Indymedia Bristol Server Seized by Police
sw | 28.06.2005 18:23 | Indymedia
On Monday, June 27th, Indymedia Bristol's server was seized by the police. An Indymedia volunteer was also arrested during the raid on suspicion of incitement to criminal damage. Last week, police demanded access to the server to gain the IP details of a posting. The alternative media outlet is receiving advice from civil liberties organisations and the NUJ. Before being legally forced to hand over the server, Indymedia Bristol stated: "We do not intend to voluntarily hand over information to the police as they have requested". Bristol Indymedia see the seizure of their server and the arrest of one of their volunteers as an attack on the freedom of speech. A further statement from Bristol Indymedia volunteers is expected soon.
This is the second time that law enforcement authorities have attacked Indymedia servers in the UK in the run up to a major event. Last October, just prior to the European Social Forum, Indymedia servers in London were seized in an international law enforcement operation - prompting a wave of protests and solidarity statements from a wide range of organisations [report]. This time, events are unfolding one week before the G8 Summit begins in Scotland.
In order to provide grass-roots non-corporate coverage during the G8 protests and events, Indymedia UK needs additional http mirrors to help decrease bandwidth costs. If you would like to help, please contact us at
imc-uk-contact@lists.indymedia.org or donate here.
This is the second time that law enforcement authorities have attacked Indymedia servers in the UK in the run up to a major event. Last October, just prior to the European Social Forum, Indymedia servers in London were seized in an international law enforcement operation - prompting a wave of protests and solidarity statements from a wide range of organisations [report]. This time, events are unfolding one week before the G8 Summit begins in Scotland.
In order to provide grass-roots non-corporate coverage during the G8 protests and events, Indymedia UK needs additional http mirrors to help decrease bandwidth costs. If you would like to help, please contact us at
imc-uk-contact@lists.indymedia.org or donate here.
Collecting links and media coverrage of the police take down and seizure of Indymedia Bristol's web server and arrest of indymedia volunteer.
Indymedia server seized in raid
Indymedia says the raid was an attack on press freedom
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/bristol/4629399.stm
Tuesday, 28 June, 2005, 14:15 GMT 15:15 UK
A computer server and IT equipment belonging to the alternative media network known as Indymedia have been seized by police in Bristol.
The raid is understood to have been prompted by complaints about a message on the site concerning rail vandalism.
A 20-year-old man was arrested, and bailed, on suspicion of incitement to commit criminal damage.
A statement on Indymedia UK said: "Police demanded access to the server to gain the IP details of a posting."
A representative of Bristol Indymedia, on behalf of the collective, told BBC News: "Yesterday the police raided a residential property in Bristol and seized an Indymedia server and other computer equipment.
"We see this police action as an attack on the freedom of speech."
Tim Lezard, president of the National Union of Journalists (NUJ), added: "We are obviously not happy that police have closed the server.
"We are supposed to be a free press.
"Will people read a post and take action?"
The raid and arrest were carried out by the British Transport Police.
A spokesman said: "This is not unusual. When we get wind of graffiti, for example, we often do house searches."
Once obtained, the IP address can then be used by internet service providers to track down computer users.
In 2004, servers belonging to Indymedia were seized in London by the FBI, acting on behalf of the Italian and Swiss authorities.
The legal justification for that raid included a gagging order that prevented details being revealed.
However, the servers were thought to have been seized under the Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty which is typically used by nations co-operating to investigate cross-border crimes such as terrorism, kidnapping and money laundering.
==========================
Legal row after police seize Bristol Indymedia server
By John Leyden
Published Tuesday 28th June 2005 13:44 GMT
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/06/28/indymedia_server_seizure_bristol/
Police seized a server used by Indymedia, the independent newsgathering collective, from the Bristol home of a member of the group after issuing a search warrant on Monday. The raid is the second time within the last year that an Indymedia server has been seized in the UK.
Officers also took the unnamed Bristol collective member in for questioning, and seized a PC, in an incident that has already provoked a huge row. The action happened despite the intervention on Indymedia's behalf by justice group Liberty whose lawyers advised police that the server was "considered an item of journalistic equipment and so subject to special provision under the law". Police had sought access to the server in order to gain access to logs about a posting related to an attack on a freight train that caused a reported £100,000 in damage.
On or around 17 June an anonymous person posted on the Bristol Indymedia newswire about an 'action' in which a freight train carrying new cars was reportedly attacked in a protest about cars and climate change in the run up to next week's G8 summit in Gleneagles, Scotland. Bristol Indymedia volunteers hid the post from their main newswire within a day because it breached editorial policy. The raid followed unsuccessful police attempts to get Indymedia to hand over the server voluntarily so they could examine logs for evidence.
