British bloggers silenced by Uzbek oligarch

I just found this on Chicken Yoghurt, which is fairly shocking.

I don't fully get the details, but a number of British bloggers have had their sites closed down because of comments concerning Alisher Usmanov, an Uzbek/Russian billionaire who is trying to buy Arsenal FC. I can't comment much on the allegations made, but it is not hard to find them on the internet. Putting any allegations to one side though, merely the vast accumulation of wealth and power by a few individuals in the former Soviet Union, combined with abuses of democratic and civil society, should be cause for concern for Arsenal fans.

These bloggers are reasonably high profile, and include Tim Ireland, who has been involved in the bloggers' campaign to grant asylum to Iraqis working for British forces; Craig Murray, the outspoken former ambassador to Uzbekistan (still got his book on my shelf waiting to be read); prominent local councillor blogger Bob Piper; and Boris Johnson, everybody's favourite Tory and candidate for London Mayor.

It's a disparate collection of people well known in the blogosphere, who wouldn't otherwise have much in common. As far as I know, the latter two - Cllr Piper, and Mr Johnson - did not even comment on the case, but simply shared a webhost with the others.

If this heavy-handed attack on freedom of speech is par for the course in activities involving Mr Usmanov, then that alone is enough to persuade me that he is not the type of person I'd like to see taking a prominent role in cultural life in the UK.

I'm posting this to help publicise it. By following the link trails from Chicken Yoghurt above, you will easily be able to find out the full story. If you have a blog, please consider posting something on this as well. We have to demonstrate that attempts to silence free speech will have the opposite effect and, for every blog which is shut down, there will be many more which will make sure the story gets out.