Being the ‘activist hub’ it is, Indymedia is surely ‘kept an eye on’. Since it was established in 1999, the network has had many encounters with ’security’ services, both in the UK and elsewhere in the world. From assaulting Indymedia reports and photographers, IMC volunteers being put under surveillence, to seizing the actual servers where Indymedia sites are hosted.
Yet, it is not that common for dedicated IMCers to be approached directly by MI5 or Special Branch officers, trying to recruit them as spies, when they already know who they are and what they do.
Following the American pattern after 9/11, the UK government has used its own alleged terrorist attacks to push towards a police state, which is not exactly a new phenomenon, as Nafeez Ahmed, for example, explains. This has involved increasing the funds allocated to ’security services’ and granting them extra-judicial powers; the systematic assault on civil liberties and human rights; media-spun fear based on dubious ‘terror plots’; the clamp-down on activists and the relentless attempts to infiltrate their networks. Even Indymedia, it seems, has not been spared. At least two Indymedia activists have recently been, in one way or another, approached by British intelligence services, offering them better-paid jobs.
Statistically, if you toss a coin in the air a 100 times, it is very likely to come up tails at least once. The same could be said about IMCers - if 100 were approached then surely it is not inconceivable that one will sell out in these hard economic times.
Following the American pattern after 9/11, the UK government has used its own alleged terrorist attacks to push towards a police state, which is not exactly a new phenomenon, as Nafeez Ahmed, for example, explains. This has involved increasing the funds allocated to ’security services’ and granting them extra-judicial powers; the systematic assault on civil liberties and human rights; media-spun fear based on dubious ‘terror plots’; the clamp-down on activists and the relentless attempts to infiltrate their networks. Even Indymedia, it seems, has not been spared. At least two Indymedia activists have recently been, in one way or another, approached by British intelligence services, offering them better-paid jobs.
Statistically, if you toss a coin in the air a 100 times, it is very likely to come up tails at least once. The same could be said about IMCers - if 100 were approached then surely it is not inconceivable that one will sell out in these hard economic times.
