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Online Journalism News

News agency forced to host own web site

Posted: 10/01/03 By: Elizabeth Croad
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A Birmingham-based news agency has been forced to to set up its own web hosting company after being closed down more than 30 times by other internet service providers (ISPs).

Al Ansaar News Agency (http://www.al-ansaar.com) is an independent media organisation reporting on America's war on terrorism and the Israeli aggression in Palestine.

Since the terrorist attacks of September 11th, the site has been pulled by more than 30 ISPs following complaints about content which has included, for example, the publication of letters from Palestinian children about the Israeli/Palestininian conflict.

Imran Khan, director of Al Ansaar, said: "Hosting companies have no backbone; they won't allow anything deemed to be controversial to have its say on the net. We reported the other side of the story and got closed down for it.".

The site has been accused of being anti-American and anti-semitic and contributors have even been accused of being terrorists. In order to continue publishing online, Mr Khan has had to take drastic action.

"We realised that most ISPs aren't happy to portray a different point of view, so we've set up a partnership with http://www.mtec-uk.com, a hosting company that believes in freedom of speech.

"We've had several journalists join up that have been through exactly the same thing and are fighting a cyberwar to stay online."