Exclusive

COUNCIL CENSORS WEBSITE IN SINGLE STATUS ROW

29-11-2007

Birmingham Council workers have been banned from accessing an independent website allowing them to share information about the controversial new Single Status Pay and Grading Review. The publisher of the controversial site wants to know why free speech is being censored.

Details of the online information exchange – which allows staff in different sections of the local authority to swap details of their new pay and conditions – were first revealed on The Stirrer earlier this week (see link here).

All that’s known about the site’s author is that he or she works in the Planning Department.

Their stated aim was to see if the official version of the number of “winners and losers” was matched by the reality.

After a surge of interest, it now seems the Council has decided that it doesn’t want staff finding out too much.

Late yesterday, the following message appeared on the independent Single Status site: “Some bad news. Unfortunately it looks as if Birmingham City Council has taken the decision to block access to this site from within the council network.

“Access to the Internet for personal use in your lunchtime etc. is of course a privilege not a right but it has been decided that the content of this site is inappropriate.

“I can only apologise to the many people who have told me how helpful and useful they have found this site. I hope you can find some other way of accessing it.

“One thing worth remembering is that it is not only the employees of BCC who can look at this site but the whole of the World Wide Web.”

The publisher of the site – whose identity is unknown to The Stirrer – has contacted us via email and is asking the following questions:

“I might ask why this has happened? I might ask who is behind it? You might be told that staff shouldn't be using the Internet for personal use. I would say that there is an agreement that staff can use the Internet providing it is in their own time e.g lunchtimes.

“You might be told that it is not work related. I would argue that it is far more work related than sites such as Ebay, YouTube etc, which can still be accessed by staff.

“You might be told that ther are mistakes, inaccuracies, offensive material on my site. I would ask if the council have bothered to ask me to change anything. I would gladly do so if I was wrong - they haven't.

“You might ask them is they think this kind of censorship is acceptable? You might ask them if there is something they don't want council staff to see on my site?”

Ironically some staff can still see the site because the Council uses a variety of internet servers - and not all of them have blocked it yet.

Are the Council right to censor access to the independent Single Status site?

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