Bristol Indymedia explained its stance in a posting: "As part of our policy, we will not make non-public information we hold publicly available. We do not permanently store IP addresses. We do not intend to voluntarily hand over information to the police as they have requested, and have informed them of this," it said.
In October 2004, a pair of UK servers used by Indymedia were seized a week before the European Social Forum. The servers were taken from the London offices of hosting firm Rackspace after the latter was served with a controversial US warrant. The FBI apparently acting under a US-UK treaty on behalf of Switzerland and/or Italy to seize the hardware, which was subsequently returned. Swiss authorities reportedly said the data could help its investigation of Indymedia's coverage of the 2003 G8 in Evian but the server was also thought to include correspondence with lawyers involved in the case against Genoa police related to a 2001 G8 summit in the city.
That action resulted in many Indymedia sites becoming temporarily unavailable. The latest raid has left Bristol Indymedia's web site offline with surfers redirected to the main Indymedia UK web site through which a protest against the police action is been organised.
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Comments
more stories
28.06.2005 17:23
http://redpepper.blogs.com/g8/2005/06/indymedia_under.html
http://yro.slashdot.org/yro/05/06/28/0113237.shtml?tid=153
http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=24242
http://www.londonfreelance.org/fl/0508imc.html
munkeeunit
Alternative Bristol Information Outlets
28.06.2005 17:42
In the days before the BIMC server was seized an 'unofficial emergency response network' was publicised on BIM in anticipation of the seizure. The re-routed http://bristol.indymedia.org page to an extent, thankfully, makes this less necessary, but it doesn't have such a Bristol / South West focus.
So...
The Bristol Social Forum & Bristol Stop-The-War message boards have now been opened up so that anyone can currently post to them from any email account (although posts will continue to be moderated and there may be a delay of a few days on the Bristol Social Forum so that emails can be sent out in more user friendly batches direct to people's inboxes.)
As it has a subscription base of 350+, it is a valuable outlet.
Bristol Social Forum. (Bristol / South West focussed posts please)
Anyone can post to: bristolsocialforum@yahoogroups.com
Visit: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bristolsocialforum/
You can also subscribe if you like, instructions at bottom of page, or PM me.
Bristol Stop The War. (National level posts are also welcome here)
Anyone can post to: bristol-stop-the-war-coalition@yahoogroups.com
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/brist...-war-coalition/
99% of subscribers only receive the monthly newsletter direct to their inbox, but it is widely publicised as a public message board too, so it has it's uses.
I hope this helps.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A number of other contacts were given, but they seem less necessary now, as our networks aren't completely destroyed, and the additional contacts were postal addresses and alternative emails.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
munkeeunit
whoops!
28.06.2005 17:46
Sorry, bad links provided in the above. Bristol-Stop-The-War is:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bristol-stop-the-war-coalition/
munkeeunit
Freelance Artilce - Warrant info included
28.06.2005 17:58
28 June 2005
More Indymedia seizures
http://www.londonfreelance.org/fl/0508imc.html
ON THE eve of the G8 summit in Scotland police in Bristol have seized the server computer that runs the local Indymedia "newswire" - and a group in Italy have discovered that police have been intercepting legally sensitive communications for a year.
At about 5:30pm on Monday (27 June) British Transport police visited the home of a member of the Bristol Indymedia Collective (BIC). They arrested him and charged him with incitement to criminal damage, and seized the computer that hosted Bristol Indymedia information as well as personal computers. That evening they bailed him for a date in October.
Indymedia centres operate open "newswires". As well as collective members researching and publishing stories, any internet user can post stories or comments. Ten days previously, someone posted a message of which the least incoherent parts called for people to "stick two fingers up to this oil-addicted society," mentioning trainloads of new cars shipped from Pilton Docks and "dropping rocks onto useless pieces of metal".
The Freelance understands that a person who had fallen out with BIC reported this message to the police, telling them that BIC would be able to identify the person who wrote it from a log of the computer addresses ("IP numbers") of such contributors. Indymedia sites do not retain such details. BIC had removed the message in question from the public site before police emailed them.
When the police contacted them. BIM called the NUJ and civil liberties organisation Liberty, who argued that demanding information from Indymedia requires a special warrant to obtain journalistic material under the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984. Asked about this, a British Transport Police spokesperson said "A warrant was obtained; I don't know the details. ... Website server - I don't know if you could describe it as journalistic material?" They later clarified that "We obtained a Section 8 [PACE] Warrant after discussing with the Crown Prosecution Service who said we didn't need a Section 9 Schedule 1 [journalistic material] warrant." Section 8 Warrants cover evidence-gathering except where "special procedure" (that is, journalistic) material is involved.
