Public Service Announcement – Craig Murray, Tim Ireland, Boris Johnson, Bob Piper and Alisher Usmanov…
UPDATE Thursday 27/9 @ 9.30am: Apologies for the slack service yesterday.
- Tim Ireland is now well and truly back in the saddle over at Bloggerheads: The Alisher Usmanov Affair. He now has a timeline of events describing everything that has a happened so far. Plenty of juicy detail in there with many a twist and turn.
- 291 people now linking to and blogging about this story. A lot of bloggers on the list are now following up on their original posts – there’s a lot of great stuff put there if you do a little browsing. I’ve noticed one or two people apologising about ‘coming late to the party’. Please, don’t. This isn’t a race, this about sharing views and showing solidarity. If you haven’t blogged this yet and would like to, or have but haven’t let us know, please do.
- The Moscow Times have reported on it. The story was slashdotted here.
UPDATE Tuesday 25/9 @ 12.30pm: While his Bloggerheads site is being restored, Tim Ireland is blogging about all this here. I’ll continue to maintain the list of people blogging and linking to all this if people still wish to send me links.
UPDATE Tuesday 25/09 @ 8.45am:
- 251 people now linking and blogging. Keep them coming – many thanks to everyone linking and pointing out links.
- The Register is now covering the story.
- As are Associated Press.
- Matthew Wardman has an MP3 of Five Live’s Pods and Blogs slot featuring Clive Summerfield, Mr Eugenides and Bob Piper.
- Beau Bo D’Or has some more spiffy blog buttons.
Let me know if anybody sees anything else we should be linking to.
HEADS UP 24/9: Mr Eugenides and Bob Piper will be on Five Live’s Pods and Blogs slot this evening, talking about all this. The show will also be available tomorrow the BBC’s listen again feature and as a podcast.
HEADS-UP: Pickled Politic’s Sunny Hundal is on More 4 News this evening (21/9) at 8pm talking about this and free speech on the web. (UPDATE 21/9 @ 10PM – Mike Power has the video.)
Tim Ireland’s Bloggerheads site is currently down after his webhost pulled the plug. You can thank the latest Russian (that should be Uzbek) billionaire to reach the UK. The details will come out in due course.
Tim’s currently also without email so if anyone needs to get hold of him, I’m happy to be the go-between and pass on any message by phone. My email address is at the top of the page.
This also means that the family of websites that Tim and Clive (whose site is also down) look after are also currently AWOL. So if you’re missing the online presences of Craig Murray, Bob Piper or prospective candidate for London mayor Boris Johnson, now you know why they’ve gone.
Tim and Clive are now looking for a new web home for themselves and the rest and are hoping to be back within 48 hours. If any sympathetic souls would help spread the word, it would be most appreciated.
Update: Some more background (via Garry). Those wishing to know more could do worse than a quick google.
Linkage: Thanks to one and all, I think we can safely say the genie is out of the bottle:
Curious Hamster, Pickled Politics, Harry’s Place, Tim Worstall, Dizzy, Iain Dale, Ten Percent, Blairwatch, Davide Simonetti, Earthquake Cove, Turbulent Cleric (who suggests dropping a line to the FA about Mr Usmanov), Mike Power, Jailhouse Lawyer, Suesam, Devil’s Kitchen, The Cartoonist, Falco, Casualty Monitor, Forever Expat, Arseblog, Drink-soaked Trots (and another), Pitch Invasion, Wonko’s World, Roll A Monkey, Caroline Hunt, Westminster Wisdom, Chris K, Anorak, Mediawatchwatch, Norfolk Blogger, Chris Paul, Indymedia (with a list of Craig Murray’s articles that are currently unavailable), Obsolete, Tom Watson, Cynical Chatter, Reactionary Snob, Mr Eugenides, Matthew Sinclair, The Select Society, Liberal England, Davblog, Peter Gasston Pitch Perfect, Adelaide Green Porridge Cafe, Lunartalks, Tygerland, The Crossed Pond, Our Kingdom, Big Daddy Merk, Daily Mail Watch, Graeme’s, Random Thoughts, Nosemonkey, Matt Wardman, Politics in the Zeros, Love and Garbage, The Huntsman, Conservative Party Reptile, Ellee Seymour, Sabretache, Not A Sheep, Bartholomew’s Notes on Religion, The People’s Republic Of Newport, Life, the Universe & Everything, Arsenal Transfer Rumour Mill, The Green Ribbon, Blood & Treasure, The Last Ditch, Areopagitica, Football in Finland, An Englishman’s Castle, Freeborn John, Eursoc, The Back Four, Rebellion Suck!, Ministry of Truth, ModernityBlog, Beau Bo D’Or, Scots and Independent, The Splund, Bill Cameron, Podnosh, Dodgeblogium, Moving Target, Serious Golmal, Goonerholic, The Spine, Zero Point Nine, Lenin’s Tomb, The Durruti Column, The Bristol Blogger, ArseNews, David Lindsay, Quaequam Blog!, On A Quiet Day…, Kathz’s Blog, England Expects, Theo Spark, Duncan Borrowman, Senn’s Blog, Katykins, Jewcy, Kevin Maguire, Stumbling and Mumbling, Famous for 15 megapixels, Ordovicius, Tom Morris, AOL Fanhouse, Doctor Vee, The Curmudgeonly, The Poor Mouth, 1820, Hangbitch, Crooked Timber, ArseNole, Identity Unknown, Liberty Alone, Amused Cynicism, Clairwil, The Lone Voice, Tampon Teabag, Unoriginalname38, Special/Blown It, The Remittance Man, 18 Doughty Street, Laban Tall, Martin Bright, Spy Blog The Exile, poons, Jangliss, Who Knows Where Thoughts Come From?, Imagined Community, A Pint of Unionist Lite, Poldraw, Disillusioned And Bored, Error Gorilla, Indigo Jo, Swiss Metablog, Kate Garnwen Truemors, Asn14, D-Notice, The Judge, Political Penguin, Miserable Old Fart, Jottings, fridgemagnet, Blah Blah Flowers, J. Arthur MacNumpty, Tony Hatfield, Grendel, Charlie Whitaker, Matt Buck, The Waendel Journal, Marginalized Action Dinosaur, SoccerLens, Toblog, John Brissenden East Lower, Electronic Frontier Foundation, Peter Black AM, Boing Boing, BLTP, Gunnerblog, LFB UK, Liberal Revolution, Wombles, Focus on Sodbury…, Follow The Money, Freedom and Whisky, Melting Man, PoliticalHackUK, Simon Says…, Daily EM, From The Barrel of a Gun, The Fourth Place, The Armchair News Blog, Journalist und Optimist, Bristol Indymedia, Dave Weeden, Up North John, Gizmonaut, Spin and Spinners, Marginalia, Arnique, Heather Yaxley, The Whiskey Priest, On The Beat, Paul Canning, Martin Stabe, Mat Bowles, Pigdogfucker, Rachel North, B3TA board, Naqniq, Yorkshire Ranter, The Home Of Football, UFO Breakfast Recipients, Moninski , Kerching, e-clectig, Mediocracy, Sicily Scene, Samizdata, I blog, they blog, weblog, Colcam, Some Random Thoughts, Bel is thinking, Vino S, Simply Jews, Atlantic Free Press, Registan, Filasteen, Britblog Roundup #136, Scientific Misconduct Blog, Adam Bowie, Duncan at Abcol, Camera Anguish, A Very British Dude, Whatever, Central News, Green Gathering, Leighton Cooke, Skuds’ Sister’s Brother, Contrast News, Poliblog Perspective, Parish Pump, El Gales, Noodle, Curly’s Corner Shop, Freunde der offenen Gesellschaft, otromundoesposible, Richard Stacy, Looking For A Voice, News Dissector, Kateshomeblog, Writes Like She Talks, Extra! Extra!, Committee To Protect Bloggers, Liberty’s Requiem, American Samizdat, The Thunder Dragon, Cybersoc, Achievable Life, Paperholic, Creative-i, Raedwald, Nobody’s Friend, Lobster Blogster, Panchromatica, Back off, man…, Dan Hardie, Krusenstern, Brendadada, Freace, Boriswatch, Fork Handles, Chris Applegate, Christopher Glamorgan, West Virginia Rebel’s Blog, Instapundit, Powerpymes, iDiligence Forum, Gizmotastic, Demos, Gary Andrews, Neweurasia , Never Trust a Hippy, sub specie aeternitatis, Bananas in the Falklands, The Sharpener, Virtual Light, Stu News, Scraps of Moscow, Danivon, As A Dodo, La Russophobe, PJC Journal, Mick Fealty’s Brassneck, dead brains don’t dance, A Comfortable Place, Bamblog, Robert Amsterdam, The Customer, No Longer at Ease, Rachel-Catherine, Humaniform, Mike Rouse, Chesus Yuste, anticapitalista, Aderyn Cân, Ulla’s Amazing Wee Blog, Ross200, Disruptive, Internazionale.it, The Obscurer, A Lefty Down Under, Things I Learned or Made Up, Pickled Bushman, Persons Unknown (302).
