Judge asked to reconsider Web site closing
Published: Feb. 27, 2008 at 2:20 PM
SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 27 (UPI) -- A U.S. judge in San Francisco is being asked to reconsider his order to shut down a Web site that publishes leaked documents.
Lawyers for a coalition of media and public interest organizations said orders issued by U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White against wikileaks.org amount to prior restraint of speech, the Los Angeles Times reported Wednesday.
White issued the orders in response to a lawsuit filed Feb. 6 by Julius Baer & Co., a Swiss bank that claimed a disgruntled employee had posted internal documents on wikileaks.org accusing the bank's Cayman Islands branch of money-laundering and tax evasion.
Last week White issued a temporary restraining order barring Wikileaks from posting the bank documents on the Internet. He also issued a permanent injunction ordering the Web site's domain name registrar to disable its domain name, effectively blocking access to the site.
Laura Handman, a Washington attorney representing several news organizations, likens the order to shutting down an entire newspaper because of one article, the Times said.
Lawyers for a coalition of media and public interest organizations said orders issued by U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White against wikileaks.org amount to prior restraint of speech, the Los Angeles Times reported Wednesday.
White issued the orders in response to a lawsuit filed Feb. 6 by Julius Baer & Co., a Swiss bank that claimed a disgruntled employee had posted internal documents on wikileaks.org accusing the bank's Cayman Islands branch of money-laundering and tax evasion.
Last week White issued a temporary restraining order barring Wikileaks from posting the bank documents on the Internet. He also issued a permanent injunction ordering the Web site's domain name registrar to disable its domain name, effectively blocking access to the site.
Laura Handman, a Washington attorney representing several news organizations, likens the order to shutting down an entire newspaper because of one article, the Times said.
© 2008 United Press International. All Rights Reserved.
This material may not be reproduced, redistributed, or manipulated in any form.
This material may not be reproduced, redistributed, or manipulated in any form.
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A Palestinian refugee Mohamad Harb 85 year Old . shows his old house keys from his former village as a symbol of hope that his may return his one day on May 12, 2008 in his Rafah refugee camp which is located within the Gaza Strip. Harb used to live in the village of Hmamh before his family was forced to immigrate to the Gaza Strip in 1948. After sixty years Harb has hope of returning to his old village which is now in Israeli territory and is named Kreat Hmamh. Traditionally Palestinians commemorate May 15th as Nakba Day or Catastrophe Day, the day the Israeli State was created in 1948.(UPI Photo/Ismael Mohamad)
Traditionally Palestinians commemorate May 15th as Catastrophe Day
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