Showing posts with label Alisher Usmanov. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Alisher Usmanov. Show all posts
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
Friday, September 21, 2007
Defending Free Speech
This is outrageous. Two bloggers, Tim Ireland and Craig Murray, our former man in Uzbekistan, have had their sites pulled by their webhost. Their 'crime'? Penning unfavourable articles concerning Uzbek oligarch and major Arsenal FC shareholder, Alisher Usmanov, to which he, via his lawyers, has taken exception.
It's not just Ireland and Murray who have fallen victim to Mr Usmanov's legal sabre-rattling. Both Bob Piper and Boris Johnson have had the warty hands of m'learned friends clapped over their mouths too - not for commenting on Mr Usmanov, but simply because they share the same webhost which has been taken down!
Why should we care? Well, as Iain Dale says, if it's happened to them, it could happen to anyone. This censorship is absolutely deplorable, and while I won't bore you with my tuppence-worth on Usmanov, I do invite you to read the thoughts of the excellent Mr Eugenides and those to whom he has linked, who collectively have said everything that I could possibly want to say on this matter for the moment.
Free speech is precious. Too precious to be muffled by the chequebooks of the wealthy, whenever the little people like us say something they don't like.
It's not just Ireland and Murray who have fallen victim to Mr Usmanov's legal sabre-rattling. Both Bob Piper and Boris Johnson have had the warty hands of m'learned friends clapped over their mouths too - not for commenting on Mr Usmanov, but simply because they share the same webhost which has been taken down!
Why should we care? Well, as Iain Dale says, if it's happened to them, it could happen to anyone. This censorship is absolutely deplorable, and while I won't bore you with my tuppence-worth on Usmanov, I do invite you to read the thoughts of the excellent Mr Eugenides and those to whom he has linked, who collectively have said everything that I could possibly want to say on this matter for the moment.
Free speech is precious. Too precious to be muffled by the chequebooks of the wealthy, whenever the little people like us say something they don't like.
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