…and to the person who was quick off the mark with Usmanov’s Wikipedia entry.
If you’ve blogged this and I’ve missed you, I apologise. Let me know in the comments and I’ll add you in – strength in numbers and all that.
UPDATE: A point of clarification: Of the blogs mentioned above, only Craig Murray and Tim Ireland made blog posts concerning Alisher Usmanov. It is these blog posts that were objected to by Usmanov’s lawyers.
Boris Johnson, Bob Piper and Clive Summerfield have lost their sites for the simple reason that they were hosted on the the same server as Craig’s and Tim’s sites and went the same way when the plug was pulled. They are NOT associated with the dispute with Alisher Usmanov in any way.
UPDATE UPDATED: Tim Ireland now has a webmail account for anyone wishing to contact him while his blog is being restored: bloggerheads DOT com AT googlemail DOT com
UPDATE UPDATED UPDATED: Mr Eugenides:
If you can be silenced for calling a businessman a crook, then you can be silenced for calling a politician a crook, too. Then it’s everyone’s problem.
UPDATE 22/09: Clive Summerfield, the mighty webmaster for these sites, has manage to secure back-ups of them all from webhost’s servers. All the data is now safe. He’s now working at uploading the sites to new servers at a different host.
UPDATE 22/09 @ 10am 12:30pm: 154 171 people are linking in to this story here and elsewhere. That’s a huge coalition built in less than 48 hours and encompassing people from all over the spectrum – many thanks to one and all.
UPDATE 22/09 @ 12:40pm: Matt Buck:
(Reproduced under CC licence).
UPDATE 22/09 @ 6:30pm: Facebook group and blog buttons. Mike Power’s buttons are a bit good as well (look under ‘Action Stations’ on his left sidebar).
UPDATE 23/09 @ 8.20am: Ministry of Truth has some rather smart blog buttons as well.
UPDATE 23/09 @ 8.30am: Clive Summerfield, Craig Murray’s webmaster writes:
People are probably encountering posts claiming that Fasthosts also edited a post on Craig’s blog. This was not the case, as anyone who read the comments to the post in question would have noticed.
As the intermediary (Craig’s site was hosted gratis on one of my dedicated servers at Fasthosts), I was trying to pre-empt a further issue, and made a misread correction. This was explained to Craig by email, and an apology given. Yes there are issues of censorship and restricted freedom of speech, but this instance is not one of them.
And believe me, selective editing is far too sophisticated for Fasthosts, they’d have just dropped the site.
The confusion lies in the fact that I hosted Craig’s site on my web-server, but I was more of a supporter, friend and webmaster. However, as I was hosting the site, webhost is also an accurate description. Fasthosts were merely supplying dedicated servers to me.
And for the record, a note was made that 2 changes had been made on legal advice. I’ve been hosting Craig’s blog for a number of years, and helped with the mirroring and distribution of the documents the FCO asked Craig to remove from his book.
Anyway, just trying to put this one matter/misunderstanding to bed, before folks get carried away in an Orwellian haze.
UPDATE 23/09 @ 8.50am: 191 people are linking in to this story here and elsewhere. That’s one hell of a show of solidarity from all over the spectrum – many thanks to one and all.
Please let me or Sunny know if anybody has any more links and we’ll add them in.
I’ve seen that some people have put a copy of this list of bloggers on their own sites. I’m very happy for people to do this and encourage you to do so if you so wish. To make life a little easier, here’s some cut and paste code which I’ll also keep updated. Stick it in your blog post and the list will appear.
UPDATE 23/9 @8.20pm: Back, back, back! Ladies and gentlemen: Bob Piper!
UPDATE 24/9 @7.30am: Interim Statement from Clive Summerfield and Tim Ireland:
We’d like to thank you all for your support and let you all know just what the hell has been going on, but we beg your patience as we continue with the practical measures required before we can fully and confidently speak our minds about this matter.
Our immediate priority is the restoration of the websites involved; this has been greatly complicated by the sudden closure of the entire account (as opposed to, say, the suspension or closure of the two websites directly involved in the Usmanov dispute). This total – and totally unexpected – withdrawal of service requires us to restore many websites with differing individual circumstances and formats. The removal of email used for the majority of these accounts has also further complicated matters, as the most immediate form of communication between many of the parties involved is no longer available.
Bob Piper is already back on deck, and we expect Boris Johnson’s weblog to be up and running shortly. Special arrangements are being made for Craig Murray as we speak.
A full statement is likely to follow the restoration of Bloggerheads and/or The UK Today, as it is at one of these websites that we would wish to host a full statement and manage the expected response.
UPDATE 24/9 @ 8.30am: 224 people following and linking to the story. Many thanks to everyone – keep them coming and maintain the momentum.
UPDATE 24/9 @ 9.15am: You’ve got to love this from Matt Wardman:
Needless to say, all the offending articles that Mr Usmanov and Schillings have attempted to remove from public view are available in the Google Cache. And you can find them by using the search term “schillings“.
As far as I can tell Schillings’ own website does not feature in the top 100 results for either Google UK or google.com, except for the “sponsored†link which everyone ignores.
Perhaps they may need a Search Engine Optimisation Consultant as well as a Public Relations Consultant.
I can recommend a good one.
His name is Tim Ireland, and he runs a website called Bloggerheads when it has not been bullied off the air.
MSM COVERAGE: Media Guardian, including Boris’ reaction, Channel 4 News, The Times, Slate, Sunday Herald, More 4.
UPDATE 24/9 @ 10.30am: Thanks to Matthew Revell, here’s Mr Eugenides‘ excellent take on events on Wolverhampton Politics.
