A first version of this article was hidden because I claimed that indymedia censored articles, which was a ridiculous statement of mine. To avoid this problem I will henceforth no longer talk about censorship. What I will talk about is the ‘FuzzyBunny’ on indymedia, and everyone can interpret this word as they like. I apologize for this ridiculous situation, but I didn’t create it. I hope you’ll get used to it.

Who watches the mediawatchers? With nothing better to do, I took a peek at the latest post on the edito-list, showing which articles are FuzzyBunnied and why. What I saw shocked me, and is not at all what I expected from independent media-activists.

Everyone can see the edito archives at http://lists.indymedia.org/mailman/public/imc-belgium-edito/2003-March/thread.html , so you can check everything that’s FuzzieBunnied for yourself by searching for the article number. Don’t believe a word I say, but check for yourself and form your own opinion.

Edito members often FuzzyBunny a lot of articles based on the same reasons, and then compile a list of the FuzzyBunnied articles and the reasons for FuzzyBunnying them. We have to understand that this way of working is a necessity. Working in the edito team can be very hard and stressful work, and there simply isn’t enough time to go into the details of each individually FuzzyBunnied article. However, this method of working has some clear drawbacks if certain people justifying their FuzzyBunnyship with buzzwords that have nothing to do with the content.

Lets take a look at the latest batch of mass- FuzzyBunnies. The FuzzyBunnied articles are French, but I still write this in English because I believe this concerns indymedia and all it’s readers (and, well.. my French is a little shoddy too ;-) . Articles 50815, 50830 and 50864 were all FuzzyBunnied because of ‘personal insults’. I’m in favor of FuzzyBunnying articles based on personal insults and indeed, some of the contents of the articles can be viewed as personal insults. The problem is that there is a lack of consequence regarding personal insults. A lot of people have been personally insulted by certain members of the edito-team in the past, and a lot of insults remain on the site if they are in the interest of these people. What we are witnessing here is an attempt to FuzzyBunny all criticism on Arafat, Castro, Saddam and imc-workers under the pretext of FuzzyBunnying personal attacks.

Even clearer examples of misusing FuzzyBunnyship can be found reading the articles which were FuzzyBunnied because of ‘sionism’. While I’m not the expert on Zionism, I would define it more or less as a form of racism misusing Jewish religion to proclaim racial superiority and drive people out of their homes to reclaim the alleged promised land.
Articles nrs. 50822, 50826 and 50902 were FuzzyBunnied because of ‘sionism’, and while I read accusations on Arafat, despite my best efforts I failed to discover any traces of Zionism. Articles 50838/50841, 50843, 50849 and 50894, FuzzyBunnied under the same pretext of ‘sionism’, have imho absolutely nothing to do with Zionism. Most of them don’t even contain any information whatsoever regarding the Palestinian-Israëlian conflict but criticism on Castro or Stalin, so I can’t possibly see why someone without other political motives would link them to Zionism.

I hope some people do some serious thinking about their misuse of the independent media and their behavior on this site. Last time I complained about wrongful FuzzyBunnyship by one member of the edito team, the team decided to change their policy rather than questioning the behavior of certain members. Maybe this article will be FuzzyBunnied as well. If not, I will probably be facing a lot of personal attacks by people who choose to deny the problems, but I don’t care. It is because I believe in the strength of the independent media that I write this. I hope we can put an end to this situation before there’s nothing left of what should be a pluralistic anticapitalist medium.

Poder par el pueblo!
El Pimo