Nyamera,

I decided to take a quick look at the evenings' posts and can't find your land dispute thread from today............................ Has it been "disappeared" or am I just missing it? I went back a few days in search of it but still couldn't find it.

anita

I think it has gone.

This thread will probably disappear as well. Sounds a bit like some of those South American countries where dissidents kept disappearing!

Makes it hard to find the truth when the links disappear, fortunately I had saved the previous thread.

Yes, the thread was definitely deleted.

what was it about? please, gimme a <u>summary</u>

Wow, this is VERY disturbing. No - shocking, frightening, disappointing - if, in fact, this topic is being completely censored by Fodor's. I'm truly stunned...

Nyamera's topic started yesterday was removed because it accused another member of something in the original post.

Fodor’s reserves the right to remove or close topics in the forums, including topics that contain potentially libelous material.

The original topic remains on the site:
http://www.fodors.com/community/afri...d-grabbing.cfm

If you have any questions about our moderation policies, please email me at [email protected].

I didn’t accuse “another member” of anything. I accused members of a certain profession of reporting my posts, and stated that I thought that the main suspect – who doesn’t make a secret of his business relation with Thomson Safaris - was actually innocent.

A clever and helpful person has sent me a copy of the thread, minus the last three posts. And, the clever and helpful Twaffle might have the whole thread, but I can’t open that document at the moment. I can copy the posts and send them to anyone interested. [email protected]

Katie, it’s good that the original topic remains on the site, but it should be opened so that I can add some links and so that the safari company or their friends can defend themselves.

Those wanting to discuss this issue freely could have look at Safaritalk (.net) where there is a very long-going thread and some side threads.

I can't say I noticed any accusations. Nyamera asked a new member (don't remember the nick) who he was, I see nothing wrong in that.

Again, thanks for posting, Nyamera. Will move over to Safaritalk.

<i>The original topic remains on the site:
http://www.fodors.com/community/africa-the-middle-east/ohchr-requests-info-from-tz-government-re-thomson-safaris-land-grabbing.cfm</i>

I'm not finding that either anymore.

Katie,
Why was the original topic deleted too?

The original topic has been deleted. It was approximately like this: http://www.lonelyplanet.com/thorntre...5511&tstart=30

After further review by our legal advisers, we were advised to remove the topic because it contained potentially libelous material.

Shame.

Nyamera simply provided a list of urls for news articles covering this particular story. She didn't fabricate them. Anyone can google the topic and find the information for themselves.

So why would Fodor's consider the material so libelous as to censor it? Isn't it public information? The fact that a poster made it available on a Fodor's board in no way reflects on Fodors, does it...?

It was a big mistake linking to my post at the Thorn Tree. Some Fodorite obviously reported it and now that post is deleted as well. The only forum were it’s possible to talk about the Thomson Safaris land grabbing is Safaritalk (.net) where there is a thinking editor instead of a little triangle for reporting which brings the consecuence – someone reported a post – have to do something – something negative about a travel company – scary – close, close – delete, delete. Though the really big problem here is the person/people that keep pressing the triangle.

My email is in my profile in case anyone would like some article links.

Here’re two people writing about this issue:
http://africanfarmersjournal.blogspo...i-dispute.html
http://udadisi.blogspot.com/2009/05/...-national.html

> where there is a thinking editor...

It is very possible, indeed likely, that the Fodor's was also thinking ... about her job.

The editor has told us that Fodor's legal dept said to delete the articles. Now I know well that legal departments can be ridiculously over-cautious, but that's a different discussion. My bet is that the editor had a clear choice: either delete Nyamera's post, or lose her job (either by quitting or being fired for insubordination). I don't doubt that you, Nyamera, would have quit rather than delete the post. But it strikes me as absurd to brand the Fodor's editor as unthinking because she followed her employer's instructions.

Rizzuto, with "thinking" I meant that moderators here on Fodor’s just react to posts being reported while the moderator at Safaritalk knows what’s going on in threads and I suppose size has a lot to do with this. As I said, the problem here is the people that do the reporting.

You’re right that I would rather be fired than to practise censorship.

Rizzuto,

I'm quite sure no one thought this was Katie's decision. And if Katie refused to follow orders and delete it, someone else surely would have.

Clearly this issue has far greater implications than we little folk can fully appreciate...