The Spanish Civil Guard has closed the website of the pro-independence organisation ANC (Catalan National Assembly), the organisation's president, Jordi Sànchez, has confirmed on Catalan news channel 324. Sànchez condemned this decision by Spanish prime minister Mariano Rajoy as an attack against freedom of expression, the rule of law and democracy.
Sànchez said that the ANC's computer staff were "already working to restore this information that the Spanish state wants to hid" and that many exterior experts have expressed solidarity with the ANC to guarantee the working of freedom of expression; "they've collapsed the phone lines", he added.
Finally, Sànchez said that the problem would be resolved quickly using other domains. He didn't want to say what these would be, however, because "we don't want them to block them" too.
Some politicians have already commented on the website's closure:
Adéu llibertat de premsa. Hola censura. https://t.co/OvjMsJ758U
— Alfred Bosch (@AlfredBosch) 25 de setembre de 2017
Translation: Goodbye freedom of the press. Hello censorship.
Avui els 5 M€ a Artur Mas, l'amenaça a les direccions de centres i els webs d'@assemblea i @empaperem. No hi ha dret que ho sostingui, això
— Anna Simó (@AnnaSimo) 25 de setembre de 2017
Today the 5 million euro [fine] for Artur Mas, the threats against the leadership of centres [to be used as polling stations] and the websites of ANC and Empaperem [campaign]. There's no law that supports this.
I aquesta web no la tanquen. Se l'autofinancien https://t.co/jBvDflPNcB
— Mireia Boya Busquet (@yeyaboya) 25 de setembre de 2017
And this web they don't shut. It's self-financed.