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ITALY INDYMEDIA UNDER ATTACK

This morning around 7.00, police knocked at the doors of a few social
centers: Gabrio in Torino, Cecco Rivolta in Firenze, TPO in Bologna,
as well as those of the Cobas offices in Taranto. The huge
mobilitation (a lot of cars, vans, and riot cops) was due to an order
from Genova's attorney.

The attorneys Andrea Canciani and Anna Canepa ordered to seize audio
and video material referring to Genova facts, focusing on what could
deal with the police raid at the Media Center and the massacre at the
Diaz-Pertini school.

The search warrant explains that such material would have been
collected through the Italy Indymedia website, and would be situated
in the social centers Gabrio, TPO, Cecco Rivolta, and in Cobas
offices in Taranto, and in other places (using an aleathory form
which allows them to search and seize at their pleasure).

Searches are still going on. Police is seizing computers, archives,
and all of the stuff that hundreds of italian activists need for
their daily cultural and political activities.

The search warrant locates these places as "Indymedia offices".
Italy Indymedia states that Indymedia has no offices, but works through
the thousands of people who contribute to the website, and commit
themselves to produce a free and independent information. Italy
Indymedia decision making and project processes take place over the
internet, through open and publicly accessible mailing lists and
chatrooms. A daily and cooperative effort carried on by hundreds of
people, who won't be threatened.

This morning, an attack has been struck against freedom of
information. A few places have been targeted, to exercise a political
pressure on a complex and manifold subject as Italy Indymedia.

The material seized in Bologna, Firenze, Torino, Taranto, just like
all of Indymedia stuff, is freely viewable on our website. And so are
the archives of our mailing lists, of our chats, and of all our
activities.

Indymedia has nothing to hide.

Italy Indymedia, a network of independent media, reports a severe
attack to free information. We take note that minister Scajola, after
speech, is turning to facts. And Genova gets back under public
attention. After partial and smoky investigations which were supposed
to find proof of police violence, and while the dynamics of the
murder of Carlo Giuliani haven't been cleared yet, while the
officals responsible of the public order during those days are still
holding their seats, and in a few cases even got promoted.

We invite everyone to join Italy Indymedia at the demonstration
called in Rome for March,16th by Radio Onda Rossa.
For a free and independent information.

http://italy.indymedia.org
Independent Media Center Italia - the italian media revolution -

Contacts: italy@indymedia.org

-Indymedia is a network of people working on communication-related
issues: videomakers, radios, journalists, photographers.
-Indymedia was estabilished in Seattle to cover the protests and demo
against the WTO.
Indymedia is an open publishing site, without any form of censorship,
where anybody can upload audio, video, pictures and articles. Italy
Indymedia has no redaction: we work through public mailing lists and
open chatrooms.
-The Independent Media Center is a network of collectively run media
outlets for the creation of radical, accurate, and passionate tellings
of the truth.
We work out of a love and inspiration for people who continue to work
for a better world, despite corporate media's distortions and
unwillingness to cover the efforts to free humanity.

this is bull crap. how can "democratic" governments pull off shit like this with no resistance??

That's too bad. Keep up the good work though. All indymedia is good indymedia.

Italy * Carlo Ciampi
presidenza.repubblica@quirinale.it

also http://www.peacecard.org - select government/Int'l for a list of world leaders including Ciampi.

Can't say it's all that surprising for the state to want to shut down a media source not controlled by corporate interests. My solidarity with those getting their houses raided, its a stressful event.

F**K THE POLICE

F**K THE GOVERNMENT

AND F**K BERLUSCONI, TONY BLAIR, and the other corrupt rulers of the world.

Italy is not a democracy.

the repression counters the threat of democracy. this is a rave review of italian indymedias efforts. keep up the good work! salut!

As the events of yesterday show, the attact on freedom is well underway. Now's not the time for faint hearts. In solidarity with Indymedia Italy.

the italians should think about whether they still live in a democracy, as long as there is no independet media. public and private media alike are controlled by just ONE man (berlusconi). how can that be? independent media is one of the conerstones of democracy!

Who said it? This is a rave review of your work in EU... but we are all in jeopardy... the pirates are out there waiting for us. Good luck.

This is an indication that the rulers feel threatend by the new anticapitalist movement and the IMC! If fascism can see to that the wealth and the power remains in the hands of the small, rich elite who keeps it today - they will encourage the rise of it!

