The Los Angeles area Independent media site is coming under fire for arbitrarily "hiding" posts that don't fit the precise political bent of its editorial collective. The LA.Indymedia.org site lists its guidelines for "hiding" articles as follows:

* "Spam" posting; i.e., posts deliberately designed to disrupt the newswire and its basic ability to function. These are posts that are deemed to be devoid of content or analysis and appear to be published with the sole purpose of disruption.

* Posts the author has requested hidden.

* Posts that are obviously incorrect or misleading. This includes attempts to spread misinformation or to impersonate another individual.

* Posts that contain generalized and negative assertions about any race, nation, creed, class, ethnic group, sexual orientation, etc.

* Posts that advocate the mass physical elimination of a specific race, nation, creed, class, ethnic group, sexual orientation, etc, or that link to websites that advocate the same.

* Posts that treat the newswire as a personal "bulletin board" with non-political content directed at one or another newswire participants.

* Unreadable formats (i.e. photos posted as text).

* Posts titled "test".

* Duplicate posts (including duplicate photographs).

* Advertising of products or for-profit services.

* Pornography, excepting sexually explicit satire.

However, despite these clear & descriptive guidelines, LA.Indymedia regularly removes legitimate posts that break _none_ of the above-listed rules, based solely on the fact that they don't strictly adhere to the political positions of its editorial collective.

(I’ve linked to some of those posts below. Please don't take my word for it -- take a look & see for yourself.)

I've tried to contact the group for an explanation, but rather than answering my questions, my post was once again "hidden" from view.

Indymedia is supposed to be about interaction; facilitation of free speech & the free exchange of ideas, uncensored by any political interest. It's supposed to be all those things that the corporate media isn't -- but by censoring alternative points-of-view, the LA Indymedia group is simply shifting the accepted bias. It's not empowering "the people"; just the people who agree with them. And it's giving Indymedia as a whole a huge black-eye in the credibility department.

Something needs to be done. Some action must be taken to correct this.

sh(A)ne

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Below I've linked to a sample of recently "hidden" articles on the LA.Indymedia.org site. The second one in the list is especially telling:

la.indymedia.org/news/

la.indymedia.org/news/2006/01/146001.php

la.indymedia.org/news/2006/01/145950.php

la.indymedia.org/news/2006/01/145959.php

la.indymedia.org/news/2006/01/145940.php

la.indymedia.org/news/2006/01/145865.php

la.indymedia.org/news/2006/01/145863.php

I realize that some of them present a viewpoint that many people here might not agree with, but I thought this Indymedia thing was supposed to be about "democratizing" the media.
How is "hiding" all the ideas you don't agree with helping to promote Democracy?! How is this helping encourage civil debate? HOW IS THIS NOT JUST AS FASCIST & REPRESSIVE AS THE CORPORATE MEDIA'S HIDING THE STORIES THEY DON'T WANT YOU TO SEE?!
I'm very angered by this. I know this post will just be hidden like the rest, but for those of you who see it in the mean time, I think you need to question the convictions of the “ruling collective" running this Indymedia site.