UPDATE 24/9 @ 5pm: Bit late with this, but via Arseblog in the comments:
If you should be browsing your visitor stats for your blog and you find any IP addresses in the range 217.33.207.160 to 217.33.207.191, those visitors are from Schillings, Mr Usmanov’s lawyers.
Posted on September 20th, 2007 at 4:40pm under A few administrative notices, Alisher Usmanov, Civil liberties
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This is disturbing. I for one will be writing to the asking for Craig Murray’s accusations to be investigated.
Ooops should have said to the FA
That sounds like an excellent idea, Paul.
Who was the webhost? Might be one to avoid/boycott
Yeah, who was the hosting company??
Can’t say too much at this point, but things will be said when Tim’s back in action.
That’s obscene. Consider it publicised further.
Ugh, sad to hear. Best of of luck to Tim and the others in getting their sites back online ASAP.
I’d say that they should try to find a host with a spine – but unfortunately it is more of a problem with current law, than the hosts themselves.
[...] Public Service Announcement [...]
My website was also subjected to legal threats by Usmanov’s high-priced lawyers, Schillings of London after I quoted from Murray’s blog. They are, frankly, bullies.
The Kelso article you link to is not very good, by the way, as it repeats many of Usmanov’s claims about his pardon without qualifying them — they are highly misleading.
[...] Blog Censorship In The UK September 20th, 2007 — RickB From Chicken Yoghurt- [...]
Outrageous! I’ve blogged this too. Please pass on my regards to Tim.
[...] on 20th September, 2007 at 9:08 pm Well thank god for our stupid libel laws again! Justin McKeating has blogged and sent an email around alerting us to the fact that Tim Ireland and Craig [...]
Well, err, thanks to everybody pushing traffic my way, heh. Usmanov and his lawyers are indeed so of the lowest scum I’ve come across while online.
[...] You can see the full list here. [...]
I also received legal threats from Schillings and was forced to remove a reproduction of one of Craig Murray’s headlines from his blog post about Usmanov.
Whatever you might think about Arsenal Football Club based on your own allegiances I hope you can understand that the vast majority of Arsenal do not want Usmanov anywhere near the club.
[...] worse is that with it have gone many other blogs completely unrelated to Murray’s claims, which as he most recently noted, have not been [...]
a few random words:
’selfish’, ‘egotistical’, ‘charlatan’,
‘traitor’, ‘hypocrite’, ‘oligarch’,
‘perfidious’, ‘pathological’ and ‘permatan’.
This selection is surely not worth the attention of the mighty Schillings?
Posted on here also
[...] Ireland’s Bloggerheads has been shut down by his hosting company after legal threats from Uzbek ex-con and prospective owner of Arsenal [...]
Here was me thinking I was leading a revolutionary charge and you beat me to it!
If they target my blog then it will appear elsewhere. I’ve got places it can go where even Schillings won’t be able to get it taken down and they can sue me if they want, I have nothing for them to take!
Hi Folks, now working on spreading this message under the sea, best regards, The Lobster
The email account is bouncing.
Matt
Mail Delivery Subsystem
to me
show details
10:48 pm (0 minutes ago)
This is an automatically generated Delivery Status Notification
Delivery to the following recipient failed permanently:
bloggerheads.com@googlemail.com.
Technical details of permanent failure:
PERM_FAILURE: SMTP Error (state 13): 550 5.1.1 No such user 22si31231nzn
Thanks, Matt. I’ll let Tim know.
I think it was me rushing – I may have left a full stop on. I’ve tried again.
[...] Bloggerheads are down because of some legal wrangle that I haven’t yet got to the bottom of. Chicken Yoghurt appears to have a bit more of the story but if there are any Guardian journalists reading this [...]
Consider it linked old chap
[...] a hat tip I must mention in no particular order Wonkos world, Chicken Yoghurt, Curious Hamster, Pickled Politics, Harry’s Place, Tim Worstall, Dizzy, Iain Dale, Ten Percent, [...]
Confirmed – the email works. It was my fault.
No worries. Cheers, Matt.
Done.
I’ve filched your list of participating blogs, too.
Keep checking back, E, the list is getting bigger and stronger all the time. Except, not right now – I’m off to bed. Back on deck 0930 hours.
[...] up to Iain Dale , Tom Watson , Chicken Yoghurt , [...]
[...] up to Iain Dale , Tom Watson , Chicken Yoghurt , [...]
[...] am | In Internet and democracy | Our Kingdom We’ve just picked up from Pickled Politics and Chicken Yoghurt that Tim Ireland and Craig Murray’s blogs have both been taken down because of a libel threat [...]
[...] Alisher Usmanov (an Uzbekh billionaire). The news has already made into at least one paper (via Chicken Yoghurt, as linked by Dizzy) as Paul Kelso blogs about it at the Guardian site [...]
WTF?
My bandwidth is yours, Tim.
[...] Chicken Yoghurt has the story (Russian gazillionaire tries to buy football club, gets called on teh webs, goes oibbing to lawyers, they threaten hosting company which takes down offending blogger and causes a shitload of collateral.) Said oligarch should bugger off and to a damp cave and grow a thicker skin, his lawyers should be ashamed of themselves and I hope their riches turn to dung and is forever stuck beneath their fingernails making their canapes smell strange. [...]
Consider yourself linked over at mine- this is horrifying.
I have linked and written something. Open to guest posting.
Very scary.
[...] More information, as well as links to the numerous blogs that have spoken out against this move, can be found here. [...]
[...] It’s not often that the polar extremes of political bloggers are united, but it’s happened today; left and right are united in support of Craig Murray, whose website has been taken down – along with other websites on the same server – after threats of legal action over the following article: [...]
[...] has been widespread condemnation of this action across the very many blogs that have picked up the story. Basically a lot of people are upset because websites have been taken down because of Alisher [...]
Hi all. I’m going to pop up just long enough to say ‘thank you’ and repeat a bit of what MrEugenides said:
Oh, and Arsenal fans; if you’re not convinced yet, think what this guy is going to do to your webforums.
Coming into this a bit late (you spend twelve hours away from an RSS feed and the world changes) but duly blogged.
Now excuse me for a few minutes. I’m off to try and get some Sex Pistols tickets.
Thanks for this very useful summary
Is there any way to get in contact with Craig Murray?
I would suggest to him that he hosts his own website, or puts one on blogspot or wordpress, so that any legal threats from Schillings can be ignored to the point where they are forced to either let him go, or sue him: a situation he obviously desires.
[EDIT: Sorry Ben, I don't want Usmanov's lawyers looking in my direction just yet hence the removal of your last sentence. Craig's web monkeys are working on getting him back ASAP. Thanks, Justin]
Word from sweden here. Sad day today as i thought censorship went down the drain a few years back with a certain wall in Berlin. Can’t believe this is happening to my beloved Arsenal and to free speech….
Keep up the good work guys!
And where the hell is the government on this issue? Aren’t they the ones who are supposed to fight for our freedoms, or are they too scared of upsetting the rich guy?
People getting away with this kind of behaviour towards bloggers is totally unacceptable.
Great Britain is free. The unwritten constitution is secure. No one is throwing Tim Ireland into the Gulag. He is no John Peter Zenger. He is no Georgi Markov. He has committed no crime. The dispute between him and Mr. Usmanov is a matter for the civil courts to deal with.
Tim Ireland jerked the wrong man around, a man of means who was not willing to accept nonsense from a character Iain Dale has recognized as abusive, thus Ireland’s webhost received a demand letter.