When George Bush and his europeen allies crush the most poor country in the world they obviously need the corrupt mainstream media to support them, because the logic of the system don't make sense to ordinary people anymore. When more and more people start to question the basics of capitalism they will feel the need to use their iron heel!

Keep up the good work, they'll never defeat us!

In solidarity
Stian Andersen, Oslo

PS: The world bank has desided to come to Oslo this summer – they will arrange a meeting aiming to give the impression that the WB cares about powerty in the world. People are already planning to give them a proper welcome!

First they will ignore us.
Then they will laugh at us.
Then they will fight us.
Then we will win.

These raids were undertaken by a corrupt judiciary, whose power is based upon a law system which seeks to legitimise the concentration of property in the hands of a criminal elite, criminalising those who seek to oppose them.

A very famous Italian, a long time ago, said words along these lines:

'The more unjust a government, the more complicated are its laws.'
- Publius Cornelius Tacitus c. AD 117

It seems that IMC's start being annoying for the bosses.But no matter how hard they try , we will always be one steap ahead...Solidarity to the italian comrades has now become an act of self respect , dignity and true democracy.

--Greece

Che vadano al diavolo: 1) Berlusconi, assieme con il suo junta di stronzi arroganti, ignoranti ed oppressivi, 2) Bush ed i suoi guerrafondai stronzi di merda, e 3) tutti gli altri leader di cazzo appartenenti al nuovo ordine mondiale!

Che i cieli diano la vittoria dei giusti a voi (noi) al piu' presto possibile!

Auguri e benedizioni,
Monty

diaz nicht vegessen!

I am a grassroots farmer from Johnson, Kansas USA. I have seen first hand how the news is manipulated to insure the continued dominance by those who have the financial means to control most of the major news media. They have used this edited news cast as advertisements on their behalf.

It acts to enslave me to those 3 or 4 Global Corporations that control over 80% of the grain and cattle sales in the USA.

I would like to help and support your cause in any way I can.

Thanks,

Jerold Hubbard, Johnson, Kansas 67855 USA +620-593-4436

As usual the authorities seem to be scared of their own rear end. This attack is but another example of events, taking place, world-wide. The word is mightier than the sword of the state. The state is afraid of the words of the people and are attempting to stifle freedom of the press, freedom of assembly, freedom of expression and any other freedoms they can think of.

But this harassment will continue, the tyranny, under the guise of security will continue, but democracy, in spite of this, will survive state stupidity. I applaud the courage of those who are at the front-lines of this state tyrannical stupidity and are standing up to it. While the dumb-nuts are at the helm of the state, the state will continue to stumble along not matter what. This is a world-wide phenomena, be it Bush,Blair,or other "heads of state." The Indymedia is needed and appreciated by all with brains, common sense and the knowledge of right or wrong-headed state stupidity. Bush leads the way in this regard.

Fred Jakobcic
1025 N. Third Street
Marquette, MI 49855-3509
(906) 226-3681
fjakobci@chartermi.net.usa

this is just one of many inccidents that shows the government wants to control everything because if we hear to much the world will find out whats really going on and then and only then their will be mass histeria

SAVE THE INDYMEDIA!!!

SAVE THE INDYMEDIA!!!

All the flag waving and pro-democratic posturing. After all the rhetoric about "free speech" and national pride, we see governments acknowledging plans to plant false stories and now more attacks on dissent and alternate viewpoints.
This is a disgrace and it's also very telling.

Indymedia Italy Raided
by Paul Roland 5:30pm Thu Feb 21 '02
roland@virgilio.it

Yesterday Italian authorities carried out a coordinated attack on Italian Indymedia and others involved in documenting police abuses during the G8 Summit in Genova last summer.
Yesterday Italian authorities carried out a coordinated attack on Italian Indymedia and others involved in documenting police abuses during the G8 Summit in Genova last summer. An early morning search and seizure operation took place in four Italian cities, targetting three “centri sociali occupati,” which are formerly abandoned buildings taken over by local activists and used as centers of social, cultural and political activity, as well as the office of an independent grassroots labor union and the legal studio of an attorney active with the Democratic Jurists Association.

