Context: About 6-8 wks ago, an OP (not me) started the thread 'My world has shifted on it's foundations...Rolf Harris.....' ......It was expressing how stunned/shocked/saddened she was that someone she has loved as a child had been arrested as part of Operation Yewtree.
At that point, even though there were NO reporting restrictions imposed by any Court (I.E. no-one and no outlet - MN or other - would have been in contempt of Court by allowing free speech including his name/fact he HAD been arrested), RH's name was not in the mainstream press. The reason for this was that his lawyers (Harbottle & Lewis if memory serves) had fired warning salvos to outlets 'citing the Levenson enquiry'. Today though, he has and is being openly named in all outlets (see link below).
The thread was a combination of others also expressing their shock; many asking questions as to how they were unaware he had been interviewed under caution in November and his house searched with a warrant & how on earth they hadn't seen that in press; clear clarification by some of the time-line of both that, the Harbottle 'gagging' for want of a better word, & his subsequent arrest (the one OP posted regarding); and - vitally - 'general" observations re child abuse (IE "LISTEN TO YOUR CHILD - CHILDREN DO NOT KNOW THE LANGUAGE OF ABUSE' )
MNHQ were very aware of the thread and - rightly - intervened with a warning that posts implying links with Jimmy Saville &/or possibly implicatory comments on posters own expererience of RH (however real those experiences were, IE posters who had had direct experience of working with RH and their 'experiences'/observations etc) would be deleted. Which they did. Ergo, the thread that remained post those deletions did not to the best of my knowledge have anything illegal in it given: i) no reporting or gagging orders in place; ii) anything REMOTELY referencing RH/posters direct experiences.
Yet a short while ago on my 'threads I'm on', I saw the following:
'My world has shifted on it's foundations...Rolf Harris.....'
Thread deleted
Deleted for legal reasons
WHY? And for WHAT legal reasons? (As I can see none & the above spells out how the thread HAD been modded where ness?) Feels more like censorship and the very opposite of what MN is about, including the oft stated 'we don't censor...' It just feels very....wrong??? Not just about preventing people access to legally available truths re RH, but the MUCH broader issue of our having the right to free speech here???
news.sky.com/story/1080222/rolf-harris-questioned-by-savile-police