Censorship threatens freedom

Posted by Michael on March 17, 2009, 8:27pm, 329 views

CensorshipThe latest online censorship furore in Australia involves the communications regulator saying it will fine people who link to sites on its blacklist.

ACMA has reportedly threatened popular discussion forum Whirlpool with fines of $11,000 a day over a link published in its forum to another page that’s been blacklisted.

Child porn? Recipes for bombs or suicide pills? No, the link is to an anti-abortion website.

The blacklist is expected to widen if the Federal Government goes ahead with its controversial internet filtering scheme.

Apart from extreme acts of pornography and violence, I don’t support censorship.

George Bernard Shaw said: “Censorship ends in logical completeness when nobody is allowed to read any books except the books that nobody reads.”

Wikileaks is a site that has had links to it banned from Australia.

In a press release, the whistleblowers wiki says the first rule of censorship is that you cannot talk about censorship.

It’s revealed the decision to ban the links was made by the “Content Assessment Section” of the Australian Communications and Media Authority.

Wikileaks’ crime was publishing lists of banned sites from Thailand and Denmark.

Electronic Frontiers Australia has condemned the latest development.

“We note that, not only do these incidents show that the ACMA censors are more than willing to interpret their broad guidelines to include a discussion forum and document repository, it is demonstrably inevitable that the Government’s own list is bound to be exposed itself at some point in the future. The Government would serve the country well by sparing themselves, and us, this embarrassment,” the group says.

“The spin is starting to wear thin. It can no longer be denied that the blacklist targets a huge range of material that is legal and even uncontroversial. Politically controversial material will be blocked, as we have seen today. As time goes on, pressure will only mount on the Government to expand the list, while money and effort are poured into an enormous black box that will neither help kids nor stem the flow of illegal material.”

Australia has never had a bill of rights and does not have guaranteed liberties in the constitution. However, the liberty of free speech has always been assumed and exercised.

It is alarming that our government has now clamped down on the capacity for people to access information and discuss ideas.

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Comments

2 Responses to “Censorship threatens freedom”

  1. Ebony Jackson on March 23rd, 2009 6:45pm

    Not being able to comment, disagree, choose…

    Now that has to be worse than the pain of a hot potato in your mouth!

    What a kill joy, bland time we are going to have….we are all going to choke over being nice.

  2. Bill S. on April 1st, 2009 1:12am

    Thanks Ebony for that gem of wisdom……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… I think!!!

    Michael and his colleagues go on about ‘freedom’ of this, that or the other and I agree, freedom is beautiful in a beautiful world; perfect in a perfect world. But ‘hands up’ those who think that this is a perfect world…. Not me and ‘not by a long chalk’ ( Pommie expression)

    The Stock Exchange’ and the finance markets had freedom…… and look at what has happened: the world is in a ‘once in an hundred years’ crisis. I’m no schollar, but the right level of freedom is a very arguable point. Pick two extreme points of referrence. Total subservience – total freedom. Thankfully I have experienced neither and don’t expect to any time soon. Getting it right is the trick.

    Should we assume that the media are the guardians of freedom? There are many examples of good quality media and I believe that I like the media; I enjoy the media, but I don’t have rose coloured spectacles.

    No, I don’t need or expect freedom. Give me discipline and order any time; every time. It’s a big ask though. