[Air-l] EFF Challenges Secret Court Order

[Art McGee]

More on the IndyMedia situation that some were inquiring about:

Electronic Frontier Foundation Media Release

For Immediate Release: Monday, October 25, 2004

Contact:

Kevin Bankston
  Attorney, Equal Justice Works / Bruce J. Ennis Fellow
  Electronic Frontier Foundation
  bankston at eff.org
  +1 415 436-9333 x126

Kurt Opsahl
  Staff Attorney
  Electronic Frontier Foundation
  kurt at eff.org
  +1 415 436 9333 x106

EFF Challenges Secret Court Order

Motion Demands Information About the Seizure of Indymedia's
Servers

Texas - Today Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF)
attorneys filed a motion to unseal a secret US federal
court order that led to the seizure of two servers hosting
several websites and radio feeds belonging to Indymedia, a
global collective of Independent Media Centers (IMCs) and
thousands of journalists. The motion seeks to discover
which agencies and governments are responsible for the
seizure in order to hold them accountable. In their motion,
EFF attorneys argue that "the public and the press have a
clear and compelling interest in discovering under what
authority the government was able unilaterally to prevent
Internet publishers from exercising their First Amendment
rights." They argue further that secret court orders
circumvent due process, undermine confidence in the
judicial system, and deny an avenue for redress.

"When a secret order results in the unconstitutional
silencing of media, the public has a right to know what
happened." said Kurt Opsahl, EFF Staff Attorney. "Freedom
of the press is an essential part of the First Amendment,
and our government must show it had a compelling state
interest to order such an extreme intrusion to the rights
of the publisher and the public."

Citing a gag order, Rackspace has not revealed the contents
of the seizure order, the requesting agency, or even
confirmed the identity of the court that issued it.
Apparently requested by an unidentified foreign government,
the secret order was served to San Antonio-based Rackspace
Managed Hosting, which hosts IndyMedia's servers. The
seizure took offline more than 20 IMC websites and more
than 10 streaming radio feeds. So far, government agencies
in the US, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation,
the Departments of State and Justice, and the US Attorney's
Office in San Antonio, have refused to take responsibility
for the incident. Prosecutors in Switzerland and Italy have
admitted pursuing investigations related to Indymedia
articles but denied requesting the seizure.

"Silencing Indymedia with a secret order is no different
than censoring any other news website, whether it's USA
Today or your local paper," said Kevin Bankston, EFF
attorney and Equal Justice Works/Bruce J. Ennis Fellow. "If
the government is allowed to ignore the Constitution in
this case, then every news publisher should be wondering,
'Will I be silenced next?'"

EFF's motion to unseal was filed in the federal court in
the Western District of Texas, where EFF believes the
secret court order originated.

Motion to unseal:
http://www.eff.org/Censorship/20041022_Indymedia_Motion_to_Unseal.pdf

For this release:
http://www.eff.org/news/archives/2004_10.php#002029

About EFF

The Electronic Frontier Foundation is the leading civil
liberties organization working to protect rights in the
digital world. Founded in 1990, EFF actively encourages and
challenges industry and government to support free
expression and privacy online. EFF is a member-supported
organization and maintains one of the most linked-to
websites in the world at http://www.eff.org/