from the weblog of Richard Allan, Liberal Democrat MP for Sheffield Hallam
http://www.richardallan.org.uk/
The Home Office have now replied to my Parliamentary Question on Indymedia and a similar one from Jeremy Corbyn MP as follows:
Indymedia
Mr. Allan: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department which UK law enforcement agencies were involved in the seizure of computer disks containing material published by Indymedia from the London offices of Rackspace. [192111]
Caroline Flint [holding answer 18 October 2004]: I can confirm that no UK law enforcement agencies were involved in the matter referred to in the question posed by the hon. Member for Sheffield, Hallam.
Jeremy Corbyn: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department under what powers, and acting under what information, officials of his Department seized web services belonging to Indymedia; and if he will make a statement. [192814]
Caroline Flint: I can confirm that no UK law enforcement agencies were involved in the matter referred to in the question posed by my hon. Friend. In the circumstances I do not therefore believe that it is necessary for me to make a statement.
I suspected that this would be the answer though the Home Office have obviously spent a few days checking with all agencies to ensure that they can accurately deny any involvement. What this means is that any action will have to be directed against Rackspace rather than the UK authorities. Indymedia may have both civil and criminal complaints to bring against them if they have acted illegally. The nature of any such action will depend on their legal advice. I will do what I can to press the UK authorities to assist where necessary.
http://www.richardallan.org.uk/ The Home Office have now replied to my Parliamentary Question on Indymedia and a similar one from Jeremy Corbyn MP as follows:
Indymedia
Mr. Allan: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department which UK law enforcement agencies were involved in the seizure of computer disks containing material published by Indymedia from the London offices of Rackspace. [192111]
Caroline Flint [holding answer 18 October 2004]: I can confirm that no UK law enforcement agencies were involved in the matter referred to in the question posed by the hon. Member for Sheffield, Hallam.
Jeremy Corbyn: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department under what powers, and acting under what information, officials of his Department seized web services belonging to Indymedia; and if he will make a statement. [192814]
Caroline Flint: I can confirm that no UK law enforcement agencies were involved in the matter referred to in the question posed by my hon. Friend. In the circumstances I do not therefore believe that it is necessary for me to make a statement.
I suspected that this would be the answer though the Home Office have obviously spent a few days checking with all agencies to ensure that they can accurately deny any involvement. What this means is that any action will have to be directed against Rackspace rather than the UK authorities. Indymedia may have both civil and criminal complaints to bring against them if they have acted illegally. The nature of any such action will depend on their legal advice. I will do what I can to press the UK authorities to assist where necessary.
Comments
Hide the following 2 comments
Howard too !
21.10.2004 16:32
I Emailled my one - a certain Micheal Howard MP (horrible I know-but there you go).
on this- he has though,forwarded it to Flunkett for a reply. Same old flannel in
any response no doubt....
GL
FAX YOUR MP .com
21.10.2004 20:00
Keep hassling them! :-).
Anyone wanting to send a fax to their MP can do so right here right now.
Just click on www.FaxYourMP.com, type in your Post Code and away you go. It's very quick and it looks like we're starting to kick up a fuss in parliament about this.
Anyone sending a fax may like to ask their MP to sign Early Day Motion number 1750, which demands an answer from the Home Office. But preferably ask your MP to sign the EDM and also have a personal word with the Home Office, preferably Mr B himself.
Here are the details about the Early Day Motion...
(pasted from indymedia newswire)
--
An early day motion has been submitted to parliament about the Indymedia server seizure.
EDM 1750
FREEDOM OF SPEECH AND INDYMEDIA 15.10.04
Jeremy Corbyn
Peter Bottomley Mr David Drew Mr Mike Hancock
Mr Kelvin Hopkins Lynne Jones Mr Tony Lloyd
Mr Elfyn Llwyd Alice Mahon John McDonnell
Adam Price David Taylor Mr Simon Thomas
Dr Rudi Vis Mr Robert N Wareing
15 signatures
That this House expresses deep concern at the seizing of web servers
belonging to the independent media organisation Indymedia; requests that
the Home Secretary explains under what authority their wholly
independent news service was prevented from functioning; and expresses
its disquiet at this attack on freedom of speech via the internet.
Ozymandias
Homepage:
http://www.faxyourmp.com