Apparently lawyers for billionaire Arsenal shareholder, Alisher Usmanov, have had the site of former British ambassador to Uzbekistan, Craig Murray, shut down by his webhost. Boris Johnson's and others' blogs have also been caught in the shutdown, a splendid illustration of how crude the process can be. Boris is not impressed. He's quoted by the Guardian thus:
"This is London, not Uzbekistan. It is unbelievable that a website can be wiped out on the say-so of some tycoon.
We live in a world where internet communication is increasingly vital, and this is a serious erosion of free speech."
Sadly I don't have the capacity to look into this with any degree of depth currently but the blogosphere, listservs and usual geek and cyberrights sites (and, unusually, Arsenal fan sites) are buzzing with details and speculation. Given the story dovetails my lifelong obsession with Arsenal football club with current professional interests, though, I'll be returning to it when I get the chance.
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