follow a link there to a story on the Seattle IMC that has more info from Declan McCullough and others on this subject |
See also:
http://urbana.indymedia.org/active/news/display.php3?article_id=622
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Wired magazine also is reporting on this |
by panther
tlvdatsi (nospam) fiberia.com (unverified) |
Current rating: 0
26 Apr 2001
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Wired magazine has an article on this:
http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,43339,00.html |