His webhost complied. They had a right to defend their interest by reducing or turning away entirely Ireland’s custom.
If Mr. Usmanov thinks he has been harmed unjustly by Ireland, he may exercise his rights. He has the right to complain & to seek redress within the courts & without,using all legal means. He has the right to complain, to gather sympathizers & to seek moral redress.
Too many people have the curious notion that freedom of speech means freedom from (societal)consequences (for misbehavior).
I’ve been mostly responsible, although there has been a lot of help from others, for the section dealing with this issue in Usmanov’s Wikipedia entry. Any further information that would help expand his entry is welcome.
The original posting by Craig that Usmanov objected to has been reproduced on several sites across the web.
Have found this site that seems to have a growing list of reposts:
http://alisherusmanov.blogspot.com/2007/09/alisher-usmanov-potential-arsenal.html
http://liberalengland.blogspot.com/2007/09/craig-murrays-website-and-bloggerheads.html
[...] Yoghurt brings some Russian nastiness to our [...]
I’ve linked to this. We’re all Bloggerheads now.
Does anyone else want to contribute to the Guardian cif at:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,2173833,00.html
It seems an appropriate place to debate the role of football club owners
[...] UPDATE 4: Bloggers react at – The Waendal Journal, Arseblog, Arsenal football news, The perfect pitch,Marginalised action dinosaur,modernity blog, rebellion sucks, Our Kingdom, Beau bo D’or , cynical chatter from the underworld, mediawatch, Anorak news, Soccerlens, chicken yoghurt, [...]
[...] Usmanov’s shut down of Criag Murray’s blog is yet another example of how British law makes it easy for the rich to shut down less well heeled [...]
Consider RM, Nurse, Mzi and the rest of the amaRemittansi onboard
The Case of the Disappearing Blogs…
Who’s the odd on out?Craig Murray.Tim Ireland.Alisher UsmanovBob Piper.Boris Johnson.Clive (of The UK Today Blog)…….
[...] It was only a matter of time before Britain’s ridiculous libel laws led to an internet service provider shutting down a bunch of websites in the face of a writ. [...]
[...] by contacting their webhosts, on behalf the new part owner of Arsenal – Alisher Usmanov. Chicken Yoghurt broke the story. Tim Ireland’s Bloggerheads site is currently down after his webhost pulled the plug. You can [...]
[...] includes the site of Craig Murray, former UK Amabassabor to Uzbekistan. Chicken Yoghurt has the full details of what has now become a major issue in British [...]
Duly blogged:
http://bloodandtreasure.typepad.com/blood_treasure/2007/09/bringing-uzbeki.html
The safe hands of http://blogs.cjb.net/dissident/
has faithfully reproduced the Craig Murray web site in 2 parts.
So if anyone else would like to reproduce the offending posts in support of Craig this is where to find them.
Part 1 – http://blogs.cjb.net/dissident/142309/
Part 2 – http://blogs.cjb.net/dissident/142310/
[...] If this is a case of bullying billionaires vs bloggers, GO BLOGGERS! Update 21st Sept 09.30. Chicken Yoghurt has a simple explanation of why Bob is down: A point of clarification: Of the blogs mentioned [...]
K 11:13am: That CiF article by Mark Lawson seems to have comments closed.
Has anyone else noticed this? Have CiF shut up shop, or is it just me?
[...] Comments Chicken Yoghurt » Public Service Announcement UPDATED on Outrageous shutting down of British blogsclivegsd on Our decaying care of the elderlyTony on Our [...]
Looks ok to me, E.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/story/0,,2174024,00.html
[An extraordinary moment in the blogosphere, which I have to report for no other reason than to add this site to the list of bloggers raising the alarm. Those of you who have been following this site for the last 2 years will remember that Craig Murray has been in trouble with the authorities before. Towards the end of 2005, he was threatened with legal action for speaking out about human rights abuses in the former Soviet Union.]
usmanov – he cannot silence us, he cannot strangle our voices – all he is doing is moving the debate into a wider circle – let him stand here and justify his actions and let us judge him. no man can control the web – why is he trying?
it just makes us more suspicious, more bloody minded and more resistant to his involvement – you would think a man in his position would understand that! Arsenal do not need him.
[...] details available here and here but not here, here, or [...]
links also at http://uk.blog.360.yahoo.com/kathleenzbell
and a brief comment with link at the end of a post on other matters at http://kathz.blogspot.com
I’ve linked, and it’s shameful that this man could one day be running Arsenal. To slightly misquote Peter Hill-Wood, we certainly don’t need his sort around here.
I took the liberty of creating a WTF on technorati, this might help to increase the (already quite extensive) coverage.
England gegen das Internet…
Recht interessant: Die Engländer versuchen offenbar, einige peinliche Dokumente aus dem Internet zu tilgen. Da ist man ja direkt versucht, die Dokumente der wunderbaren Welt des P2P zuzuführen.
UPDATE: Gestern konnte ich nicht mehr rekonstruieren, wo…
In a guestblogging capacity, have taken this Stateside.
http://www.jewcy.com/daily_shvitz/putting_the_genie_back_in_the_bottle
[...] Ich gebe zu: Ein reisserischer Titel, um uns freitagsmüden Gesellen aus der allgemeinen Trägheit zu reissen. Die Story ist aber auch viel zu gut, um sie zu verpassen: Alisher Usmanov, gemäss Wikipedia einer der reicheren Männer dieser Welt, hat die britische Anwaltsfirma Schillings (”The leading law firm protecting the reputations of high-profile individuals, corporates and brands”) beauftragt, kritische Inhalte aus dem Internet verschwinden zu lassen. [...]
[...] a full list, taken from the Chicken Yoghurt website, of all the blogs reporting on this. Thanks to all of [...]
Another one up at the DSTPFW Mr Yoghurt
and mirrored here:
http://skysong.eu/2007/09/alisher-usmanov-is-not-welcome-here/
[...] best place to get more information will be Chicken Yoghurt, where there is also a list of the bloggers who have now written about [...]
Better late than never:
http://thecurmudgeonly.blogspot.com/2007/09/alisher-usmanov.html
There is an interesting blog on Blogger, it’s called Alisher Usmanov I’ve linked to it in my blogroll.
Appalling and futile thuggish behaviour. Its time for some real solidarity.
Not everyone’s noticed this works two ways.
Gus
http://1820.org.uk
sorry about delay, but you’re up @ mine. any news on getting the sites back?
Hopefully some time over the weekend – a case of finding new hosts, uploading backups of the sites (turns out it was around ten affected) and the rest.
Will keep you posted.
I copied and pasted this post and linked back to it on my blog.
I have also found an article by Craig Murray but have no way of knowing whether the one I posted is the one actually causing all the fuss. If anyone has the answer I would appreciate this being confirmed in the comments section.
[...] includes the site of Craig Murray, former UK Amabassabor to Uzbekistan. Chicken Yoghurt has the full details of what has now become a major issue in British [...]
[...] Chicken Yoghurt has the details on the counterproductive attempts by lawyers retained by oligarch (and would-be Arsenal owner) Alisher Usmanov to prevent the dissemination of allegations made by Craig Murray (the UK’s former ambassador to Uzbekistan). From what I can gather, Murray is just begging for Usmanov to sue him in a British court. posted on Friday, September 21st, 2007 at 3:06 pm [...]
