Amanda Knox: Italy to Silence Blogger?

Americans cherish freedom.  It isn't always this way around the world. 




If Google says no more, will other hosts?

from the Seattle Weekly:    Frank Sfarzo, Amanda Knox-Case Blogger, Silenced by Google After Lawsuit by Italian Prosecutor Giuliano Mignini

​Folks who follow the Amanda Knox case religiously--of which there are thousands--have probably at one time or another visited Frank Sfarzo's blog Perugia Shock. A dedicated critic of Italian prosecutor Giuliano Mignini, Sfarzo is one of the few Italian writers to exhaustively cover every hearing of the Knox trial and write reports in English. But this week his blog was shut down by Google after Italian authorities ordered it so.

The Committee to Protect Journalists (which recently named Mignini in a letter that accuses him of ordering assaults and harassment against journalists including Sfarzo) reports that Sfarzo received an e-mail earlier this week informing him that the site would be shut down, as ordered by an Italian court:

Sfarzo told CPJ that he received an email from Google, which hosts the site, last night informing him that a court order has been issued for the "preventive closure" of his blog dedicated to the Kercher case. In compliance with that order, Google took down Perugia Shock; it is now unavailable. It was from the court order, Sfarzo told CPJ, that he learned that Perugia Prosecutor Giuliano Mignini--who has a long-standing record of anti-press actions--has filed a lawsuit against Perugia Shock for "defamation, carried out by means of a website." The court order, which stemmed from Mignini's claim, was issued on February 23 by Florentine Judge Paola Belsino. Mignini is the lead prosecutor on the Kercher case.
This site is unavailable now, but a cached version of it can be seen here.

Mignini had long sought to have the blog shut down, but being that Google is an American company, most thought the Italian government would be powerless to force the issue.

Apparently they were wrong. Or Google's Blogger administrators are just a bunch of pansies.

At any rate, here's Sfarzo's last blog post, since here at Seattle Weekly we are decidedly pansy-free.