“It’s all very Orwellian,” is how Hep Sano of the Independent Media Centre (Indymedia) described the atmosphere around her office last Tuesday. Speaking with The Varsity by phone from San Francisco, she was referring to the recent seizure, and subsequent return, of two of Indymedia’s London-based web servers, which were confiscated without warning in an October 7 raid by U.K. police, under orders from the FBI in the United States. These actions have garnered harsh criticism worldwide, and have been deemed “intolerable and intrusive” by the International Federation of Journalists, who have since demanded an investigation into the matter.

Indymedia, an international collective of over 140 electronic media sites, has been a leading voice in the alternative press since its emergence in 1999. With independent chapters all across the globe, Indymedia describes itself as a “democratic media outlet for the creation of radical, accurate, and passionate tellings of truth.”

Why the two servers were confiscated remains unclear, but at least four countries are involved in the investigation, which apparently did not arise in the U.S. According to Santos, Indymedia has been given no explanation, and said that the FBI refused to disclose on whose behalf, or why for that matter, they took action. It is thought, however, that they may have been responding to two separate requests placed by Swiss and Italian authorities respectively, though neither country has confirmed this charge.

Authorities from Italy and Switzerland could benefit from having access to this type of information: Switzerland, for its ongoing investigation into Indymedia’s coverage of the 2003 G8 Summit in Evian; and Italy, for its ongoing attempts at linking the independent media provider to terrorism. The latter investigation has been viewed by many critics as an attempt to silence the only independent voice in the Italian media. In 2001, Italy seized several of their servers while investigating Indymedia’s coverage of the Genoa protests, where Italian police shot and killed 23-year-old protester Carlo Guiliani.

-Dennis Choquette