FC: Italian police raid Genoa online journalist collective

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

It's unclear what happened, but preliminary reports out of Genoa say that 
police armed with guns and search warrants raided "the headquarters of the 
umbrella group behind anti-capitalist riots against the Group of Eight 
summit" on Saturday evening.

That apparently included the Independent Media Center, which was either was 
a target of the raid or swept up in it (the focus seems to have been on the 
"Genoa Social Forum," and they may have shared the same building). Often 
IMC reporters are activists who take part in street actions, though IMC 
organizers try to discourage this by advising reporters to hide their press 
pass when that happens.

One sketchy AFP report, which alludes to a "brutal" raid:
http://asia.dailynews.yahoo.com/headlines/world/afp/article.html?s=asia/headlines/010722/world/afp/Police_in_brutal_raid_on_G8_protesters__press_centre.html
And what appears to be a reproduced Reuters article:
http://www.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=54267&group=webcast

IMC reports saying police entered the newsroom:
http://italia.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=5415&group=webcast
http://www.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=54208&group=webcast
http://www.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=54266&group=webcast
http://www.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=54245&group=webcast
http://www.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=54221&group=webcast

CNN.com article from four days ago saying car bomb and letter bomb early 
this week put cops on high alert:
http://www.cnn.com/2001/WORLD/europe/07/17/genoa.amnesty/index.html

Politech archive on Seattle IMC tussle with FBI over web logs:
http://www.politechbot.com/cgi-bin/politech.cgi?name=imc

-Declan

**********

Date: Sat, 21 Jul 2001 18:39:56 -0400 (EDT)
From: imc-news <evan () indymedia org>
To: Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>
Subject: RIGHT NOW Police Raiding IMC in Genova

Hey this is a story you might like to cover. Cops in Genova are currently
in the process of raiding and conviscating computers, disks, tapes, and
harrassing people at the Indymedia Center in Genova right now.

The web radio station, www.radiogap.net is still live with reports of the
cops in teh center and some people are still online explaining what is
happening over irc.

Here's some of logs from the irc:
<arthur> update 23:17 GMT July 21: Police have apparently entered the
Radio Gap studios, reports have come in that police are searching people
inside of the IMC-center. A cell phone report indicates that people have
been split into two groups inside the IMC and are being agressive. We have
conflicting reports as to what is actually transpiring. Those inside the
center are requesting that people contact media and governments to
dennounce the activities
<arthur> ly what is taking place right now because tense situation.


----------

There are also 5 European MP's on site who are denouncing the action as
illegal.

in solidarity,
evan




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