E-Summary 97 03 24
German Alerts
PlumbO
In Protest: Austria Off the Net
Major Austrian internet providers ready to pull the plugs on tuesday
Vienna:
In an emergency meeting, sunday afternoon an ad-hoc-counsel of Austria´s major internet providers Aconet, Eunet, Vianet & numerous others decided to take action against the latest & severest of governmental attempts against free flow of information.
On Thursday a group of secret policemen raided Austrian provider www.vip.at. They pulled the plugs on any machine & confiscated every single piece of hardware. 400 vip/customers are up to now without connectivity. The search warrant did not include any accusations against vip.at. It was based on a request for assistance in law enforcement by the public prosecutor´s office in Munich, dated March 10 1996 (!). There was no official comment on that delay.
As Peter Wlcek, webmaster at vip.at, told quintessenz on Sunday, the raid was related to a usenet/posting to pedophile newsgroup by a former customer of vip - back in February 1996. ”The point is“, says Wlcek, ”Police have been knowing name & adress of this man ever since, but they raided us nevertheless.“
Wlcek would not comment on the fact that the examining magistrate Helene Partik-Pable is a prominent partisan of Joerg Haider´s rightwing Freedom Party and Member of Austrian Parliament. The ruling coalition´s (socialdemocrats/conservatives) telecom law is after several years of fruitless efforts right now under parliamentary discussion.
erich-moechel@quintessenz.at
A press conference will be held in Vienna, Monday at HaasHaus, 12.30
Contact: Madeleine Fuchs fuchs@vianet.at