Having failed to bully Anthony and Carrie McIntyre into silence, it seems that The Irish News is now engaged in an attempt to shut down their website, The Pensive Quill (TPQ). Anthony and Carrie published the following statement on TPQ today. As per their request, I also plan to republish the articles mentioned below in the coming days.
Tell The Irish News Hands Off The Internet
We have reason to believe that efforts are being made to
close The Pensive Quill website down.
We host no illegal content, we are breaching no law in the
United States (where the site is hosted), and, as has been well documented,
there is absolutely no legitimate reason for such a pursuit. Any effort to
close The Pensive Quill website is politically and/or personally motivated, by
those seeking to hide their unethical behaviour. These actions are pursued by
the Irish News and its reporter and associates.
We are therefore seeking to create mirror sites, and
additionally, we invite third parties to mirror our site in its entirety. We
invite those third parties, outside of the UK and Ireland, who can offer
support, to contact us directly.
Any effort to prevent the disclosure of the Irish News’
willful and ill-advised pursuit of The Pensive Quill in order to cover-up the
unethical behaviour of its reporter cannot, and will not, be allowed to
succeed.
These legal tactics and letters are issued like confetti in
order to police the web and the media behind the scenes; the sad fact is many
outlets and individuals are intimidated into silence and comply, which enables
the success of censorship. The wider public is not aware of this as the fear of
being sued and dragged through court keeps people silent.
We are not going silently into the night over this, and in
exposing what the Irish News and its reporter are doing here, we hope that it
lifts the lid on the prevalent scare tactics employed and frees up discussion on
their use across Ireland north and south.
We also intend by taking a stand against this to demonstrate
that refusing to comply with the demands of censors weakens the power of the
bully. Much like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz, we intend on pulling the curtain
back to demonstrate the Wizard has no more power than what is freely given to
him. We refuse to give any censor power over us.
We will not be intimidated into silence.
Thank you
THE PENSIVE QUILL
Action Request
Please stand up against the Irish News' attempt to police
the internet and suppress freedom of speech. Reproduce these articles across
the web:
Background
We believe the origins of the first subpoena of the BostonCollege Belfast Project Oral History Archives were set in motion by Irish News
reporter Allison Morris, who conducted an interview with former IRA volunteer
Dolours Price. Dolours was heavily medicated and being treated for a variety of
ills at the time. Her family objected to the interview and requested it not be
published. The Irish News restricted what they published. However, 3 days after
the Irish News story ran, a friend and colleague of Morris’ at the Sunday Life
tabloid, Ciaran Barnes, ran a front page spread containing everything the Irish
News left out.
In Ciaran Barnes’ report, he implied that he had heard
Dolours Price’s Boston College tapes. US Attorney Carmen Ortiz's office
subsequently submitted both Morris and Barnes’ stories as evidence to justify
the first subpoena. Barnes never had access to the Boston College tapes and we
believe it was Morris’ interview he based his report on. The PSNI did not seek
Morris’ notes or records until after it was pointed out in court documents that
they had never approached her or Barnes, 16 months after the original
publication of her interview. She and the Irish News told the PSNI they
retained no material; the PSNI accepted this and did not pursue the matter
further.
Barnes and Morris brought a Code of Conduct complaint
against Anthony McIntyre in their union, the National Union of Journalists. The
NUJ’s Ethics Council railroaded the complaint against McIntyre and suspended
him for 6 months. He appealed this and the NUJ Appeals Tribunal tossed everything out, completely vindicating him.
Neither Morris nor Barnes attended the appeal hearing,
suggesting that the objective all along was to discredit him in the middle of
the source protection/1st and 4th Amendment battle to protect the
confidentiality of the oral history archives against government incursion,
adding stress and pressure in an attempt to break him.
Immediately following the Ethics Council verdict being
over-turned, Morris attempted to re-try her complaint on a legal blog, and was caught in an astounding lie. The Pensive Quill documented this and other questionable behavior around the Irish News and its reporter Allison Morris.
The Irish News’ Editor Noel Doran began to contact The Pensive Quill in an
obvious attempt to lay groundwork for a legal case. A solicitor’s letter from Johnsons
then arrived demanding that The Pensive Quill remove all its material about
Allison Morris.
With thanks to The Expendable Project for the wording used
in the clarion call for action - their request for mirror sites was used as a
template.
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