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August 28, 2015 by Gary Price

UK: “British Library Rejects Taliban Trove Fearing Terror Laws”

August 28, 2015 by Gary Price

From Agence France Presse:

Academics have criticised the British government for creating a “climate of fear” after the national library declined to store the world’s biggest collection of Taliban-related documents over concerns it could be prosecuted under terrorism laws.
A group of international researchers spent years putting together a trove of documents related to the Afghan Taliban, including official newspapers from their time in power, poems, maps, radio broadcasts, and several volumes of laws and edicts — digitising the estimated two-three million words and translating everything into English.
It was hoped the project, which was launched in 2012 and included members of the British Library on its advisory board, would prove an unprecedented resource for academics and officials trying to understand the movement and the ongoing insurgency in Afghanistan.
[Clip]
A spokeswoman confirmed the library was “not currently able to acquire a copy of the archive”.
“It is a large digitised archive which contains material that could contravene the Terrorism Act,” she said.

Read the Complete Article
From the BBC:

James Fitzgerald, a professor at Dublin City University and editor of the Critical Studies on Terrorism journal, said the library’s decision was “completely, completely ridiculous”.
He blamed the government saying its terrorism laws were making academics nervous about studying extremist groups.
“We’re already seeing the effects. Some lecturers don’t want to do modules on terrorism anymore because they don’t want to come under suspicion.”
[Clip]
The Terrorism Acts of 2000 and 2006 make it an offence to “collect material which could be used by a person committing or preparing for an act of terrorism” and criminalise the “circulation of terrorist publications”.

The Home Office declined to comment saying it was a matter for library.

Filed under: Libraries, Maps, National Libraries, News

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About Gary Price

Gary Price (gprice@mediasourceinc.com) is a librarian, writer, consultant, and frequent conference speaker based in the Washington D.C. metro area. Before launching INFOdocket, Price and Shirl Kennedy were the founders and senior editors at ResourceShelf and DocuTicker for 10 years. From 2006-2009 he was Director of Online Information Services at Ask.com, and is currently a contributing editor at Search Engine Land.

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