I regularly read and sometimes comment on Harry’s Place, a british blog that has been a light in the desert of ideas in which the democratic left seems to have let itself drag into.
An hour ago, I tried to access the blog, and to my surprise I couldn’t open it. Well, as one of the blog administors informed me, “HP has been disabled due to a complaint from the woman we posted about who linked to the neo-Nazi David Duke website.”
It is depressing to see how the enemies of freedom use the mechanisms available to them in free societies to undermine freedom itself.
However, and this is what I love more about blogging, its readers are reacting by spreading the news all over the internet.
Here are some blog on this issue:
The back-up blog from Harry’s Place, called Jenna Delich files
A back-up to the back-up blog from Harry’s place where all the story is told.
I didn’t even know who this Jenna Delich was, but it happens that I have had the displeasure of dealing with similar people, and all I can say is these people make me sick!
I don’t like it when I am prevented to access a blog, or to read a book, or to watch a film just because someone didn’t like that his/her actions were uncovered. Why should my freedom to read what I want be diminished by such people?
So, this post is a small contribution to boost the issue on search engines.
Update: other blogs on this:
Harry’s Place shut down by Idiots
This issue is fascinating to analyse for what it reveals about what freedom of expression means and how it is being undermined in so many ways within democratic societies. No time for deep comments or analises now, just a few links to help turn this situation even more visible in the internet.
On Greater Surbiton a post highlighting what is at stake in a broader sense.
For the Portuguese readers I would like to stress the similarities with the way the neo-fascists hijacked the moribund party PRD (something for which I blame Ramalho Eanes and all the people who created this party just to upset the Socialist Party and then abandoned it when it didn’t suit their interests anymore).
10 Comments
August 26, 2008 at 11:31 pm
Sarah,
thanks for the plug, mine is a BACKUP of a backup (the back HP is hosted on blogspot).
I decided to get that handle on wordpress just in case.
cheers
August 27, 2008 at 2:09 am
[...] 7: International support from Portugal and Israel, thanks Sarah and [...]
August 27, 2008 at 2:34 am
ops that should be:
the backup HP is hosted on blogspot
August 27, 2008 at 5:58 am
I posted a solidarity statement.
Regards.
August 27, 2008 at 8:25 am
modernity, I love that idea of making a back-up of a back-up. If necessary, a back-up of a your back-up can also be done!!!
this lady was looking for some negative publicity, because this way this issue is getting beyond the traditional audience of HP. not that the traditional audience is negligible, but this is obviously grabbing the attention of others too.
anyway, this situation is a scandal. this is a perversion of the democratic spirit. I am shocked to see this, and I am disappointed with britain for making life so easy to such people.
August 27, 2008 at 1:17 pm
Cheers for the plug as well
August 27, 2008 at 1:26 pm
[...] Duke of Chaos, Ignoblus, El Nuevo Pantano, Renegade Eye, Mushkush, Ten Percent, Socialist Unity, Sarah Franco, Rosie Bell, Ben Cohen, Darren Redstar and Unitalian. I’m sure there will be many more – feel [...]
September 14, 2008 at 3:20 pm
Mr. Mark Simpson:
I wouldn’t have posted this without making my small research myself… so I am pretty well aware of who is right and who is wrong in this story.
A person who asks for a boycott such as this one cannot be anything else but a racist.
you should be ashamed of yourself for posting here a link such as the one you posted. Your comment will simply be erased, because it links to a hate speech blog and I will not contribute with my modest blog to enhance the visibility of hate speech in internet search engines…
you are free to think I am intolerant, of course. but there is a disclaimer on the top right of this blog, so that everybody who drops by may be aware of the rules in this blog.
September 21, 2008 at 10:20 pm
Sarah said: “It is depressing to see how the enemies of freedom use the mechanisms available to them in free societies to undermine freedom itself.”
I absolutely agree with you. If his blog was hosted by WordPress.com , then I am not surprised they blocked him. I am also afraid that somebody might complain and disable your blog. WordPress.com is known as one of the biggest content censorship machines around. They disabled one of my blogs because one of Srebrenica genocide deniers complained because I criticized him. Since then, I only deal with Google’s Blogspot service and Google will never shut down any blogs that exercise freedom of speech (and this applies to the US hosted blogs, I imagine Google in China has to comply with state directed censorship).
September 22, 2008 at 8:50 am
Daniel, I didn’t know that WordPress behaved in such way, otherwise I would have chosen another host.
I was in blogspot but I prefer the wordpress templates so I changed.