ROUGH DIAMOND

Brighton’s lippy young upstart of a radical newsletter, Rough Music, has been ruffling some feathers on SchNEWS’ home patch. Since 2005, Rough Music has been sticking it to local profiteering parasites, thuggish cops and corrupt politicians. Now it appears their efforts have provoked a backlash as a shadowy figure is trying to shut the plucky pamphleteers down.

The first inkling of trouble came when RM received an email from Nominet – who regulate ‘.org.uk’ domain names – demanding proof of identification for the registered owner of their website, one Mr ahem, Rough Music. Having misplaced the id of Mr Music, the domain name roughmusic.org.uk was left to die and the site moved to the new domain of ‘roughmusic.org’.

But, like so many of the world’s persecuted, RM was not to find peace and security in its new home. Soon, a new email dropped into the inbox from the regulators of their new domain, this time including the whole correspondence that led to the enquiry. RM was being pursued by one Tomas J Stehlik who was determined to get his hands on the personal details of the “illegal group” behind the monthly-ish newsletter – so that legal action could be taken by his clients.

Having traced Stehlik via his company Stehlik IT Services (“We take the SH out of IT”), RM rang up to try and trace the sinister figures lurking behind Stehlik. While Stehlik kept schtum on the identity of his client(s), his comments suggested the mystery foe was someone who has appeared in regular RM feature Wanker’s Corner. “You would not use such language about your children even if they committed some not very nice things,” the priggish Stehlik told RM.

A barely coherent, toothless, brew-stained spokesmunter for RM emerged out his k-hole long enough to mumble at SchNEWS, “We don’t know who these moneybags scum are, but they won’t keep us quiet. Whoever it is has picked a fight with the wrong Brighton-based scurrilous radical newsletter, the wankers.”

RM is one of a gaggle of local newsletters, including the Worthing Pork Bolter, the Hereford Heckler and the Manchester Mule, pluggin the gap left by a vapid excuse for a regional news industry. Unlike sycophantic advertorial packed local rags, these independent voices are willing to stand up to profit and power in a time when few else in the media will. And with more and more newspapers slashing costs by dumping local staff and even outsourcing production (see SchNEWS 748), they remain true local voices. And it is anonymity that lets them do it. Yes, it might not mesh with the wiki-era of transparency and freedom of information, but with Britain’s ludicrous libel laws tailor-made to help the rich and powerful silence their critics, there is no other option. So, in solidarity with RM, SchNEWS would like to state for the record, the following people are grade-A wankers: Tomas J Stehlik, Mike Holland, Simon Fanshawe, Tony Mernagh, Steve Harmer Strange, and many more...

Check out the latest sizzling edition of RM for the whole story, a round-up of the suspects and more details of the shady habits of Tomas J Stehlik at: www.roughmusic.org