Blogosphere self-satisfied over gagging orders
By Andrew Grant-Adamson • Oct 14th, 2009 • Category: JournalismThe blogosphere and twiterati are looking self-satisfied and complacent about the variation in the gagging order against the Guardian which now allows the paper paper to report on discussion in parliament relating to a question in parliament. As Philip Virgo says in his When IT meets politics blog at Computer weekly:
Had Google and Yahoo not moved their European headquarters out of the UK (and EU) earlier this year, the story might well have been very different. The writs would have been served and Guido’s co-conspirators would not have been able to link to the documents.
Internet censorship is spreading. We should be worried that the victory yesterday was only partial: the gagging order remains in place for the moment. Even the Guardian itself is guilty of painting the victory as greater than it really is in a story headed “Trafigura: A few tweets and freedom of speech is restored”.
David Leigh, the paper’s investicative chief, was more realistic in recording:
The Guardian is still forbidden by the terms of the existing injunction, granted by a vacation duty judge, Mr Justice Maddison, to give further information about the Minton report, or its contents.
Andrew Grant-Adamson is Andrew Grant-Adamson is a journalist who now teaches a new generation of writers, subs and editors at the University of Westminster.
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It’s a fascinating story: as the focus on Trafigura started with a Norwegian documentary, it’s getting quite some coverage here as well… investigative journos in Norway, Holland and UK (BBC and Guardian) have worked closely together on this story, albeit using different angles, and interestingly The Minton report has been published online in full by Norway’s public broadcaster (they were sent the report and informed about the injunction against The Guardian by a company acting on behalf of Trafigura in Norway)…
[...] say that internet censorship is spreading. Bloggers and journalists are being scared by the threat of libel. The real world has woken up to [...]