[IMC-Process] RE: [Imc-cleveland] Re: [New-imc] Re: [IMC-Tech] Re: [IMC-Editorial] Warning! Aryan nations using your bandwidth!!! -from Boston IMC

[nessie at sfbg.com]

>moderation could be seen as censurship by the
ppl who use indymedia...and we didnt want to get on
this position...

Editing is not censorship.  Stuff is moved, not removed. Global news 
goes in [global], local news goes in [local], and trash goes in 
[hidden]. It's all still there. It's all still readable. It's all 
still able to be commented upon. By hiding enemy propaganda, we 
merely tag it as something of which we do not approve.

Besides, by definition, censorship is only possible by governments.

Personally, I think hiding enemy propaganda is not enough. It should 
be completely and permanently removed.  If  Indymedia cannot 
consensus to ban enemy propaganda, then its credibility in this world 
will be nil, and it's very reason for existing will have been 
negated. This is precisely the goal of at least some of the people 
who are currently abusing Indymedia's hospitality. If they are 
permitted to succeed, not only will Indymedia be doomed, but the 
entire Global Justice Movement will suffer, and with it our planet, 
and untold generations of her people. This is not an acceptable 
option.

Ergo, those IMC locals and individual IMCistas, which insist on 
discrediting Indymedia, should be ostracized by those of us who do 
consense. This should be done at the DNS level, as well as on our 
front pages, and the sooner the better. Yesterday would have been 
good, and the day before even better. If you are going to use our 
name and logo, you must not discredit them. If you are going to 
discredit them, you must not be allowed to use our name and logo.

This may sound harsh, but it the political reality of the situation. 
If, for example, you allow Nazi propaganda to be published under your 
name and logo, people will naturally assume that you are a supporter 
of Nazism. And they will be right. And nothing else you say will be 
taken seriously, ever again, by anybody who knows, not even the Nazis 
themselves.

In journalism, credibility is everything. Unless we can successfully 
defend our credibility, Indymedia will fail at its most basic 
mission, and all the work we have put into it will have been for 
nothing.

The fascists must be driven out, so must the racists, war mongers, 
homophobes, misogynists, colonialists, and apologists for 
exploitation, ecocide, and torture, and anyone who defends them.

Speech is free, bandwidth is not. That these miscreants be required 
to provide their own bandwidth is not an infringement of their 
freedom of speech. It is an affirmation of our own.