FBI shut down Indymedia sites

Users of Indymedia got a shock on Thursday 7 October with the temporary closure of 20 of its sites due to FBI intervention, supposedly in behalf of the Italian and Swiss Governments. The network of websites, which allow individuals or organisations to post alternative information on their sites to be accessed all across the world, are one of the key elements of the anti-globalisation movement when it comes to exchange of ideas, opinions and information.

The network was established during the 1999 World Trade Organisation protests in Seattle, as mainstream media failed to adequately cover the news. Indymedia defines itself as "a network of collectively run media outlets for the creation of radical, accurate and passionate tellings of the truth".

On Thursday 7 October around 6pm, two Indymedia web servers hosted by Rackspace, a US company, in Britain went down. For those who do not understand a lot about servers, these are the virtual infrastructure that allows websites to be accessible on the internet, similar to the role of NTL for Irish television services. The servers hosted the sites of more then 20 local collectives from a range of countries, as well as miscellaneous other projects. Most of the sites are already back online, as they found alternative servers to host them.

By Friday 8 October, Indymedia learned that the request to seize the servers originated from government agencies in Italy and Switzerland. The reasons for the court order or who holds the servers now are still unknown to Indymedia.

However, Indymedia said in a statement it "had been asked last month by the FBI to remove a story about Swiss undercover police from one of the websites hosted at Rackspace".

The statement added: "It is not known, however, whether Thursday's order is related to that incident since the order was issued to Rackspace and not to Indymedia. According to Rackspace, they 'cannot provide Indymedia with any information regarding the order.'"

So far, the FBI has acknowledged that a subpoena had been issued but said it was at the request of Italian and Swiss authorities.

"It is not an FBI operation," FBI spokesman Joe Parris told French news agency AFP. "Through a legal assistance treaty, the subpoena was on behalf of a third country."

The FBI spokesman said there was no US investigation but that the agency co-operated under the terms of an international treaty allowing countries to assist each other in investigations such as international terrorism, kidnapping and money laundering.

The effect of Rackspace's handing over of the servers to the FBI was not only to take Indymedia off the air but to allow access to all the files held.

This is not the first time that Indymedia has suffered legal harassment. Last August, just before the Republican National Convention in New York, the FBI attempted to shut down Indymedia. NY Indymedia revealed how the secret services had harassed the company that provides their server, Calyx Internet Access. In this case, the court order referred to the publication of the list of delegates attending the convention.

Aidan White, the General Secretary for the International Federation of Journalists said "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."