Friday, May 23, 2008

Media censorship and the McCanns

People, don't let this post go by. Follow it through - it's quite extraordinary.

Media censorship and the McCanns

This particular story for me started here "McCann advances against "T&Q", 16 May 2008". You will need to scroll down the page until you find it. It concerns a news report in T&Q on 24 August 2007. On 31 August 2007, BBC Radio 4 ran with the story and conducted an interview with the director of T&Q. I blogged it here. But, it wasn't until I blogged the same story on the My Telegraph blog here that I discovered that I had been...



However, whilst the My Telegraph blog team were able to censor me on their blog, they were unable to censor the Google cache as evidenced here.

I did manage to post the same post a second time with the same result of being censored, and when I posted again including the Google cache link this post also got censored.

Eventually, I received an email from the My Telegraph blog team in response to my two emails and they had this to say:

"Hello,

Our team of moderators respond to complaints about material on My Telegraph and remove anything which they consider to be potentially defamatory or abusive.

Best wishes,

Ceri Radford".

So, they censor first on the basis that it might be potentially defamatory or abusive rather than actually is?

Given that the story had already been printed in T&Q and 24 Hours, and aired on the BBC, it begs the question whether the My Telegraph blog team were being honest in their reasons for the censorship?

Xklamation also reports that the three posts she did on the McCanns were also censored by the My Telegraph blog team.

I would argue that we are going down a slippery slope here and that the brakes need to be applied to those intent on preventing freedom of expression.

4 comments:

  1. I let the McCann thing largely go by until now. Yes, it was tragic and yes, I felt the same way most Brits did but that was it.

    Now that this intimidation is coming out of the McCann legal team and the look of glee on her face, I'm now interested and will say what I bloody well like about it - they're not intimidating me.

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  2. You should see the cyber-stalker I have picked up on my McCanns to be charged post in the comments!

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  3. I learned during my campaigning that there are lots of people who try to stop freedom of speech. It really is quite shocking!

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  4. Freedom of speech is one thing, but really we all know the McCanns are guilty of leaving their child alone. Where is the proof that they had anything to do with her disappearance? Public opinion doesn't determine guilt either. James you would do well to recall the Lindy Chamberlain case and Azaria. She was jailed over Azaria's murder and then had the conviction quashed. People who live in glass houses....

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