The early morning raids in Torino [Turin], Florence, Bologna and Taranto [accent 1st syllable] were carried out by dozens of Carabinieri’s Special Operations Group and other Italian national police, some in riot gear, acting on orders from and with search warrants signed by the Genova District Attorney’s office. They seized videos, photographs, cd-roms, computer hard drives and other material the authorities thought had information relating to the events in Genova. One of those who signed the warrants, Andrea Canciani, the Antimafia District Attorney of Genova, said that the material “may be useful for all the investigations which have to do with the G8: both those regarding the violent demonstrators and those involving the presumed abuses on the part of the forces of order.”

Official news sources reported that the sites targeted were collection points for a call put out by Italy Indymedia for documentary materials of the events in Genova. DA Canciani claims that he became aware of the videos and photos on the Italy Indymedia website. According to an Italy Indy media press release, the search warrant allows for the possibility of further searches in other unspecified locations, so more seizures may be occurring or occur in the future.

The Indymedia press release and activists from the raided social centers said that in seizing computers and archival material, a large amount of it with no relation to the G8 protests, has severely impacted the daily cultural and political activities of hundreds of Italians. The search warrant located the social centers as “Indymedia offices,” which Italy Indymedia emphatically denied, saying that Indymedia has no offices, but works through the thousands of people who contribute to their website, and who are involved with Indymedia projects over the internet.

Indymedia has denounced the raids as an attack against freedom of information and an attempt to put political pressure on them. Hundreds of statements of solidarity have poured into the Italy Indymedia website from individuals and organizations all over Italy and around the world.
The Genova Legal Forum, which is made up of lawyers defending the G8 protesters, questioned the pretext for the raids, given that the Forum, in collaboration with Indymedia and other sources of independent documentation, have been working with the Genova DA’s office in the investigations into police abuses. They condemned the searches and seizures as an indiscriminate attack on free and independent information, protected by article 21 of the Italian Constitution. They particularly decry the seizure of computers, which “deprives their owners of the tools necessary to legitimately continue their work of free information.”

The Democratic Jurists Association also condemned the raids, especially that on their colleague Desi Bruno of Bologna, whose office has been a collection point for video documentation of the G8 events.

The Italian National Press Federation’s National Council unanimously approved a resolution against the attack on Indymedia, which praises Indymedia as “one of the most important networks of free lance and independent information before, during and after the G8, gathering and distributing ‘alternative’ documentation of great value on the Genova Summit.”

The Resolution states that “The issue of the defense of the media’s right to provide information has been one of the pillar’s of the Federation, of the Ligurian Association of Journalists and of the Order of Ligurian journalists during the G8. It is a right which cannot be infringed on in any way, neither for traditional media outlets, nor for the new forms of journalism and information like that of the Indymedia network.”

Green Party parliamentarians Paolo Cento and Mario Bulgarelli immediately announced the presentation of a parliamentary request for information to the ministers of the Interior and Justice Scajoli and Castelli, about the modality of the searches in Bologna and elsewhere. Solidarity was also expressed by the National Secretary of the grassroots union S.InCobas, whose office in Taranto was searched although apparently no materials there were seized. He called for the resignation of Interior Minister Scajoli as well as the heads of the Carabinieri and the Polizia di Stato, the Italian National police.

Scajoli is at the center of a controversy over recent disclosures that he gave orders to law enforcement to shoot with live ammunition at any protesters who might enter the heavily-barricaded and defended exclusionary “Red Zone” placed on a wide perimeter around the area where the G8 meeting was being held in Genova.

The raids also come at a time where the right-wing government led by real estate and media magnate Silvio Berlusconi seems to have blocked further investigations into the police-instigated violence during the street protests and against the Indymedia center and the Genova Social Forum organizing center at the time of the G8, and is focusing instead on the protesters themselves. Luca Casarini, one of the most visible leaders of the G8 protests and what’s called the “no-global”movement in Italy, was recently placed on a list of those under investigation for “incitement to riot” and other charges. Indymedia sources also claimed that Scajoli and Gianfranco Fini, leader of the National Alliance party, heirs to Mussolini’s Fascist party, were in Genova yesterday when the raids took place. Fini has been placed in the combined law enforcement’s command center in Genova on the day of the brutal assault on the Diaz School and the Indymedia center the day after Carlo Giuliani was shot to death by a Carabiniere.