The NUJ has strongly supported Indymedia, particularly when the main Indymedia UK servers in London were seized by persons unknown, claiming to be acting for the US Federal Bureau of Investigation, just before the European Social Forum gathering in London on 7 October 2004. That seizure appears to have originated with a request from the Italian government to a court in Texas. Many believe that the motive was to obtain confidential lawyer-client communications concerning the police attack on 22 July 2001 on the school building that Indymedia used as a base during protests around the Genoa G8 meeting in and subsequent lawsuite.
Now an even more independent information service in Italy - http://autistici.org - reports discovering that in July 2004 police secretly obtained copies of the passwords used to keep emails sent through their system secure. It is being suggested that this also relates to the Genoa trials of protesters, bystanders and police.
The Freelance is seeking translations of the Italian information and awaits a statement from the BIC collective which meets this evening.
Indymedia server seized in raid
Indymedia says the raid was an attack on press freedom
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/bristol/4629399.stm Tuesday, 28 June, 2005, 14:15 GMT 15:15 UK
A computer server and IT equipment belonging to the alternative media network known as Indymedia have been seized by police in Bristol.
The raid is understood to have been prompted by complaints about a message on the site concerning rail vandalism.
A 20-year-old man was arrested, and bailed, on suspicion of incitement to commit criminal damage.
A statement on Indymedia UK said: "Police demanded access to the server to gain the IP details of a posting."
A representative of Bristol Indymedia, on behalf of the collective, told BBC News: "Yesterday the police raided a residential property in Bristol and seized an Indymedia server and other computer equipment.
"We see this police action as an attack on the freedom of speech."
Tim Lezard, president of the National Union of Journalists (NUJ), added: "We are obviously not happy that police have closed the server.
"We are supposed to be a free press.
"Will people read a post and take action?"
The raid and arrest were carried out by the British Transport Police.
A spokesman said: "This is not unusual. When we get wind of graffiti, for example, we often do house searches."
Once obtained, the IP address can then be used by internet service providers to track down computer users.
In 2004, servers belonging to Indymedia were seized in London by the FBI, acting on behalf of the Italian and Swiss authorities.
The legal justification for that raid included a gagging order that prevented details being revealed.
However, the servers were thought to have been seized under the Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty which is typically used by nations co-operating to investigate cross-border crimes such as terrorism, kidnapping and money laundering.
==========================
Legal row after police seize Bristol Indymedia server
By John Leyden
Published Tuesday 28th June 2005 13:44 GMT
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/06/28/indymedia_server_seizure_bristol/ Police seized a server used by Indymedia, the independent newsgathering collective, from the Bristol home of a member of the group after issuing a search warrant on Monday. The raid is the second time within the last year that an Indymedia server has been seized in the UK.
Officers also took the unnamed Bristol collective member in for questioning, and seized a PC, in an incident that has already provoked a huge row. The action happened despite the intervention on Indymedia's behalf by justice group Liberty whose lawyers advised police that the server was "considered an item of journalistic equipment and so subject to special provision under the law". Police had sought access to the server in order to gain access to logs about a posting related to an attack on a freight train that caused a reported £100,000 in damage.
On or around 17 June an anonymous person posted on the Bristol Indymedia newswire about an 'action' in which a freight train carrying new cars was reportedly attacked in a protest about cars and climate change in the run up to next week's G8 summit in Gleneagles, Scotland. Bristol Indymedia volunteers hid the post from their main newswire within a day because it breached editorial policy. The raid followed unsuccessful police attempts to get Indymedia to hand over the server voluntarily so they could examine logs for evidence.
Bristol Indymedia explained its stance in a posting: "As part of our policy, we will not make non-public information we hold publicly available. We do not permanently store IP addresses. We do not intend to voluntarily hand over information to the police as they have requested, and have informed them of this," it said.
In October 2004, a pair of UK servers used by Indymedia were seized a week before the European Social Forum. The servers were taken from the London offices of hosting firm Rackspace after the latter was served with a controversial US warrant. The FBI apparently acting under a US-UK treaty on behalf of Switzerland and/or Italy to seize the hardware, which was subsequently returned. Swiss authorities reportedly said the data could help its investigation of Indymedia's coverage of the 2003 G8 in Evian but the server was also thought to include correspondence with lawyers involved in the case against Genoa police related to a 2001 G8 summit in the city.
