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Cannabis Campaigners' Guide News Database result:
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Cannabis Websites Reclassified
Don Barnard Press Release
Monday 17 Nov 2003 Press Release from the Legalise Cannabis Alliance (LCA) and The UK Cannabis Internet Activists (UKCIA) Web filtering used to block legitimate campaign sites During the week of 11th November it was drawn to our attention that LCA and the UKCIA were being blocked by web filtering on computers in libraries run by Essex and Northamptonshire County Councils. When queried Northampton admitted a mistake and claim to have removed the filter, in Essex however, the situation was different. Background to the situation in Essex: Essex CC accepted the advice of a sub committee of "The Peoples Network" (TPN) information about the "use and sale of illegal drugs", it was assumed that any such site would exist simply to promote illegal drug use. This decision was seemingly never checked or in any way challenged. We can find no remit for TPN website www.peoplesnetwork.gov.uk to impose web censorship as it seems to have done in Essex. We have been unable to discover the reasons TPN proposed this censorship nor the authority they assumed in proposing it. The contact e-mail address Like all public libraries and schools, Essex CC use web filtering to protect vulnerable people from such distasteful material as pornography and race-hate, however they have extended this filtering to bar access to sites dedicated to illegal drugs. The web filtering used by Essex is that provided by Secure Computers SmartFilter offers "Censorware", the ability to block a wide range of websites. Essex CC elected to adopt that option to block sites which "provide information on the purchase, manufacturing, and use of illegal or recreational drugs", cannabis sites are mentioned specifically on the Smartfilter site. Don Barnard of the LCA said: "Whilst I understand that access is blocked to sites that are considered to advocate the illegal use of drugs, this is NOT TRUE of the LCA nor UKCIA sites. We advocate the legalisation of cannabis and its legal utilisation as medicine and as a natural resource. We advocate a change of law and this is not illegal. "It's obvious that a ban on public access to our Party's web site would - and may have already - seriously damaged our election campaigns and prejudiced our Party. This type of unaccountable activity needs to be investigated." Spokesperson for the UKCIA, Derek Williams said: "Of course we accept the need for web filtering, but this went far beyond that and censored a legitimate topic. It should be born in mind that the question of drugs and cannabis in particular has been a major political issue over the past few years. "Because of the way filtering works Essex CC can have no way of knowing which sites are blocked, nor even how many, it's blind blanket censorship which has no place in British Libraries". After representation from LCA and UKCIA Smartfilter have informed us that from Midnight November 18th CST (a timezone in the USA) the LCA and UKCIA sites will be reclassified: from their category of "Drugs/politics/religion" to that of "politics/religion/opinion". This will make the LCA and UKCIA Websites available for public access in Essex Libraries from the middle of the week. Derek Williams continued: "I have emailed Essex libraries to find out what grounds or parameters they set when they decided to censor access to sites such as the LCA and UKCIA from their libraries and how they came to assume the role of censor, I await their reply with great interest." Don Barnard added: "When it came to our attention that some authorities were unintentionally or deliberately interfering with the legitimate political process by using website filtering software it rang alarm bells - We were especialy concerned that we had not been informed of the censoring of our site nor given us any way of appealing by anybody. "To do this at the very time when the question of cannabis is a hot political issue is astonishing, Essex CC have effectively prevented one side of a serious political debate from presenting their case in libraries under their control, this can only be described as censorship". "If this ban was applied during the 2001 general election it could have had a derogatory effect on the election results of LCA candidates in Essex (Buster Nolan in Braintree and Chris Philbin in Chelmsford). Note schools in Essex also use web filtering, but do not apply the same blanket censorship as Essex CC do in their libraries. Therefore whilst it's been possible for children to access our websites, adults using the public libraries have been prevented from doing so. Whilst Essex CC's crude attempt at censorship blocked legitimate sites such as LCA and UKCIA, it failed to block smaller and less authoritative sites or many of the commercial outlets. Respected drugs information sites such as www.ecstasy.org remain blocked. Notes: Dawn Howsam is Principal Librarian at Northamptonshire Libraries and Information Service. Her phone number is 01604 236162 Her email address is dhowsam@northamptonshire.gov.uk Simon Cooper is Information Services Manager, Chelmsford central library, PO box 882, Market road, Chelmsford e-mail UKCIA is the website of the British Legalise Cannabis campaigns and contains a wide range of information relating to cannabis, its uses and the culture it supports. We do not seek to encourage the use of cannabis but we do seek to provide accurate information from referenced sources. UKCIA contact Reply to: Derek Williams Webteam UKCIA Tel 01603 773044 (office) http://www.ukcia.org derek@ukcia.org The Legalise Cannabis Alliance is an officially registered political party in the UK and we have fought elections including standing for Parliament. The Legalise Cannabis Alliance was registered as apolitical party in the UK in 1999. Since 1999, the LCA has contested 16 Parliamentary elections and 18 local elections, gaining between 1% and 7% of the vote. The LCA plans to contest a minimum of 120 seats at the next General Election. LCA Contact: Don Barnard Press Officer http://www.lca-uk.org donbarnard@lca-uk 07984 255015 Buster Nolan contact: 01371 810813 Chris Philbin contact: 07773 140053 *************** End
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