Indymedia Italy Raided
by Paul Roland 5:30pm Thu Feb 21 '02
roland@virgilio.it

Yesterday Italian authorities carried out a coordinated attack on Italian Indymedia and others involved in documenting police abuses during the G8 Summit in Genova last summer.
Yesterday Italian authorities carried out a coordinated attack on Italian Indymedia and others involved in documenting police abuses during the G8 Summit in Genova last summer. An early morning search and seizure operation took place in four Italian cities, targetting three “centri sociali occupati,” which are formerly abandoned buildings taken over by local activists and used as centers of social, cultural and political activity, as well as the office of an independent grassroots labor union and the legal studio of an attorney active with the Democratic Jurists Association.

The early morning raids in Torino [Turin], Florence, Bologna and Taranto [accent 1st syllable] were carried out by dozens of Carabinieri’s Special Operations Group and other Italian national police, some in riot gear, acting on orders from and with search warrants signed by the Genova District Attorney’s office. They seized videos, photographs, cd-roms, computer hard drives and other material the authorities thought had information relating to the events in Genova. One of those who signed the warrants, Andrea Canciani, the Antimafia District Attorney of Genova, said that the material “may be useful for all the investigations which have to do with the G8: both those regarding the violent demonstrators and those involving the presumed abuses on the part of the forces of order.”

Official news sources reported that the sites targeted were collection points for a call put out by Italy Indymedia for documentary materials of the events in Genova. DA Canciani claims that he became aware of the videos and photos on the Italy Indymedia website. According to an Italy Indy media press release, the search warrant allows for the possibility of further searches in other unspecified locations, so more seizures may be occurring or occur in the future.

The Indymedia press release and activists from the raided social centers said that in seizing computers and archival material, a large amount of it with no relation to the G8 protests, has severely impacted the daily cultural and political activities of hundreds of Italians. The search warrant located the social centers as “Indymedia offices,” which Italy Indymedia emphatically denied, saying that Indymedia has no offices, but works through the thousands of people who contribute to their website, and who are involved with Indymedia projects over the internet.

Indymedia has denounced the raids as an attack against freedom of information and an attempt to put political pressure on them. Hundreds of statements of solidarity have poured into the Italy Indymedia website from individuals and organizations all over Italy and around the world.
The Genova Legal Forum, which is made up of lawyers defending the G8 protesters, questioned the pretext for the raids, given that the Forum, in collaboration with Indymedia and other sources of independent documentation, have been working with the Genova DA’s office in the investigations into police abuses. They condemned the searches and seizures as an indiscriminate attack on free and independent information, protected by article 21 of the Italian Constitution. They particularly decry the seizure of computers, which “deprives their owners of the tools necessary to legitimately continue their work of free information.”

The Democratic Jurists Association also condemned the raids, especially that on their colleague Desi Bruno of Bologna, whose office has been a collection point for video documentation of the G8 events.

The Italian National Press Federation’s National Council unanimously approved a resolution against the attack on Indymedia, which praises Indymedia as “one of the most important networks of free lance and independent information before, during and after the G8, gathering and distributing ‘alternative’ documentation of great value on the Genova Summit.”

The Resolution states that “The issue of the defense of the media’s right to provide information has been one of the pillar’s of the Federation, of the Ligurian Association of Journalists and of the Order of Ligurian journalists during the G8. It is a right which cannot be infringed on in any way, neither for traditional media outlets, nor for the new forms of journalism and information like that of the Indymedia network.”

Green Party parliamentarians Paolo Cento and Mario Bulgarelli immediately announced the presentation of a parliamentary request for information to the ministers of the Interior and Justice Scajoli and Castelli, about the modality of the searches in Bologna and elsewhere. Solidarity was also expressed by the National Secretary of the grassroots union S.InCobas, whose office in Taranto was searched although apparently no materials there were seized. He called for the resignation of Interior Minister Scajoli as well as the heads of the Carabinieri and the Polizia di Stato, the Italian National police.

Scajoli is at the center of a controversy over recent disclosures that he gave orders to law enforcement to shoot with live ammunition at any protesters who might enter the heavily-barricaded and defended exclusionary “Red Zone” placed on a wide perimeter around the area where the G8 meeting was being held in Genova.

