[IMC-Editorial] Investigation against Indymedia Israel has turned into intimidation, harming Freedom of Speech

[Chris Kaihatsu]

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http://www.infoshop.org/inews/stories.php?story=03/12/29/4044652

Investigation against Indymedia Israel has turned into intimidation, harming
Freedom of Speech

 posted by Shimshimblim on Monday December 29 2003 @ 05:20AM PST


  The Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) states in a letter to
the Attorney General of Israel: "The investigation against Indymedia Israel
has turned into intimidation, harming Freedom of Speech on the Internet."
Translated from Hebrew

December, 26th, 2003

Police investigators are attempting to throw responsibility on Indymedia
Israel's operators, for publications appearing in the "open publishing zone"
of the website. This is done illegally and against the recommendations of a
professional committee of the Israel Ministry of Justice.

The Indymedia Israel website provides a free and open stage for surfers on
the Internet. Approximately three weeks ago, a surfer outside of Israel
published a caricature in the open publishing zone of the website, in which
the Israeli Prime Minister is portrayed passionately kissing the leader of
Nazi Germany. Subsequent to this, the Attorney General of Israel ordered the
opening of an investigation against the website's administrators, for
incitement and insulting a public figure.

Today, attorney Avner Pinchuk of the Association for Civil Rights in Israel
(ACRI) sent a letter to the Israel Attorney General demanding an immediate
end to the investigation. Attorney Pinchuk claims that the moment the police
realized the site's operators did not publish the publication, it was
illegitimate to harass them with an investigation. Worse than this, the
police investigators are attempting to 'convince' the site's operators to
commit themselves to continual censorship over all publications in the open
publishing zone of the site. By doing this, the investigators deviate from
their authority in an attempt to impose on the Israeli Internet arena, norms
which are against both the law and the position of most professionals
working in the field, in Israel and abroad-including a special committee of
the Israel Ministry of Justice.

Electronic billboards, like that of Indymedia Israel, are very common on the
Internet and are used by many individuals and communities wishing to
exchange information and opinions freely. As opposed to the global process
of concentration of the media and debate in the hands of a few, the public
platform of the Internet provides a unique ground for free, democratic
dialogue. Indeed, in the open publishing zone, some offensive expressions
might appear, such as slander or abuse of privacy. However, the general
opinion of judges and legislators from all over the world holds that, in
almost all cases, responsibility should not be laid upon the providers of
Internet services-website operators that allow an open publishing zone for
the entire surfing public. This is also the opinion of a special committee
of the Israeli Ministry of Justice, which presently discusses this issue.

Now however, when legislators and judges around the world deny that website
operators have civil responsibility for "guest" publications, and at the
very moment that the Ministry of Justice committee discusses the design of
legal arrangements that will explicitly anchor these conceptions in law, the
police investigation team makes up its own norms, claiming criminal
responsibility, and even worse, hurrying to impose them in practice using an
harassing and bullying investigation against the website operators,
demanding behavior according to a 'legal policy' that they made-up.

Attorney Pinchuk adds that making the website operators supervise and censor
all publications that are published on the open platform will bring the
majority of websites to extinction. Many websites that don't posses
resources can not fulfill the demands for pre-supervision and will rather
cancel the open publishing system. Other sites attempting to avoid potential
indictment and interrogation will act to aggressively censor, only to assure
themselves against intimidation, indictments and other charges. Therefore,
analogous to what happened in other public domains, dialogue on the Internet
will be reduced to a domain controlled and supervised by and for the few.

Fear of abuse on the internet, says Attorney Pinchuk, must not bring about
the destruction of the platform itself. We can assume that the invention of
the airplane assisted criminals occasionally to escape, but the solution to
this problem lies in the field of extradition law and international
agreements, not in the destruction of airplanes or placing responsibility on
pilots or stewardesses.

Therefore, Attorney Pinchuk requests a permanent end to the investigation
and a cessation of harassment against the website operators for publications
published by others on the open platform on the website.

Shamai Leibowitz, lawyer for Indymedia Israel, adds: "This is a dangerous
attempt by the Israeli government, to quash Freedom of Speech and the
Freedom to Disseminate Information. It uses fear and threats in order to
suppress critique of the Israeli government and what is occurring in the
Occupied Palestinian Territories. This police investigation reminds us, to
our deep regret, of the situation in the book 1984 by George Orwell."





Link: http://www.acri.org.il/english-acri/engine/index.asp