A group posting on the news website Bristol Indymedia has claimed responsibility for an attack on the offices of the Bristol Evening Post – which the paper believes was the result of its strong anti-riot stance during disturbances in the city last week.
Avon and Somerset Police were called to the newspaper’s offices on Temple Way at 3am last Friday when seventeen windows were smashed at the front reception and paint was daubed over the entrance. Police said they cordoned off the scene, pending an examination by crime scene investigators, and are now trawling through footage from CCTV cameras on the building.
The force confirmed that no arrests have yet been made and that no-one was hurt in the attack.
A post attributed to ‘Anonymous Individuals’on the Bristol Indymedia website over the weekend claimed it had carried out the attack.
Related
The post said: “Thursday night despite heavy police presence in the city centre and across Bristol we smashed all the front bottom windows and some of the higher ones at the Evening Post headquarters and decorated the front with paint bombs. The paper has estimated £20,000 damage.
“The media demonises those who choose to resist and fight back, opening the way for more repression again us all. They attempt to divert our attention away from the real everyday thugs and looters – the cops and capitalists, who routinely get away with large-scale theft and murder. This is part of the divisive strategy of rulers to get us fearing and fighting each other and taking sides with authority against rebels.
‘This action was made by people who are not fooled. They do not understand our anger as an unstoppable force that will not be stopped by batons or bullets – we fight with all means for a future of complete liberty we have yet to know.”
Content from our partners
The statement continued: ‘When the gloves come off and the social war has never been clearer, the class enemy reply on corporate media to be used as just another weapon against us all who want something better for our own lives and those yet to come.
‘Let’s see the bosses and politicians scrabble to be seen with brooms on the streets – it’s their mess come back to bite them, the lines are drawn: this is what Big fucked Society looks like.”
Bristol Indymedia was unavailable for comment, but a spokesman for Avon and Somerset police told Press Gazette that ‘we are aware of the post and it is something we will be looking into”.
Bristol Evening Post publisher Alan Renwick said: ‘What is clear from this attack is that we are doing what a city newspaper should do and speaking for 99 per cent of the community. We have had great backing today from local government and the police for being on the ‘front line’ and taking one for Bristol.
“We are also attracting wider media interest. The damage to our building is a short term nuisance but a signal that we remain important, and at the heart of our city.’
Email pged@pressgazette.co.uk to point out mistakes, provide story tips or send in a letter for publication on our "Letters Page" blog
