these things it will only get worse.
The alternative news site AlterInfo is also in trouble and are being sued.
As I said before I don't have to agree with the politics of a given site but surely they are allowed to speak their minds. Got this one from SOTT
Jeff
sott.net
Fri, 21 Mar 2008 13:03 ED
The French alternative website Alterinfo.net is threatened with closing down as they face legal complaints and accusations of "antisemitism" by the Zionist lobby.
The French associative AlterInfo news agency is facing what it qualifies as a "new attempt of intimidation and destabilization". In January, UEJF [1] and AIPJ [2], two Jewish militant associations, lodged and summoned AlterInfo to appear in court for a summary judgment. The judgment returned on January 18th ruled in the Jewish lobbies' favour, which prompted the news agency to lodge an appeal, in which they will be able to better explain and justify their position. [Note: AlterInfo cannot reveal too many details about the case, to prevent the justice from interpreting the news release as an interference in the judicial procedure.]
These legal proceedings, as reported on the alternative news site, follow repeated death threats as well as several attempts at bribery in order to influence the editors and their editorial line. The editorial line is defined as "the transmission of another version of what the dominant thought imposes, an alternative interpretation of the information conveyed by the commercial media".
This procedure is coupled with a media campaign, in the front line of which we find UEJF and AIPJ.
Alterinfo's editor reports in an article:
" [...] I will mention two articles which the militant UEJF and AIPJ associations published against me and against the Alter Info website in their community press. 'L'Actualité Juive' ('The Jewish News') and its very 'objective' scribe are not attempting this for the first time: over the last year, at least three insulting articles have been published by the same right-thinking author. See :
href="http://www.alterinfo.net/docs/actualite_juive.pdf"> Jean-Yves Camus' last article in 'Actualité Juive' in pdf format
The CRIF[3], recently joined this assault by publishing a statement entitled: "Writ issued against an anti-Semitic and conspiracy focused website."
Alterinfo states:
"Those who, since our beginnings, have been denigrating us, have suddenly been more fearless after the complaint filed against us - which is easily seen by googling alterinfo.net (always visible on some sites against which we do not exclude the possibility of raising a complaint). After the CRIF website which published: 'Writ issued against an anti-semitic and conspiratorial website', the prochoix.org website joins the list of the sectarian storytellers, where we can read in a resentful and very subjective rag published on prochoix.org (Caroline Fourest's site): ' [...] The text, extracted from 'Les Indigènes de la République' website, has already been republished by Bellaciao, Indymedia / Paris Ile-de-France, or the anti-Semitic and conspiracy focused website alterinfo.net. ' [Link to the article]
Alterinfo declares: "That we are being blamed, for lack of other lies, to be conspiracy focused doesn't bother us, and we claim our "conspira-Zionism", but the anti-Semitism, in addition to being an offence, we strongly deny; we shall see at the appropriate moment (when we have the financial means) if the justice will pronounce fairly on this issue."
The AlterInfo editors denounce the UEJF and AIPJ method which, according to them, follow the same logic: "Failing to silence us, they want to ruin us financially and psychologically in order to hinder our association's proper functioning".
The site appealed for donations on January 11th, to deal with expenses induced by the procedure. On February 18th, the association paid 9200 Euros for lawyer's fees, which covers "hardly half the expenses generated by this case". The pleading hearing for the appeal is scheduled on April 16th, 2008 at 2 pm; to send your donation please click here.
AlterInfo is in good standing among the French alternative media. "In January, the site had 312,749 visits and 1,686,434 readings for 171,503 different IP addresses. The number of readers of our site irritates, and perhaps even frightens, certain groups ", declares Alterinfo.
Among these site visitors are several renowned readers and institutions, all identified by their connection IP. "The diversity and relevance of the published texts seem to interest many more people than our opponents would like us to believe. If, as our detractors assume, our guests were only nut-cases or vulgar anti-Semites, how do you explain our readers' diversity?
To illustrate their deviancy and demonstrate that their charges are only fantasy, we retain listings of the connection IPs of the governmental institutions - governments and parliaments as well as various ministries (national and foreign), even the Elysée (French Presidency) occasionally (by the way, what could the president advisors look for on our site?) What is indicated by these numerous financial institutions - central banks of various countries, even the World Bank coming to glean information from our site, and the various national trade media which regularly also visit our pages?", reports Alterinfo.
These legal proceedings are all the more surprising as Alterinfo deals with the problems of Zionism (a xenophobic political ideology which is among others promulgated by Christians and condemned by numerous Jews) and emphasizes frequently the distinction, which it makes, between Zionism and Judaism.
Is it factual to call a person anti-American who criticizes Dick Cheney's neoliberal political ideology?
Don't be mistaken, in this case, it is the freedom of speech on the Internet that is targeted. AlterInfo needs you... NOW!
"All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for the good men do nothing." (Edmund Burke)
"It is not our detractors who will close our site and associative news agency, but the passivity and/or the laxness of our most diligent readers and our supposed supporters and their reaction to our current financial difficulties."
"Those who filed this lawsuit thought indeed that even if we won in the summary judgment or in appeal, we would be financially 'weakened'. If they partially 'succeeded', it becomes clear how many supporters we have, and to a certain extent, they only strengthened our determination to continue, and brought more attention to our purpose and cause. Furthermore, they gave us the occasion to see who were our true friends, and it is priceless.", declared Alterinfo editors.
Here are the four news releases published by the AlterInfo website to
date:
- Alter Info communiqué (UEJF and AIPJ vs. Alter Info case) January 11th, 2008.
- Report: UEJF and J'ACCUSE vs. Alter Info -January 20th, 2008.
- Results of our call to donation and projects for the continuation [Alter Info editorial staff] - February 18th, 2008.
-Bis repetita UEJF/J'ACCUSE contre Alter Info: L'assignation en référé, nouveau procédé de censure ? - Zeynel CEKICI, Alterinfo's chief editor - 18 mars 2008
[1] The Union of the Jewish students of France ( UEJF) is a student association created in 1944, which represents the Jewish students in France (Wikipedia).
[2] J'Accuse (I accuse) - International Association for Justice (AIPJ), was founded in 2001, notably by people in charge of UEJF and LICRA. Marc KNOBEL,
researcher at the CRIF and at the Simon Wiesenthal Center is the president. About this matter, it is interesting to have a look at the text "The thought Police: CRIF at the National Magistracy School" on Altermedia.info.
[3] The French Jewish Organizations Council (known also under the CRIF acronym) federates, within a single representative organization, various
political, social or religious leanings in the French Jewry. To date, the CRIF federates more than sixty associations, among which the Unified Jewish Social Fund and the Universal Jewish Alliance (Wikipedia).
