London Borough of Enfield slammed for closing Fassit website down

11.20.52am GMT Tue 3rd Jul 2007

John Hemming MP, Chairman of Justice for Families, has criticised the London Borough of Enfield for closing down a website.

"For a few hours", he said, "the fassit website was closed down because it contained details of a particular miscarriage of justice that is subject to a reporting restriction order. Dealing with the legal costs of challenging these orders is impossible for the Internet Service Providers so they simply close down the sites."

"The London Borough of Enfield in acting to close down discussion are acting in a counterproductive manner. Firstly, the people running websites will merely move them abroad outside the jurisdiction of the UK Courts. It is not going to be possible for any Local Authority to close down sites internationally any faster than they can be opened up elsewhere. There are also jurisdictions such as North Cyprus where the UK cannot obtain an order to close down a website."

"I would be surprised if countries like Sweden would permit such an infringement of free speech as preventing people from complaining about a miscarriage of justice."

"Secondly, they are acting to discourage people from adoption. If people are threatened with imprisonment for talking about the details of a miscarriage of justice relating to a family court case then why would any family wish to take the risk of adopting a child forcibly removed from his/her parents. We already know that mistakes are made. When mistakes are made (as in the Webster Case) this affects the adopting family as well as the birth family. People have to be allowed to talk about the truth. A system that depends upon lies will fail."