[...] Chicken Yoghurt seems to be the main guy with info on this. [...]
[...] this is all over the UK blogosphere, e.g. Chicken Yoghurt, Curious Hamster, Pickled Politics, Harry’s Place, Tim Worstall, Dizzy, Iain Dale, Ten Percent, [...]
Have blogged. Hope this reaches the print media soon!
I have been a Gooner for decades mate. I know the crooked twat billionaire doesn’t care about that. I dont care if he doesn’t care. The point is someone like him will NEVER get any faithful (TRUE) Arsenal fan on his side. He can buy every football club in England if he likes. So what?
Look what Chelsea fans did the other night. I reckon they stayed away deliberately myself, but of course the bent press aint going to highlight that. Chelsea are an English club and because of that (BUT ONLY BECAUSE OF THAT), I refuse to rubbish them, but part of me hopes that they fail in everything they do from now on. You know why that is! If you are in tune you dont need me to tell you why.
Our clubs are not for sale to any fat ugly crook who wants them. Not now, not ever! The crook can buy Arsenal but he’ll never understand the fans and he’ll never be a fan no matter how hard he tries.
[...] quick at look at the website of Schillings, the legal firm responsible for the [temporary] removal of Bloggerheads et al turns up a number of case studies that are particularly illuminating as to what they reveal about [...]
If you find any IP addresses from the range
217.33.207.160 – 217.33.207.191
in your logs, they’re Schillings. Just thought you’d like to know that.
http://www.zoneedit.com/whois.html?zone=217.33.207.164
[...] are tonight covering the blogger campaign in support of Tim Ireland and Craig Murray, started by Justin, for the 8pm news programme. I’ll be on there talking about this and what it means for trying [...]
You’re on my “reading list”.
Sorry I’m late to this- have spent the whole damn day on the phone. Is there a summary of this scumbag’s business activities? I’d be glad to post it on my (US-hosted) blog.
Note to prowling libel lawyers: the word ’scumbag’ is covered in English law by the ‘vulgar abuse defence’, not to mention, in this case, by the ‘true statement defence’.
Not sure, Dan. I’d start with his Wikipedia entry and Craig’s pieces and branch out from there.
The story has even made made its way down to Switzerland:
http://metablog.ch/
Fabulous!
The story has been covered in Chinese now too!
http://www.asn14.com/
it’s again possible to post comments at http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,2173833,00.html
Count me in!
Done!
Does anyone use Facebook? There’s a new group called “Craig Murray’s blog should return”. It could do with members if anyone’s on Facebook.
Thanks Kathz, I’ll go to FB now.
And in addition to the Technorati WTF mentioned earlier in these comments, here’s a story I put up on Truemors. You can also vote to give it more coverage. Oh, and did anybody think of putting it on Digg? If not, I’ll do it.
Craig Murray is someone who tells it like it is. I’m posting his comments about Alisher Usmanov on my blog Kate’s Blog as I’m sure thousands of other ordinary bloggers are. They can’t shut us all down.
[...] bin ja nur ein kleines Licht in dieser ganzen Geschichte, aber ich finde es sehr interessant, welche Möglichkeiten man heutzutage hat, einen Zensurversuch [...]
wow, from thinking this was a tiny footballmatter to now involve the future Mayor of London and the very right of freedom of speach this blogwar has surely been a good read!
I sincerely hope that Usmanov never gets a saying in our club, that is for sure!
And for the Streisand Effect, I just ordered the Murder in Samarkand from play.com, interestingly currently out of stock
Libel law censorship…
Yesterday, several British political blogs were pulled down, including Bloggerheads, that of the former ambassador to Uzbekistan Craig Murray, Bob Piper and Boris Johnson, when their web host gave in to threatening letters from lawyers acting for the U…
I haven’t written a blog entry since March, but I am outraged by this and have mirrored the original article here Craig Murray on Usmanov
Display of Unity, Dale, et al….
If no small business was entirely clean, how much more murky the obscenely wealthy layer at the very top? Any lawyers reading will understand that I am painting in broad strokes here, and in no way have any particular individuals in mind. Anyway, Usman…
Let’s get some perspective here, what the fuck is this about?
IMHO, this is about some shit asshole wanting to a Abromhoihef
[...] more here, here, here, here and here…for [...]
Add me to the list. Let’s keep Chelsea as football’s most ridiculed and reviled club.
You can definitely add my blog to the dissenters, even if my contribution has merely been links.
The ArseNole has it up. Saw the site on More 4 News tonight. But this is news. It needs to be told. My site will have the information as well.
-The ArseNole
Well done to Usmanov for defending his character from unscrupulous accusations. Incidentally I see some very pernicious blogs have been taken down as a result of mirroring the offending article from disgraced and hypocritical former ambassador Craig Murray.
Danny, you are Neil Clark, and I claim my five pounds.
Me, I’m Kirk Douglas’s son.
linked – but as of writing this The Spine has gone as well?
Anyone else noticed how piss useless Guido Fawkes is in these circumstances? Could he just be in it for himself?
Your left The Exile out!
UK Political blog censorship – Schillings internet incompetence makes things worse for their client Alisher Usmanov
Add Laban Tall to the list …
[...] Chicken Yoghurt has the full list and the comments make for interesting [...]
A Thank You To Schillings…
I would like to put on record my gratitude, and that of many Arsenal supporters, to Schillings, corporate lawyers extraordinaire.
But for their sterling efforts I suspect that the articles penned by Craig Murray and Bloggerheads would not now be freely…
I’ve just linked into your original post.
Better late than never…
http://tinyurl.com/2p7q4u
[...] …on recent events on the Internet, Chicken Yoghurt has an excellent jumping off point. [...]
Linked to and mirrored (specific post here).
Blogged, mirrored, linked.
This is fantastic. This guy is clearly not fit enough to run a football club if he’s so good at scoring own goals.
I wonder if he’ll be visiting Schillings’ headquarters any time soon to “sit” on some people.
It’s even boingboinged now:
http://www.boingboing.net/2007/09/22/uzbek-billionarie-us.html
Mirrored and linked here:
Stick ‘em up punk, it’s the fat Russian Criminal
Added here in the form of An Open Letter to Alex Salmond!
[...] MP Tom Watson has been raising awareness, Channel 4 News ran a piece last night, and the blog Chicken Yoghurt is tallying sites that are pushing the [...]
Another blogger joins in
The fat slug is going to die in a few years anyway. They always do over here.
Linked from http://gizmonaut.net/blog/uk/censorship.html
br -d
I don’t have a blog, but I’m buying Craig’s book first chance I get.
I think another book has already been written about this, so, with any luck, we already know the ending:
QB VII
Hi, I originally found the offending report on the Indymedia site. I’ve reposted the article posted there at my blog on MySpace, and sent out a bulletin asking for others to support Mr Murray.
“People” like Islam Karimov, and Alisher Usmanov should be outed for the thugs they are. Boiling people alive, torturing, drug running and a whole range of other criminal activities are not things that so called “civilised societies” should tolerate.
They might be able to silence some of the people some of the time, but not all of the people all of the time.
Follow up blog and link back here.
That’s me dragged out of retirement then.
Buttons on my blog.
Can you publise – got to run.
[...] in the button production business at the moment, I thought I would do a few for the “Free Debate not Libel Threats” campaign. This is quite quick and dirty, but here are a few buttons you can put in your [...]
