Bristol Indymedia Server Seized By Cops

international | environment | other libertarian press Wednesday June 29, 2005 01:18 by IPRN - International Prison And Repression News

Police Action Facilitated By Local Police Informer

In the run-up to G8, the server of Bristol Indymedia has been seized by the police.

In the run-up to G8, Bristol Indymedia (BIM) has had it’s server seized by police. Recent press-releases released by the BIM collective are reproduced below. The person responsible for the latest repression against Indymedia is a Bristol-based part-time film-maker, and well-known local trouble-causer and liar, Mark ‘Zaskar’ Watson. Watson recently edited a film for CIRCA, the ‘Clown Army’, and runs his own website at www.zaskarfilms.com He is also well-known for hounding activists and filming them without their permission. While actually working as a nurse, Watson claims to be a journalist and NUJ member, something which is actually untrue, and if he possesses a press card as he claims, it is a forgery. Perhaps more importantly Watson is a former member of BIM, and since being thrown out of the BIM collective, for what he characterises on Urban 75 (see for example http://www.urban75.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=119284&page=1&pp=25) as sexism, he has waged a malicious campaign against BIM and his former colleagues, which has now reached rock-bottom.

The following is a rather incoherent post, which recently appeared on BIM:

stopping them in their tracks?

by s.p.RAY of freshair
alternative panel-beating for oxygen.
with the G8 on the horizon, we looked for a simple yet effective way to stick two fingers up to this oil-addicted society.we found one! a train that carries brand-new cars from portbury dock nr avonmouth through the avon gorge to ashton and bedminster to desperse at temple meads for the rest of the country. Some questions that came into our little minds were:is portbury dock fianancially-competative? [yes], who paid for the tracks and maintance from portbury to parson St bedminster?. has anyone ever seen a passenger train on this route?,and sitting on a hot coach because you can't afford hiked-up train fayres, you see yet more new cars you can't afford to buy being transported by rail,to consume more oil, that our enviroment can't take. So we did an oxygen-grab as a kind of work-out up to the summit.Lifting and then dropping rocks onto useless pieces of metal.[17/06/05] We are feeling fit now for the greedy-ate, we suggest others should take aim and practice. The forth-coming event around gleneagles will not automatically mean a head-on confrontation with the old-bill, they have more spiteful weapons than us, so let us side step them and unbalance them using our minds. good luck stay free, S.P. ray.

Since Indymedia do not retain IP addresses it is not known who posted this, nor is there any evidence of any actual incident occurring. Nonetheless Mark Watson, a self-confessed long-standing police informer, used the posting as an excuse to escalate his campaign against BIM. Without making any attempt to first contact BIM, Watson phoned the police and spoke to DC 1062 Saysell of Temple Meads CID. Since the police routinely monitor Indymedia it is unlikely that they had not already seen the post above, but Watson informed them that he was a former member of the BIM collective, and alleged that BIM kept the IP addresses of contributors and that these could be obtained by seizing the server. He also gave the name, address and contact details of at least one BIM volunteer, including all their employment details.

The details of Watson’s malicious and treacherous actions originally came out on the Urban 75 forum (http://www.urban75.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=119284&page=1&pp=25), in which he initially, and characteristically, lied through his teeth, before proclaiming himself, “An unrepetent grass.” Coming under attack from other Urban posters, Watson, who posts under the name ‘Zaskar’ (and possibly other names), attempted to get his attackers to contact the police, and sent them private messages, asking them to telephone him (on 07861 287069.) Apparently, Watson, is well-known for doing this, and then alleging that people have threatened him.

It should be clear to anyone reading this that Mark ‘Zaskar’ Watson is a self-confessed police-informer, and a malicious individual, responsible for closing down Bristol Indymedia at a particularly crucial time, and for subjecting Indymedia vounteers to police harassment and action. As such, he has no place in our movement, and should at the very least be ostracised. Beware of the tout ‘Zaskar’.