That action resulted in many Indymedia sites becoming temporarily unavailable. The latest raid has left Bristol Indymedia's web site offline with surfers redirected to the main Indymedia UK web site through which a protest against the police action is been organised.
info
* Download this article in pdf format
* Email this article to someone;
* Make a quick comment on this article
Comments
more stories
28.06.2005 17:23
http://redpepper.blogs.com/g8/2005/06/indymedia_under.html http://yro.slashdot.org/yro/05/06/28/0113237.shtml?tid=153 http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=24242 http://www.londonfreelance.org/fl/0508imc.html munkeeunit
Alternative Bristol Information Outlets
28.06.2005 17:42
In the days before the BIMC server was seized an 'unofficial emergency response network' was publicised on BIM in anticipation of the seizure. The re-routed
http://bristol.indymedia.org page to an extent, thankfully, makes this less necessary, but it doesn't have such a Bristol / South West focus. So...
The Bristol Social Forum & Bristol Stop-The-War message boards have now been opened up so that anyone can currently post to them from any email account (although posts will continue to be moderated and there may be a delay of a few days on the Bristol Social Forum so that emails can be sent out in more user friendly batches direct to people's inboxes.)
As it has a subscription base of 350+, it is a valuable outlet.
Bristol Social Forum. (Bristol / South West focussed posts please)
Anyone can post to:
bristolsocialforum@yahoogroups.com Visit:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bristolsocialforum/ You can also subscribe if you like, instructions at bottom of page, or PM me.
Bristol Stop The War. (National level posts are also welcome here)
Anyone can post to:
bristol-stop-the-war-coalition@yahoogroups.com http://groups.yahoo.com/group/brist...-war-coalition/ 99% of subscribers only receive the monthly newsletter direct to their inbox, but it is widely publicised as a public message board too, so it has it's uses.
I hope this helps.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A number of other contacts were given, but they seem less necessary now, as our networks aren't completely destroyed, and the additional contacts were postal addresses and alternative emails.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
munkeeunit
whoops!
28.06.2005 17:46
Sorry, bad links provided in the above. Bristol-Stop-The-War is:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bristol-stop-the-war-coalition/ munkeeunit
Freelance Artilce - Warrant info included
28.06.2005 17:58
28 June 2005
More Indymedia seizures
http://www.londonfreelance.org/fl/0508imc.html ON THE eve of the G8 summit in Scotland police in Bristol have seized the server computer that runs the local Indymedia "newswire" - and a group in Italy have discovered that police have been intercepting legally sensitive communications for a year.
At about 5:30pm on Monday (27 June) British Transport police visited the home of a member of the Bristol Indymedia Collective (BIC). They arrested him and charged him with incitement to criminal damage, and seized the computer that hosted Bristol Indymedia information as well as personal computers. That evening they bailed him for a date in October.
Indymedia centres operate open "newswires". As well as collective members researching and publishing stories, any internet user can post stories or comments. Ten days previously, someone posted a message of which the least incoherent parts called for people to "stick two fingers up to this oil-addicted society," mentioning trainloads of new cars shipped from Pilton Docks and "dropping rocks onto useless pieces of metal".
The Freelance understands that a person who had fallen out with BIC reported this message to the police, telling them that BIC would be able to identify the person who wrote it from a log of the computer addresses ("IP numbers") of such contributors. Indymedia sites do not retain such details. BIC had removed the message in question from the public site before police emailed them.
When the police contacted them. BIM called the NUJ and civil liberties organisation Liberty, who argued that demanding information from Indymedia requires a special warrant to obtain journalistic material under the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984. Asked about this, a British Transport Police spokesperson said "A warrant was obtained; I don't know the details. ... Website server - I don't know if you could describe it as journalistic material?" They later clarified that "We obtained a Section 8 [PACE] Warrant after discussing with the Crown Prosecution Service who said we didn't need a Section 9 Schedule 1 [journalistic material] warrant." Section 8 Warrants cover evidence-gathering except where "special procedure" (that is, journalistic) material is involved.
The NUJ has strongly supported Indymedia, particularly when the main Indymedia UK servers in London were seized by persons unknown, claiming to be acting for the US Federal Bureau of Investigation, just before the European Social Forum gathering in London on 7 October 2004. That seizure appears to have originated with a request from the Italian government to a court in Texas. Many believe that the motive was to obtain confidential lawyer-client communications concerning the police attack on 22 July 2001 on the school building that Indymedia used as a base during protests around the Genoa G8 meeting in and subsequent lawsuite.
Now an even more independent information service in Italy -
http://autistici.org - reports discovering that in July 2004 police secretly obtained copies of the passwords used to keep emails sent through their system secure. It is being suggested that this also relates to the Genoa trials of protesters, bystanders and police. The Freelance is seeking translations of the Italian information and awaits a statement from the BIC collective which meets this evening.
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