Some activity on Usmanov’s Wikipedia page. Someone from within Trinity Mirror Group’s headquarters in Canary Wharf has edited the page. Nothing malicious, just a few quotes from Murray’s article. Might be worth keeping a look on that.
[...] in the button production business at the moment, I thought I would do a few for the “Free Debate not Libel Threats” campaign. This is quite quick and dirty, but here are a few buttons you can put in your [...]
Bristol Indymedia has now published the original Murray article:
http://www.bristol.indymedia.org/newswire.php?story_id=26860
If anyone is in the desperate need of yet another Usmanov Cartoon, you can grab it from here:
http://www.zeigermann.com/cartoonist/2007/09/22.html#a5814
Please don’t hotlink though.
Alisher Usmanov und der Streisand-Effekt…
Mit steigender Relevanz von Internetseiten und Blogs kommt es auch immer häufiger zu Fällen, bei denen Personen oder Unternehmen versuchen, ihnen unliebsame Beiträge mit juristischen Mitteln unterdrücken zu lassen. Dieses Anliegen g…
[...] The Armchair realises that any UK-based internet hosting company can be threatened financially in this way because of our stupid libel laws. Here is how one unaffected blog revealed the news. [...]
[...] Chicken Yoghurt [...]
People are probably encountering posts claiming that Fasthosts also edited a post on Craig’s blog. This was not the case, as anyone who read the comments to the post in question would have noticed.
As the intermediary (Craig’s site was hosted gratis on one of my dedicated servers at Fasthosts), I was trying to pre-empt a further issue, and made a misread correction. This was explained to Craig by email, and an apology given. Yes there are issues of censorship and restricted freedom of speech, but this instance is not one of them.
And believe me, selective editing is far too sophisticated for Fasthosts, they’d have just dropped the site.
The confusion lies in the fact that I hosted Craig’s site on my web-server, but I was more of a supporter, friend and webmaster. However, as I was hosting the site, webhost is also an accurate description. Fasthosts were merely supplying dedicated servers to me.
And for the record, a note was made that 2 changes had been made on legal advice. I’ve been hosting Craig’s blog for a number of years, and helped with the mirroring and distribution of the documents the FCO asked Craig to remove from his book.
Anyway, just trying to put this one matter/misunderstanding to bed, before folks get carried away in an Orwellian haze.
Great Britain is free. The unwritten constitution is secure. No one is throwing Craig Murray into the Gulag. He is no John Peter Zenger. He is no Georgi Markov. He has committed no crime. The dispute between him and Mr. Usmanov is a matter within the competence of the civil courts.
Craig Murray jerked the wrong man around, a man of means who was not willing to accept nonsense from a failed insubordinate malcontent whose one success was at destroying his prospects and career at the FO*, thus Murray’s webhost received a demand letter.
His webhost complied. They had a right to defend their interest by reducing or turning away entirely the custom of a loose cannon and ‘net kook*.
If Mr. Usmanov thinks he has been harmed unjustly by Murray, he may exercise his rights. He has the right to complain & to seek redress within the courts & without,using all legal means and venues, including those legal means and venues that Murray wishes Mr. Usmanov would not use. He has the right to complain, to inform, to give corrective guidance to those who do business with Murray & to seek moral redress.
Too many people have the curious notion that freedom of speech means freedom from (societal)consequences (for misbehavior).
* see Wikipedia, Craig Murray
I have covered it on my blog:
http://cynlib.blogspot.com/2007/09/perhaps-he-is-confused-as-to-which.html
[...] Wardman popped up in comments to ask if I might knock up a blog banner or two to go with the rapidly growing blogger’s revolt in support of Craig Murray & Tim [...]
[...] Chicken Yoghurt » Public Service Announcement – Craig Murray, Tim Ireland, Boris Johnson, Bob Piper… one of the most comprehensive posts on the matter aggregating what’s happening almost in real-tine (tags: censorship internet blog arsenal corruption freedom politics blogging usmanov murray examples presentation) Share and Enjoy: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages. [...]
Thanks for the hard work you’ve done updating this. I added a post here.
umm,
except now we can’t click on a link on your site to see the blogs?
Some I’m Spartacus blogs seem to have gone down including The Spine with its excellent Usmanov proof garment. Is this more Schillings shenanigans or just coincidence?
Me again.
What is interesting is the complete silence from the corporate media about this. Apart from small items on The Guardian and Mail’s sites (the Mail’s deals more with the shysters’ original threat, and The Grundiad talks only of Boris being incommoded), there is nothing. BBC? Nada. ITN? Zilch. Express, Telegraph, Independent, Mirror, Sun? Naff all. All of them seemed to have caved in to Schi**ings even more abjectly than Fasthosts have.
It is clear that we cannot depend on broadcasting and print media in the UK to defend freedom of speech when it really matters.
Linked.
Vino Sangripillai has also linked at his blog to the story http://vinospoliticalblog.blogspot.com/2007/09/intimidation-of-internet-service.html
[...] For more details on this story, check out Chicken Yoghurt. [...]
Nice pic here
http://mikepower.net/not-a-blog/2007/9/20/avoid-upsetting-ugly-lardarsed-russians.html
It seems BF Bache has been busy with the same comment hitting (spamming?) other linked blogs.
Surely Foreign Secretary and gunners fan David Miliband should air concerns about a likely new Arsenal chairman who has been alleged to have close links to a regime with a history of human rights abuses?
A useful addition
http://www.alisherusmanov.info/
Linked also. Not good.
Bad stuff. Glad to see so many becoming involved.
[...] list of bloggers over at ChickYog who are grumpy at dodgy Uzbek Alisher Usmanov is now both a) astonishingly long, [...]
Excellent work tracking all this – I’ve (somewhat belatedly) added a post here.
Got a linking article up. Mess with the bull, you get the horn… mess with a network of bulls, well, get a whole lot of horns.
Hi. Just to let you know I’ve posted on it tonight. I very much appreciate what you are doing, CY.
Ive added a translation of the story on my Spanish blog
[...] from Schilings); many more have linked to the story (more than 190, but the list is growing, check Chicken Yoghurt for the most recent count). It’s became one of those threads where the left and the right [...]
I’ve linked to this post on my blog’s “reading list”. (Did I say that already?) So, er, you could add me to your list. If you like. Cheers.
It’s in Welsh too.
Please add to your blog list:
http://www.kerching.tv/
thanks.
Justin
Agreed – strength in numbers.
Have added post to http://www.noodle.co.uk.
Please add to your list.
Paul
[...] Chickyog.net zählt momentan 193 Blogs, welche diese Geschichte verbreitet haben (leider praktisch niemand aus der Schweiz…) [...]
[...] zu Terror und zu Mafia (via samizdata). Dieser Beitrag wurde von Daniel Fallenstein geschrieben, am Sonntag, 23. [...]
Joined in the campaign. Keep up the good work. Here’s a link to my blog on moninski.com
http://www.moninski.com/pr/18-alisher-alisher-usmanov-courting-online-pr-disaster-closing-down-boris-johnson-et-al.html
[...] on line I can now return to barely noticing his thoughts as they drift past on my feedreader. Chicken Yoghurt has the best summary of what has transpired with a list of 190+ bloggers who got aeriated about [...]
[...] whole nastiness is written about and updated in far greater detail here, and Chicken Yoghurt deserves come kind of award for his services to free blogging [...]
