PRESS RELEASE:

Verizon Demands that ex-employee have site operated by a third party
censored

For Immediate Distribution
4/20/04

Embarrassed by the publication of the names of two Verizon managers
involved in the three month suspension (without pay, without cause, and
without a required hearing) of a Verizon employee, and by the release of
details of a letter in which one manager subsequently fired the worker
retroactively (again, without cause and without the contractually required
hearing), Verizon pressured Jeffrey L. Jordan through his union to have
the uncomfortable information suppressed, The company demanded that the
names and firing details be censored on the Internet website North
American Samizdat (http://www.NorthAmericanSamizdat.com/), which is owned
and operated by a third party, not Mr. Jordan.

Informed of the pressure placed on a long time friend, NAS's editor, Carl
Bussjaeger redacted the information under protest. Mr. Bussjaeger said,
"It's a clear free speech case. If the woman had the nerve to threaten me,
I'd just refer her to my lawyer. But instead, Verizon made it clear that
it would stall any settlement in Mr. Jordan's improper firing. Well, I did
what she wanted, and she's still stalling anyway. What's next?
Threatening family members if customers complain of lousy phone
service?"

NAS redacted the embarrassing information to allow Mr. Jordan a show of
good faith in negotiations, and waited for a reciprocal good-faith showing
from Verizon. Instead, Verizon continues to stall negotiations. Since the
company has demonstrated that complying with its demands nets the same
result as not doing so, NAS has opted for free speech and has restored the
information which Verizon wanted hidden from public view.

NAS is pleased to report that Internet archiving engines had already
permanently archived pages with the names of the managers intact, not only
from NAS, but from still other independent sites. Verizon not only lacks
an understanding of the First Amendment, they also do not understand the
Internet.

RESOURCES:

NAS's explanation of the redacted data

http://www.gbronline.com/cwb/samizdat/redacted1.html

Call for a boycott of Verizon

http://www.gbronline.com/cwb/samizdat/boycott.html

Google cache of offending data from other sites

http://216.239.51.104/search?q=cache:W3tExsVd3IAJ:goodyearfamily.net/

http://216.239.51.104/search?q=cache:TSMF2BQIquIJ:libertyaction.blogspot.c
om/

CONTACT:

Carl Bussjaeger
cwb@gbronline.com

379 Amherst Street, #361, Nashua, NH 03063

(no phone at this time due to boycott)