By Michael Newhouse
THE controversy surrounding Brimbank councillor Ken Capar has increased in recent weeks as anonymous bloggers and Internet-savvy council-watchers tried to get one-up on each other in the lead-up to council’s mayoral elections.
On 7 December, just as the fight for the new Brimbank mayor began to heat up, a new blog titled ‘The Ken Capar Files’ appeared online, focusing on the controversy surrounding Cr Capar’s recent trip to New Zealand as a member of the Keilor Cemetery Trust.
Cr Capar stepped down as a member of the trust after allegations surfaced suggesting he had engaged in inappropriate behaviour during the conference while heavily intoxicated. The councillor has admitted he was drunk following a conference function on 10 October, but has denied allegations he made inappropriate sexual advances to conference attendees, as well as denying other allegations levelled against him.
The blog is operated by a person calling his or herself the ‘The Brimbank Observer’, who says “From within Brimbank Castle I present the truth for all to see”.
“This blog will be presenting all the available information for public scrutiny … all the links between key ALP figures at federal, state and local levels are going to be exposed,” said the first post, put on the site on 7 December.
Sunshine Residents’ and Ratepayers’ Association president Darlene Reilly, whose organisation has used the Internet to rally support against the council for more than a year, said she’d seen the new blog, but had no information on who was behind it.
“I don’t know who it is, but they have some information I have hold of,” Ms Reilly said.
“We’ve had these blogs before, and we’ve had nothing to do with it.”
Earlier this year a blog taking aim at fellow ALP Brimbank councillor Costas Socratous appeared, but quickly disappeared from the limelight having not been updated since 21 July 2006.
The battle over Ken Capar also shifted on to popular online encyclopedia Wikipedia, which anyone can edit at will, as details of Cr Capar’s life were altered and tampered with in the month leading up to the mayoral election.
Until 18 November the Wikipedia entry for ‘Ken Capar’ contained the bare bones factual details – birth date, birth place and council service – but in recent weeks the entry has fluctuated, with it now including some details of his cemetery conference trip, some personal opinion and unsubstantiated speculation. Articles posted on Wikipedia must be written from a “neutral point of view” and must be based on reliable sources, according to the site’s own editorial policy.
The entry was retuned to the brief factual entry on 12 December.
Cr Capar failed to return calls from Star.