[...] Chicken Yoghurt [...]
[...] der Blogosphäre und der Arsenal-Fans. In kürzester Zeit wurden die gesuchten Informationen auf über 100 Webseiten verbreitet und auch die klassischen Medien namen das Thema auf. Etwa im Nachrichtenbeitrag von [...]
[...] are now at least 200 blogs covering this story. Chicken Yoghurt has the details, and the history. It is also being covered by fully one-third of the Top 100 [...]
New post up at The Nether-World
Mr Eugenides came on my radio show to talk about this on Friday night.
There’s an MP3 of the show at:
http://www.wolverhamptonpolitics.co.uk/podcast/episode-9-freedom-of-speech-communism-full-council
[...] in the button production business at the moment, I thought I would do a few for the “Free Debate not Libel Threats” campaign. This is quite quick and dirty, but here are a few buttons you can put in your [...]
Your Eugenides link at 10:30am is broken.
Matt
Cheers, Matt. Fixed.
Linked from Poliblog Perspective
http://www.poliblogs.co.uk/blog/2007/09/bloggerheads-and-craig-murray-welsh-sidebar-buttons/
Linked and Posted on Politics at the Parish Pump:
Matt
Tom Griffin has Sunny Hundal on More 4 News on Friday:
http://www.tomgriffin.org/the_green_ribbon/2007/09/publish-and-be-.html#more
Gus
This link shows those blogs that have responded to my post in Spanish.
The story is making news in business –
http://www.noodle.co.uk/blog/
Please add Curly’s Corner Shop to the list of those who are not afraid of a big stick, it’s time that a fe more in the MSM took this story up!
[...] the blogosphere in the UK and abroad has gone ballistic, Chicken Yoghurt has another huge list of those decrying the actions, Mr. Eugenides is venting his spleen, even Iain [...]
[...] Informationen findet man bei Chicken Yoghurt (englisch), wo regelmäßig zur Entwicklung berichtet wird [...]
Domesticar o censurar la Red, el baile ha comenzado…
Este tipo que aparece con la boca sellada con una crisálida de mariposa, es el billonario ruso Alisher Usmanov.
Según he podido leer, siguiendo la pista de El Galés, es el responsable de la “censura de un número de blogs, que han sido borra…
[...] Chicken Yoghurt » Public Service Announcement – Craig Murray, Tim Ireland, Boris Johnson, Bob Piper… An example of legal foolishness. Alisher Usmanov has used lawyers to try and silence a couple of bloggers. Result – a blogosphere storm and far more attention to the “offending” posts than would have otherwise been the case. Reaching for lawyers may ha (tags: censorship mediation usmanov) No Comments so far Leave a comment RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URI Leave a comment Line and paragraph breaks automatic, e-mail address never displayed, HTML allowed: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong> [...]
Also blogged in support at http://www.lookingforavoice.blogspot.com
The Register has now covered the story.
I Have commented and included the ludicrousness’s of this @zz wipe on my BLOG
Details below:-
Achievable Life
http://successbydesignltd.blogspot.com/
This case can be the launching platform for LAW reform and release of ineffectual LAWS restricting the PUBLIC of Britain.
I further suggest that this campaign be termed ‘An Usmanov’
Dictionary definition
Usmanov [uzmanov]
A pathetic attempt to pervert the LAW of the land and suppress freedom of speech.
Similar phrase ‘IDIOT’
This attempt should not be swept under the carpet, It should not stop until the press retract ALL the comments forced on them by the attorneys and Usmanov and the exact letters to them be printed.
Link to the Usmanov story included in my blog
Linked, and enjoying watching the anger spread.
If anyone uses a .htaccess file on their website and wants to block Schillings from accessing, their CIDR network range is:
217.33.207.160/27
Add to .htaccess as follows:
Order deny,allow
Deny from 217.33.207.160/27
Do please add a link to Lobster Blogster. I had a creepy visit from Schillings today!
tagged and linked
[...] I just want to say that this whole mess with the russian and the orange man suck hairy balls, and hopefully all Arsenal fans will make [...]
Boris Johnson seems to be back online as of an hour ago. Tim Irelands site shows a test message. Murray and Summerfield are still down.
Hi, don’t know if this has anything to do with the Usmanov V Craig Murray debate, but i’ve just tried getting onto the Indymedia UK website at http://www.indymedia.org.uk through both IE and Firefox – Cannot access the UK Indymedia site at all at the moment.
Anyone know if this is because of all the Usmanov articles posted at Indymedia UK?
Seems OK to me, UNJ.
Oh, just tried again and managed to get access straight away. Sorry false alarm, the server must have been busy.
Am not very knowledgeable on these technical issues Mr Eugenides, thanks for that message, do you think that does happen because a server is busy?
Indymedia is working absolutely fine here – probably just a temporary glitch.
[...] as a site starts to challenge the top match. A couple of times today the top result for “Schillings“, the lawyers at the centre of the Alisher Usmanov censorship battle, has turned up a couple [...]
UNJ: Wouldn’t have a clue. When I bought this laptop it took me five minutes to find the on switch.
Moon of Alabama in the States, who published the original Craig Murray piece a couple of weeks ago, has been in receipt of missives from Schillings – but they refused to open any junk mail:
http://www.moonofalabama.org/2007/09/they-get-spam.html#more
Ahahahahaha! Best laugh I’ve had in days, johnf – thanks for the link.
I’m also enjoying this insightful comment under that same post:
http://www.moonofalabama.org/2007/09/they-get-spam.html#c83907207
“All that gutter press eager to be sued by has-been amerikan actors and faded royalty has largely avoided mentioning this let alone taking the sort of stand on this ‘foreigner’ that they would if Alisher Usmanov were an unemployed russian electrician threatening some some english rent collector.”
Agreed. They like their targets soft and sexy. Mind you, if we eventually get Usmanov on the mat they may (finally) decide to chip in with a good kicking. It’s then and only then that their research departments will finally cough up any dirt they’ve been sitting on.
Alisher Usmanov : Reputation Intact
[...] This is the least original thing I have written (and that is saying something!) because there are at least 224 other blogs saying the same thing – Chicken Yoghurt is keeping track. [...]
Milliardär Usmanow vs. die Blogosphäre – die Chronik eines Skandals
It’s on Spreeblick now, one of the top-blogs in Germany:
http://www.spreeblick.com/2007/09/24/
Yesterday, krusenstern.ch deleted my comment on his blog because I criticized him. How ironic, considering what this here is all about.
[...] blog’s ex-Soviet affairs correspondent writes, in response to my request for details about Alisher Usmanov, that he is ‘one of the worst’ of the current Russian oligarchs, and notes that [...]
I’m jumping on the blogging political bandwagon and to make this comments section break some kind of record ;>D
Bloggerheads is back: http://b-heads.blogspot.com/
Tim Ireland
>Agreed. They like their targets soft and sexy. Mind you, if we eventually get Usmanov on the mat they may (finally) decide to chip in with a good kicking. It’s then and only then that their research departments will finally cough up any dirt they’ve been sitting on.
Mind you, if any such humble researchers or hacks just happened to be reading this, it might just enter their minds to leak some things they’ve happened to stumble across to interested parties within the blogosphere.
I’ve finally got round to covering this at This is where blog-bullying gets you, which includes a personal dilemma of my own.
