Date: Tue, 04 Jun 1996 23:05:47 +1000
From: Danny Yee
To: National-Press-List:
Subject: University in Internet Gag Attempt

Electronic Frontiers Australia Inc. Press Release, 4 Jun 1996

UNIVERSITY IN INTERNET GAG ATTEMPT

The University of Western Australia has made legal threats against individuals and publications who have published the location of an Internet Web site. The site in question contains information about the University's treatment of whistleblower Dr Rindos - currently the subject of an inquiry in the West Australian Upper House. The University alleges that material on the site is defamatory.

"Threatening people for publishing the address of a Web page is like threatening people for publishing the Dewey Decimal number of a book." said Electronic Frontiers Australia's Sydney spokesperson Danny Yee. "If the site is found to be defamatory then it will be removed and any links to it will be useless. Given that the Web page in question is only _allegedly_ defamatory, this looks like a blatant attempt to gag open discussion of the case. This sort of intimidation is likely to prove counterproductive, however - the page in question is now being popularised by free speech advocates around the world."

The address (URL) of the page in question, which is maintained by a student at Buffalo University in New York, is

  • http://www.acsu.buffalo.edu/~hjarvis/rindos.html

    The internationally respected Justice on Campus project at MIT now carries a full copy of the site at

  • http://joc.mit.edu/uwa/

    An ironic twist is that an earlier suit for defamation by Dr Rindos himself set a precedent for defamation on the Internet.

  • Electronic Frontiers Australia -- http://www.efa.org.au/
  • representing Internet users concerned with civil liberties
    Sydney Spokesperson: Danny Yee -- danny.yee@efa.org.au
    351 5159 (work) 9955 9898 (home)

    Background: a letter from one of the people threatened by the University of Western Australia.
    Date: 28 May 1996 17:34:15 +1000
    From: "Brian Martin"
    Subject: defamation threat by UWA

    LINK to appended letter.