Gagging the independent media

Indymedia is a collective of independent media organisations 
and hundreds of journalists offering grassroots, non-corporate 
coverage which operates on the internet with a number of websites 
around the world. Last week, on October 7, US authorities issued 
a federal order to Rackspace (Indymedia's provider with offices 
in the US and London) ordering them to hand over Indymedia web 
servers to the requesting agency. Rackspace, which provides 
hosting services for more than 20 Indymedia sites at its London 
facility, complied and turned over the requested servers, 
effectively removing those sites from the internet.

Since the subpoena was issued to Rackspace and not to Indymedia, 
the Indymedia still does not know the reasons for this action. 
Talking to Indymedia volunteers, Rackspace stated that "they 
cannot provide Indymedia with any information regarding the 
order". ISPs (internet service providers) have received gag 
orders in similar situations which prevent them from updating the 
concerned parties on what is happening.

It is unclear to Indymedia how and why a server that is outside 
US jurisdiction can be seized by US authorities.

At the same time an additional server was taken down at Rackspace 
which provided streaming radio to several radio stations, BLAG 
(linux distro), and a handful of miscellaneous things.

The last few months have seen numerous attacks on independent 
media by the US Federal Government. Last month the FCC shut down 
community radio stations around the US.

Two weeks ago the FBI requested that Indymedia takes down a 
posting on the Nantes Indymedia centre that had a photo of some 
undercover Swiss police and IMC volunteers in Seattle were 
visited by the FBI on the same issue. On the other hand, 
Indymedia centres (IMCs) and other independent media 
organisations were successful with their victories for example 
against Diebold and the Patriot Act. On this occasion the US 
authorities shut down IMCs around the world.

The list of affected local media collectives includes Nice, 
Nantes, Lilles, Marseille (all France), Liege, East and West 
Vlaanderen, Antwerpen (all Belgium), Ambazonia, Uruguay, Andorra, 
Poland, Western Massachusetts, Euskal Herria (Basque Country), 
Belgrade, Portugal, Prague, Galiza, Italy, Brazil, UK, part of 
the Germany site, and the global Indymedia Radio site.

On October 8, Indymedia learned that the request to seize 
Indymedia servers hosted by a US company in the UK originated 
from government agencies in Italy and Switzerland. More than 20 
Indymedia sites, several internet radio streams and other 
projects were hosted on the servers. They were taken offline on 
October 7th after an order was issued to Rackspace, Inc., one of 
Indymedia's web hosting providers.

The reasons for the court order or who actually holds the servers 
now are still unknown to Indymedia.

According to Italian news agency reports and an Agence France-
Presse (AFP) interview with FBI spokesman Joe Parris, the FBI 
acted on Italian and Swiss requests. "It is not an FBI 
operation", Parris told AFP. "Through a legal assistance treaty, 
the subpoena was on behalf of a third country."

Rackspace published a statement that they turned over the servers 
in response to an order under the Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty 
(MLAT). The MLAT establishes procedures for countries to assist 
each other in investigations regarding international terrorism, 
kidnapping and money laundering. The court prohibits Rackspace 
from commenting further on this matter.

Aidan White, the General Secretary for the International 
Federation of Journalists (IFJ) had this to say: "We have 
witnessed an intolerable and intrusive international police 
operation against a network specialising in independent 
journalism. The way this has been done smacks more of 
intimidation of legitimate journalistic inquiry than crime-
busting."

Indymedia considers this extremely invasive operation a serious 
threat to the Freedom of Speech worldwide.

Indymedia is calling for the return of the servers. Each day that 
they are inoperable and Indymedia's irreplaceable data is 
inaccessible means greater material damages to the Indymedia 
operation worldwide.