The raids also come at a time where the right-wing government led by real estate and media magnate Silvio Berlusconi seems to have blocked further investigations into the police-instigated violence during the street protests and against the Indymedia center and the Genova Social Forum organizing center at the time of the G8, and is focusing instead on the protesters themselves. Luca Casarini, one of the most visible leaders of the G8 protests and what’s called the “no-global”movement in Italy, was recently placed on a list of those under investigation for “incitement to riot” and other charges. Indymedia sources also claimed that Scajoli and Gianfranco Fini, leader of the National Alliance party, heirs to Mussolini’s Fascist party, were in Genova yesterday when the raids took place. Fini has been placed in the combined law enforcement’s command center in Genova on the day of the brutal assault on the Diaz School and the Indymedia center the day after Carlo Giuliani was shot to death by a Carabiniere.

Is this not in direct opposition or Articolo 31 in the Italian Constitution, or was I just dreaming a stipulation for free spech existed?

i´m really inspired by all the work that people associated with indymedia are doing... good luck to those in italy now at this time of increasing oppression.. i agree that indymedia has nothing to hide and that it is more obvious everyday that the need for independent media and a free space to voice opinions is exceedingly important.. keep up the good work and i hope that many people turn out for the protest in rome on march 16.

So they think they can close us down-but the truth can't be closed down and we're not going anywhere. Like mercury- press it down and it appears someplace else-they only have their lies and obsessions with the commodity to sustain them while we have eachother and our search for a better tomorrow.

La lucha sigue

italy sucks shit

Keep going comrades.Remember the passion of the people heading towards the red zone in Genoa.Remember the police vehicle that stepped over Carlo.Remember all of the people that raised their feast singing pantiera rossa.Most of them were singing it for the first time.
The people of Barcelona stand on your side.Good lack with the demonstration

RECLAIM YOUR MEDIA! [en]
by imc italy 5:54pm Sat Mar 2 '02 (Modified on 5:56pm Tue Mar 5 '02)
italy@indymedia.org

Call in defence of independent information and freedom of expression.

Thinking, telling stories, explaining, spreading knowledge, monitorying the
quality of informations, being part of it, using it in a first person,
contributing directly with dreams, words, intelligences.
all of this is becoming dangerous

It was dangerous in Genoa during the anti-G8 protests, where independent
media, often using amateurish means, gave a direct and different testimony
from the one proposed by mainstream media.
And it is now dangerous for who is still making and facilitating grassroot
communication .

Indymedia was one of the network that allowed news to circulate before,
during and after the G8.
It's a network of subjects that work in the communication world: videomakers,
radio, hackers, journalists, fotographers. An international network of
collectivelly run media for a radical, objective and passionate telling of the
thruth.
Indymedia is an open publishing site: everyone can upload directly with no
censorship, video and audio files, immages, articles, communications.
There is no editorial stuff: it works through mailing list and chat lines that
are public and open.

The indymedia computers were the objectives of the confiscations made by the
police on the 20 02 02 in Bologna, Taranto, Firenze, Torino. In the early
morning 200 policeman and dozens of armoure cars intervened to confiscate the
archives of Indymedia Italy.
A vaine undertaking, because Indymedia is everywhere and nowhere. It's
accessible to whoever has a computer or a mobile phone: it lives in the Net.
Indymedia is independent, diffuse, horizontal, because it is made by a
collective intelligence.

Information is one of the hardest field of confrontation between who
exercises power and who suffers it. If a site of information born and grown
only on volountary bases become dangerous, then what's in danger is the
freedom of expression. whose turn will be the next time?

We believe it is necessary to react with strength to this attack to
fondamental freedoms and we rebel to every attempt to enclose our
intelligence.

Indymedia Italia is addressing to all the people that care about free-speach
and the independence of informations. we ask an ideal support , that goes
beyond the political belonging.
Information has to be free.

Indymedia Italia ,together with Radio Onda Rossa, promote ' RECLAIM YOUR
MEDIA' a protest for the rights of independent information
saturday 16 marzo 2002 in Rome,we will reclaim the streets with a noise sound
parade
Against each attack to the freedom of individual and collective expression.
contacts, support, subscriptions: italy@indymedia.org

We are building a team that will you Support. Because we need you and love. With our incense business we will obtain
fund's that will be sent to Indymedia.

I hope this is true and that the liars and lunatic conspiracy theorists at Indymedia branches world-wide, are being carefully watched.

The hatred on these sites is appalling.