FC: Thin-skinned Nevada county officials close site lampooning them

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

[County Public Communications Director Gwen Castaldi is, reportedly,
a journalist. (http://www.co.clark.nv.us/Public_communications/castaldi.htm)
Too bad she didn't learn much about freedom of expression. --Declan]

---

http://www.lvrj.com/lvrj_home/2001/Nov-14-Wed-2001/news/17445313.html

Wednesday, November 14, 2001
Threat kills site mocking officials

   County letter targets lampoon on Web
   By FRANK GEARY
   REVIEW-JOURNAL
   
   A Web site that lampooned Clark County officials was shut down late
   Monday after a county administrator threatened to sue the Internet
   company that was host to the site.
   
   County Public Communications Director Gwen Castaldi wrote Jomax
   Technologies, a domain registration, e-mail and Web site hosting
   company based in Arizona, a Nov. 1 letter that said county personnel
   were concerned the Web site's content "may be considered slanderous."

   [...]

   Leaders of the American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada were troubled
   that county officials would suppress criticism by threatening legal
   action. Allen Lichtenstein, general counsel for the ACLU, said the
   possibility of a government agency suing for slander or libel was
   ridiculous.

   [...]
   
   Before it was shut down Monday, the Web site published allegations
   about the personal lives of County Manager Thom Reilly, Commission
   Chairman Dario Herrera and former county administrator Bill Barrett.
   One altered photo showed Herrera with a black eye and some teeth
   knocked out.

   [...]




-------------------------------------------------------------------------
POLITECH -- Declan McCullagh's politics and technology mailing list
You may redistribute this message freely if you include this notice.
Declan McCullagh's photographs are at http://www.mccullagh.org/
To subscribe to Politech: http://www.politechbot.com/info/subscribe.html
This message is archived at http://www.politechbot.com/
-------------------------------------------------------------------------