Statement by Anthony Taylor, KDIS editor, Friday October 6th, 2000.
On Monday, October 2nd, KDIS received a phone call from David Kennedy, the Assistant Chief Executive responsible for Regeneration at Bradford Council.
Kennedy said that his call was a "courtesy call" to let us know that he was writing to the American company Network 54, which hosts the KDIS Discussion Forum, to complain about some of the Forum's content. He claimed that he was asking Network 54 to remove certain "offensive" postings from the site, particularly those relating to the Newlands controversy.
When challenged, he said he was acting on his own initiative following "loads" of complaints. He wouldn't say who from, although it is clear that he was referring to Labour members of the Newlands Board.
He came up with 2 examples of "offensive" material - one in which someone refers to someone else as a "ponce", and another where someone refers in disparaging terms to another person's disability.
The first example is not worthy of comment. In the second case, other correspondents on the Forum were quick to react and condemn it, and sort it out more effectively than any act of censorship.
It should be made clear that KDIS itself has received no complaints at all, from Kennedy or anyone else. If Kennedy has any problems with the Forum, then he should contact us directly or place his concerns on the Forum itself. The fact that he is going straight to the Service Host speaks volumes about his real intention, which is to have the Forum closed down.
The Los Angeles based Network 54 Corporation is not going to engage in reading and editing individual Forum postings. The KDIS Forum is just one of thousands that are hosted through an automated process.
I consider this blatant attempt at censorship by a very senior officer of the council to be absolutely outrageous. It is nothing short of heavy handed intimidation and bullying which is, unfortunately, so typical of this council and its bureaucracy, who appear obsessed with secrecy and control.
KDIS is nothing to do with the council and what we do is none of their business. It is difficult to understand why a highly paid senior officer like Mr Kennedy should spend his time picking through the Forum in this way.
KDIS wishes to make it clear that we know very little about the circumstances surrounding the allegations of corruption and mismanagement against the Newlands Board, and we have no axe to grind in this respect. We do, however, absolutely support the right of members of that community to bring their concerns into the public arena on matters of such importance, and we are very proud of the fact that the KDIS Forum is one of the few ways which people can air those concerns freely. If KDIS has played any role in persuading the council to initiate an investigation into those allegations, we are proud of that too, whatever the result.
The KDIS Forum is a moderated Forum. We reserve the right to remove material which we think is unacceptable, and this policy is clearly stated in our Forum Guide. It is a policy which we do operate and which can clearly be seen to operate. We do, however, cut postings only in extreme cases.
Freedom of speech can raise its own difficulties and that is evident on any discussion forum of this nature. Generally users of such Forums "police" the content themselves, by their responses.
The world is changing rapidly, and the internet is playing a powerful role in that change. Events in Belgrade over the last week show that the age of state control and censorship is over.
This is not the first time the Council has mustered its very powerful resources to try and gag KDIS - a small, independent, amateur magazine that has operated for 20 years in one form or another. No doubt it will not be the last, and no doubt, like all previous attempts, it will fail.
I should think that the council and Mr Kennedy would do better to spend their time trying to bring the communities of Bradford North together in a spirit of openness and co-operation, for the benefit of that community.
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