{ brad brace } on Mon, 13 Jul 1998 19:08:58 +0200 (MET DST)


[Date Prev] [Date Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Date Index] [Thread Index]

<nettime> Censura Comune di Roma: Traduzione comunicato. (fwd)


Segue la traduzione del comunicato in inglese.

PRESS RELEASE

  Please diffuse as much as possible

The city council member responsible of Civic networks has closed the Civic
network in Rome. 

Mariella Gramaglia, responsible of Civic networks, closed by authority and
without warning all internet spaces that had been given in the past years
to citizens and associations related to Experimental Projects. 

This event took place only a few days after the seizure of the Islands in
the Net server which abruptly stopped all activities of many nonprofit
associations.  In spite of two questions in Parliament and the unanimous
judgment of netizens about the "foolishness" of the action, once again a
whole web site (which contained information in no way related to the
"offensive" page)  was taken down in order to just censor one page (a
deplorable action by itself).

The thoughtless action damages the work of all people and groups who have
contributed their time for free and who have been the true force of civic
net. 

It can not go unnoticed that with this action Mariella Gramaglia simply
destroyed the Civic network. Actually, Experimental Projects was the most
popular section of the Civic network in Rome, the only spot of free
expression for roman associations and citizens. 

At the moment, after the thoughtless action, only the institutional web
site of the Rome administration remains online. Mrs. Gramaglia does not
seem to understand that an institutional site is not a civic network. 

Besides, the reason of the action is laughable: priest Don Fortunato Noto,
who started an association called Telefono Arcobaleno (Rainbow Telephone) 
in Avola (Sicily) fighting pedophilia in sometimes worrying ways (books
pyre, press campaignes against toys manufactures and tv shows) and
producing often more hysteria than quiet care, decided to file a charge
against the city administration over a page stored on the server. The
"indicted" page is a quote of a literary piece published on a nationally
distributed magazine purchasable in every bookstore. This is equivalent to
censoring literary criticism that quotes "unseemly"  works and closing all
libraries and bookstores. The quote is part of a project named "Feminine
and science fiction: writing patterns" , which is also a graduation thesis
successfully upholded at the University of Rome "La Sapienza". 

The web page was part of one of the FRD (Roman Digital Forum) active
projects, an area arranged by and for artists and knowledge workers also
provided with a wide network of international contacts. 

The work of dozens of associations and citizens (included an association
of the Carabinieri police force and one related to firemen) has been
disregarded and the commitments taken by the councillor department
betrayed. From that we infer the unreliable behaviour of the city council,
which at first offers free expression spaces to its citizens and then it
removes them without warning.  We only need to know that. 

Summarizing:  - the city administration interrupted open-ended time a
public service betraying its commitments with roman citizens - the reason
behind this action appears laughable from a legal point of view and
appears as an autocratic act of a city officer who has decided to change
without warning the open policy of the previous administration, which was
more respectful of the right to expression of the citizens.  - after
months in her position, Mrs. Gramaglia still does not seem to understand
the workings and the concepts of the internet and civic networks (this is
easily understood by her statements to the press) 

We therefore demand the immediate reopening of all services of the roman
civic network and a meeting with Mrs. Gramaglia and all associations and
citizens that participate in the network, in order to calmly but seriously
evaluate the competencies that are needed to administrate the network. 

The participants of Foro Romano Digitale Associazione culturale Edu.Co. 
Associazione culturale Matrix Associazione culturale Virtual Mondo
Associazione Culturale IperAudio Associazione Oikos Simultaneita'
Complesso per/forma Sciattoproduzie Luther Blisset J.W.L. Paardekooper


-- Maurizio Mazzoneschi http://www.isinet.it/lynx
http://www.wonderpark.com
http://www.comune.roma.it/COMUNE/sperimentali/matrix


The_12hr-ISBN-JPEG_Project                               <<<

> episodic              ftp://ftp.wco.com/pub/users/bbrace <
> eccentric             ftp://ftp.netcom.com/pub/bb/bbrace <
> continuous           ftp://ftp.teleport.com/users/bbrace <
> hypermodern         ftp://ftp.rdrop.com/pub/users/bbrace <
> imagery online   ftp://ftp.pacifier.com/pub/users/bbrace <

Usenet-news: alt.binaries.pictures.12hr/ a.b.p.fine-art.misc
Mailing-list: listserv@netcom.com / subscribe 12hr-isbn-jpeg
Reverse Solidus: http://www.teleport.com/~bbrace/bbrace.html

{ brad brace }  <<<< bbrace@netcom.com >>>>  ~finger for pgp
---
#  distributed via nettime-l : no commercial use without permission
#  <nettime> is a closed moderated mailinglist for net criticism,
#  collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets
#  more info: majordomo@desk.nl and "info nettime-l" in the msg body
#  URL: http://www.desk.nl/~nettime/  contact: nettime-owner@desk.nl