Argentina: Judge orders all ISPs to block the sites LeakyMails.com and Leakymails.blogspot.com

[naaman fletcher]

Using the motto “Let’s stop lies and hypocrisy”, Leakymails.com was a project designed to obtain and publish relevant documents exposing corruption of the political class and the powerful in Argentina. The site was open to publish emails either from official or personal accounts, pictures, videos or any other document exposing misbehaviors or unethical actions of public figures in the Southern country, where corruption is rampant. The problem of the Website was the blurred line between the public sphere and the private sphere of public functionaries. Who decides what is really important for the general public?

The site raised concerns among different sectors, some saying that the publication of private emails was risking the personal data and privacy of individuals and that the content was largely irrelevant to fighting corruption.

Most of the documents published by the site so far are emails sent from personal and official accounts of prominent politicians, including the Private advisor of Cristina Fernández, the Argentinean President, Isidro Bounine and the Secretary of the Interamerican Commission of Human Rights, Santiago Canton and other visible people. The content, however, was largely irrelevant, daily or personal matters, with few exceptions.

Dr. Esteban José Rosa Alves, General Director of the Argentinean Ministry of National Security, denounced the websites to the judicial authorities arguing that their content was jeopardizing the national security and at the same time was risking the privacy of a number of public functionaries. Following the complaint and after a preliminary investigation, the National Criminal Court (Juzgado Nacional en lo Criminal y Correccional No.9, Secretaría No. 17) issued interim measures to block the site and ordered the National Communications Commission to instruct all Internet Service Providers to temporarily block the access to LeakyMails.com and Leakymails.blogspot.com. The order was published here.

http://advocacy.globalvoicesonline.org/2011/08/11/argentina-the-national-communications-commission-ordered-all-isps-to-block-the-sites-leakymails-com-and-leakymails-blogspot-com/

No doubt our "progressive" friends will support this.

[bemildred]

1. Nah, it's stupid, and it won't stand. nt