[***Originally posted on the "antiracism@icare.to" listserv, Mod.***] Indymedia Netherlands under fire for antisemitism Wednesday, October 2, 2002 - MDI, The Complainst Bureau for Discrimination on the Internet, has filed charges against the left-wing discussion forum Indymedia for allowing antisemitic material on their website. by Maarten Reijnders The MDI has identified 24 expressions which are according to them punishable under Dutch Law. Amongst those is a claim that 'Jews are aiming for world dominance, the Protocols of the Elders of Zion prove this' and a posting by a so-called Christian Anti-Zionist organisation which states that it is 'already busy in Europe, intimidating and terrorizing Jews and zionists, destroying Synagogues where hate is preached' . 'Lizet' of Indymedia NL is unhappy about the charges. "Especially since we are against racism and antisemitism ourselves. It is a pity that the MDI did not contact us, we are perfectly willing to sit down with them and talk about possible removal of material" Says MDI director Ronald Eissens: "We have been in contact with Indymedia already in July. After pressure from our side they removed some 30 expressions at that time. They co-operated, but they don't clean up their own mess. I warned them a few weeks ago that they had become a public urinal and that we are not the janitor". Also Indymedia Belgium, France, Germany Sweden and the U.S. are having trouble for allowing antisemitism. That's why the MDI decided to press charges. "We don't do that evey day you know", Ronald Eissens says. "It only happens when things get out of control. Our aim is removal of racist material from the Internet, not filing charges". A stick to hit a dog with Since the mounting tension in the Middle-East the number of complaints about antisemitism is way up, Eissens concludes. "People who have already something against Jews use the situation in the Middle-East as an excuse to spout antisemitism, as a stick to hit a dog with". 'Lizet': "Sometimes it is not very clear if something is antisemitic. At times we have discussions about that ourselves. We try to monitor our site as best as possible, but sometimes something gets through. E.g. when somebody posts a message at night or posts a reply in an old discussion-thread". According to the MDI the number of complaints about racist and antisemitic expressions have gone up again this year. "Last year we received a total of 691 complaints about 1081 expressions, at this moment we already are on 650 and counting. We expect between 850 and 1000 complaints by the end of this year". Eissens says that during the past 4 years the MDI secured 3 convictions of on-line racists and antisemites. "And right now we also have 18 cases which have been filed with the District Attorney". " IDG Webwereld, 02-10-2002 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Stichting Magenta - Magenta Foundation, Complaints Bureau for Discrimination on the Internet Amsterdam - The Netherlands - e-mail : ronald@magenta.nl Magenta home -- www.magenta.nl Complaints about discrimination on the net: meldpunt@meldpunt.nl ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ========== HURIDOCS-Tech listserv ========== Send mail intended for the list to <huridocs-tech@hrea.org>. Archives of the list can be found at: http://www.hrea.org/lists/huridocs-tech/markup/maillist.php To subscribe to the list, send a message to <majordomo@hrea.org>, with the following text in the message: subscribe huridocs-tech To unsubscribe from the list, send a message to <majordomo@hrea.org>, with the following text in the message: unsubscribe huridocs-tech If you have problems (un)subscribing, contact <owner-huridocs-tech@hrea.org>.
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