The following are statements from Bristol Indymedia:

Press Release Dated 24/06/05: On Mon 20th June, Bristol Indymedia (IMC Bristol) received an email from the police asking to contact them with reference to a posting on the IMC Bristol newswire. IMC Bristol volunteers appointed a solicitor and started briefing them to contact the police on their behalf. On Tue 21st June, the police contacted an IMC Bristol volunteer asking for IP logs. The subject of the police enquiry was a posting claiming that damage had been done to either some cars on a train transport, the transport itself, or the railway line.
Bristol Indymedia volunteers hid the post (originally posted late in the evening of 17th June) from their main newswire within 24 hours of it being posted - as it violated IMC Bristol editorial policy - and well before the police made initial contact.
When the solicitor contacted CID on the 21st to inform them that they could not have the server, or access to it, the police said that they could go through data protection and legal moves to get the logs or get a search warrant, and that they may arrest somebody for obstructing the course of justice.
At this point, an IMC Bristol volunteer informed IMC UK about the events. IMC Bristol then contacted Liberty, whose legal advisor contacted the police to press them on the issue that this server was considered an item of journalistic equipment and so subject to special provision under the law. The police have yet to confirm this. NUJ and Privacy International have also been contacted.
As of 24th June 2005, IMC Bristol remain in possession of their server. Communications with the police, and between various legal and civil rights organisations continue while technical and legal issues surrounding the case are clarified. Bristol Indymedia is an independent news service. As part of our policy, we will not make non-public information we hold publicly available. We do not permanently store IP addresses. We do not intend to voluntarily hand over information to the police as they have requested, and have informed them of this

(see also: http://bristol.indymedia.org/newswi...23454/index.php)

They have are also setting up a legal fund, donations: http://bristol.indymedia.org/mod/in...pport/index.php



"Have just been informed that police visited the home address of a member
of the Bristol Indymedia Collective (BIM) late this afternoon (approx
5.30pm) armed with a search warrant.

They seized from the property the persons personal computer, as well as
the Bristol Indymedia server. The member of the collective has also been
taken into custody, although his partner was told this was just for a
'chat' and he'd be home soon!?

LIBERTY, who have previously been involved in this matter have been
advised of the situation, and action is being taken to contact a local
solicitor to take on the immediate case.

As at 7pm Avon & Somerset police, specifically the Trinity Rd police
station custody suite, have stated that the collective member is not
presently in their custody. It is possible he is being held by Bristish
Transport police?

The background to this situation is that on approx 17 June an anonymous
post to the Bristol Indymedia newswire reported an 'action' in which
objects were dropped onto a freight train carrying new cars somewhere near
Avonmouth (I think). The action was contextualised as highlighting climate
change/car use/over-consumption etc in the run up to the G8 summit.
Rumours suggest the action caused around 100k damage. One regular poster
to Bristol Indymedia, and expelled ex-collective member, Mark Watson (of
Zaskar films) then posted a comment saying he morally disagreed with the
action, that the post breached BIM guidelines, and that he had contacted
the police & advised them BIM kept IP info (since denied by BIM). There
was then a period of dialogue between BIM, Liberty & the police, in which
Liberty/BIM argued that any info on the server was in any case subject to
special rules covering journalistic info, and the server could not be
seized using a standard search warrant (see BIM press release 24/6/05
http://indymedia.org.uk/en/2005/06/314820.html). No links to Bristol
Indymedia are included here as the site is presently down!

Whatever the legal case, the cops have now gone ahead and seized the
server. This differs from the recent instance when UK Indymedia's servers
were seized from their 'host' Rackspace, as BIM have their own stand-alone
server. This poster sincerely hopes they have some mirror servers to back
it up!

This poster is also trying to contact the rest of the BIM collective to
discuss/find out what action can be taken to defend Indymedia.

As the G8 summit approaches, threats to our freedom of expression, and
action, appear to be increasing rapidly."