The Moscow Times now has a report on this at:
http://www.moscowtimes.ru/stories/2007/09/25/046.html
Blimey, this is quite a thing to come back from holiday to. Well done Tim and Justin. Whenever I work out how the hell to do it, you’ll get a trackback from my (moribund) blog also.
CRAIG MURRAY will be officially installed as rector of Dundee University tomorrow
http://www.thecourier.co.uk/output/2007/09/25/newsstory10328780t0.asp
Bob Piper and Boris Johnson’s blogs seem to have vanished again. Is anyone else having trouble accessing them?
David, I can’t reach them either. Could be they exceeded their bandwidth allowance
.
batchtarget.co.uk is down too. The DNS servers for Piper and Johnson site are ns1.batchtarget.co.uk and ns2.batchtarget.co.uk, so if batchtarget is down, they are unreachable too.
batchtarget wasn’t down before. This is getting interesting. A DDOS? Nah, that’s just idle speculation.
Absolutely backed to the hilt at Fork Handles:
Arseki? No Thanks.
Just found out that the sites are down due to server demand… Phew!
re: sites down.
There appears to be some badly behaved or misconfigured code somewhere in Boris Johnsons Movable Type setup. This has the effect for ramping the servers CPU usage up to 100%, followed by devouring memory until eventually apache rolls on its back, kicks its legs in the air and dies.
The person who coded the site is aware and we’re trying to pin down the issue. For now though, its a bit wobbly and I can only apologise for that.
Boriswatch, a sort of “Boris Johnson Fanzine” website has it covered –
http://www.boriswatch.com/2007/09/24/boriss-official-site-dons-tin-hat/#comments
[...] something about the Alisher Usmanov mashup, but many others have done so much better than I could (links here). I’ll just do my bit and add Tim’s temporary home to the [...]
Add me:
http://advant.blogspot.com
“Tom Wise MEP repeated some of the allegations made by Craig Murray under Parliamentary Privilge in the European Parliament in the debate on a Suatainable Energy Policy.”
http://blip.tv/file/396770/
[...] point – so visit Chicken Yoghurt, and find an article that expresses the situation clearly in his list of 224 bloggers – and modify the code to link [...]
Many thanks for that, Matthias. I’ve linked to it in a separate post.
I realise that I’m a little behind in updating the links list and posting updates but hopefully will be sorting that later today.
In the meantime, the action’s all here.
Here’s another German piece:
http://www.freace.de/artikel/200709/260907a.html
[...] point – so visit Chicken Yoghurt, and find an article that expresses the situation clearly in his list of 224 bloggers – and modify the code to link [...]
Ooh, big section in the paper Graun today. Little leadup on the front page, and a large section on the front of the sport section.
Mentions Arsenal’s chairman saying he is opposed to Usmanov’s advances, Murray’s piece, and that Schillings took down his site.
–
‘Laura Tyler, of Schillings, said they did not intend to sue Murray directly because they did not want to give him a platform to express his views. Murray says he stands by the allegations, although he has no documentary evidence. “I was the ambassador in Uzbekistan. Usmanov is the country’s most prominent businessman and it was my job to know about him.”‘
—
No mention that I could see of the wider blog protest, but I’ve only scan-read it so far. Not exactly a hatchet job on Usmanov, but at least they seem to be wary of bigging him up.
ok, so you already knew that – refresh button obviously not working *wince*. Sorry!
http://www.brendadada.net/usmanov/
.. just in case you don’t get your pingback. Nice one.
Grab your own copy of the ‘usmanov ate all the pies – allegedly’ image at:
http://i170.photobucket.com/albums/u252/semihere_images/usmanov_fat_cat_lardyboy.jpg
Just found this online petition:
“To: Arsenal FC Board, UK Government
We the Undersigned would like a freeze on Alisher Usmanov with his Company “Red&White” from having any further involvement in Arsenal FC.
http://www.petitiononline.com/UsmaAFC/petition.html”
Sounds interesting. I found it on the German Arsenal fanclub site http://f24.parsimony.net/forum60371/messages/13747.htm
My guess is this blog entry is russian, but I really have no clue other than that it’s probably about the Usmanov/Murray thing: http://neuraum.livejournal.com/170148.html
Or perhaps they’re discussing photoshop techniques. Who knows.
Someone called Alisher Creosmanov, an art lover, has made an appearance over at my blog. Looks a little like Usmanov but he is only a very distant cousin, allegedly.
Fisking of “BF” Bache here:
http://www.mattwardman.com/blog/2007/09/27/alisher-usmanov-and-schillings-a-comic-interlude-by-bf-bache/
Just a short com(pli)ment:
Chapeau!
I have covered this on http://disruptive.org.uk/
Also I was the one who submitted the Slashdot story.
I tried yesterday to interest the news desks of two national papers in the story (in the light of the Tom Wise European Parliament speech), but I haven’t seen anything new.
[...] protest (which are amazing not only in their number but also in their breadth of interest). See here and below. Tim Ireland is blogging again at Bloggerheads: The Alisher Usmanov Affair, mapping out [...]
A Bit On The Side…
As promised when I moved this blog over from Blogger to WordPress, I have done plenty of “tinkering and fiddle-faddling†with this website since, adding wee plug-ins and the like here and there that you probably haven’t noticed, and which I am h…
[...] it on. Some background here to the [...]
[...] list is available over at Chicken Yoghurt [...]
[...] time regarding freedom of speech. I am very “late to the party” on this one, but as Justin says This isn’t a race, this about sharing views and showing [...]
[...] FRA USBEKISTAN FIKK STENGT CRAIG MURRAYS BLOGG. NINA KARIN MONSEN: FØLG LINKEN OG SE HVORDAN DET SKAL [...]
[...] unprecedented coalition of British bloggers has come together over the last two weeks to fight an assault on freedom of speech from Russian [...]
[...] Chicken Yoghurt [...]
[...] ignored. 2. When Schillings try to stop Craig Murray making allegations against Alisher Usmanov, hundreds of bloggers and MEP Tom Wise refer to those allegations, giving them far more publicity than [...]
[...] 1, 2007 by akatsukira I switch the computer off for a few days1 and this happens. WTH? Did I side-slip into an alternate dimension? Is my interwebs pulling a fast one on me? This [...]
[...] that time – 6 months since the Usmanov imbroglio, and all the links are dropping out of the Technorati scores. I’m down by 50 in 4 [...]
[...] that time – 6 months since the Usmanov imbroglio, and all the links are dropping out of the Technorati scores. I’m down by 50 in 4 [...]
[...] For a great saga, Mr Brewer … follow the bear. [...]
[...] the Alisher Usmanov case, the blogosphere lined up in defense of Craig Murray, who exposed the corruption of post-Soviet Uzbek oligarch Usmanov, [...]
[...] at Bloggerheads reported the story. Their webhosts have now received nasty legal letters, and have pulled the plug. In Ireland’s case, this has had a knock-on effect to several other blogs hosted on his site – [...]
[...] Finally and this is probably the most ironic part of the whole affair. Mr Usmanov has sought to use his vast wealth to gag someone through legal means in an attempt to prevent the expression of views questioning his past. In thus doing he has not only failed because he doesn’t understand the medium nor the culture of those who partake in blogging, he’s confirmed that yes, he is indeed a complete and utter arsehole of the highest order and pretty much has shot himself in the foot by his actions. The muppet, and it’s obviously not only me who thinks that way. (List via Chicken Yoghurt) [...]