Monday 10th April 2000 13:00 PRESS RELEASE
AUTHOR: Campaign Against Censorship of the Internet in Britain
For immediate release.
ANTI-CENSORSHIP WEB SITE CENSORED
Civil liberties web site the "Campaign Against
Censorship of the Internet in Britain"
(CACIB) was itself censored by its Internet Service
Provider today. The site was deleted from the ISP's
web servers in response to a complaint from
Laurence Godfrey, serial litigant, about reporting of
censorship in the UK.
Laurence Godfrey had settled an unrelated
defamation action against Demon Internet last
week. Commentators consider that law suit to have
shown that ISPs are legally liable for their
customers'actions.
"We greatly regret having to take this action but our
solicitors advise that the costs of defending a
potential libel action would be prohibitive, even
though a defence is most likely to be successful in
this case. We are only a small company and cannot
afford the risk." said Lee Maguire, spokesman for
the Internet Service Provider Instant Web Ltd.
The censored civil liberties campaign was outraged.
"This shows that ISPs desparately need legal
immunity from the actions of their customers. We
stand behind our comments, but the ISP is naturally
neither willing nor able to get involved. The result is
that we are presumed guilty, and censored, because
our ISP does not want to pay the legal fees to
defend us. This shows that ISPs desparately need
legal immunity from the actions of their customers."
said Malcolm Hutty, director of CACIB.
"We weren't even criticising Mr Godfrey
personnally: we were simply commenting on the
adverse consequences of the outcome of Godfrey
vs Demon Internet."
CACIB had run a story about yet another site that
had been closed down, where the ISP had cited
"the current legal environment" as a reason for not
being able to resist the complaint. CACIB had
described this outcome as being "Godfrey's first
victim" - a reference to the outcome of the libel suit
Godfrey launched against Demon Internet;
Laurence Godfrey coinsiders connecting the two
cases to be defamatory.
Perhaps the biggest irony is that Mr Hutty, as well
as being a director of CACIB, is also a founder and
employee of Instant Web. "On a personal level it
breaks my heart that the company I started is
forced into censorship." he said. "I don't blame my
colleagues, they're terrified. But I got into the
Internet because I believed in the promise of
freedom for all; I never imagined it would be the
most easily censored medium there is."
The CACIB web site is now hosted in the USA.
-------------------ENDS----------------------------------------
Notes to Editors:
[1] For further information contact:
Campaign Against Censorship of the Internet in Britain
Malcolm Hutty
020 7225 5418 (work)
07970 736 976 (mobile)
Instant-Web
Silash Ruparell
0207 589 4500
[2] The CACIB web site is located at
http://www.liberty.org.uk/cacib/
This is now based on computer servers phyically located in the USA.
[3] Malcolm Hutty is a minority share-holder and director of Instant Web.
The decision to delete the CACIB web site was taken by his co-director,
with Mr Hutty excusing himself from participation on the grounds
of conflict of interest.
[4] The legal advice referred to by Lee Maguire was given by
Ince & Co, a major city law firm.
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Anti-Censorship Web Site Censored
Campaign Against Censorship of the Internet in Britain Mon, 10 Apr 2000 08:23:41 -0700
