March 2010

AVN Under Attack

A dramatic headline, but not nearly dramatic enough.

In an e-newsletter sent in mid-February, I shared with you a small portion of what has been done to prevent both myself and the AVN from supporting Australian families. Many of you responded in disbelief at the way in which certain people who oppose our fundamental freedom to be informed about vaccination have behaved towards what is basically a small, parent-run health safety group.

If I had told you the whole story of what we have gone through for the last 12 months, your anger would probably know no bounds. That is how I feel right now, to be honest.

I came home this afternoon after doing our week's grocery shopping, to find that all 3 of our domains have been suspended by our American server. When I contacted them, they told me that the reason for the suspension was a 'legal' complaint they had received. They would not give me any other information about the complaint so I have to wait to speak with their legal department next week.

As soon as I hung up the phone with the web hosting company, I received a phone call from a friend who works in the Australian media. This person warned me that a media smear campaign against the AVN is about to start. They said that this campaign has been planned for some time and that it will involve trying to link the AVN with pornographic material.

We will be speaking with legal counsel as soon as we are able to (it is hard when these things take place on the weekend since it is almost impossible to get in touch with anyone over the weekend) and will be taking whatever actions are necessary to get our website back up and to oppose this attack against our right to communication and freedom which should be guaranteed under our democracy.

In the meantime, since nobody will be able to reach either myself, Judy, Janiece or our designer, Alyson, by email, I would like to ask that anyone who would like to contact our office send an email to educateb4uvaccinate@gmail.com. Feel free to give us a ring as well on 02 6687 1699 or 02 6687 2436. We would love to hear your words of support and advice.

This is only the latest installment in a series of actions that have taken place over the last 12 months intended to harass us and force us to stop providing the information and support we have given out over the last 17 years.

These actions have included:

1- The spurious complaint against the AVN and myself with the HCCC.
2- Harassment of our advertisers.
3- Harassment of our professional members.
4- Death threats by email and telephone.
5- Establishment of websites and blogs specifically intended to stop the AVN.
6- Ridiculous accusations which state that the AVN supports conspiracy theories including the Illuminati and alien body-snatchers.
7- Harassment of the families of AVN supporters which, among other things, includes the posting of personal and business details on the internet.
8- Complaints filed with the Department of Fair Trading.
9- Complaints filed with the Office of Liquor, Gaming and Racing.
10- Complaints filed with ASIC.
11- Attempts to stop AVN-hosted seminars.
12- Hacking of the AVN website and email server.
13- Accusations that AVN supporters are child murders.
14- Threats to file defamation lawsuits.
15- Legal complaints which have shut down our website and email server.
16- Harassment of people who have donated to the AVN including tampering with their websites.

There are probably more items, but this is what just came to me without going over my written records. This is obviously a highly-coordinated and vicious campaign.

If anyone reading this is a legal eagle who would like to lend a hand, please give me a call ASAP.

Yours in health and freedom,
Meryl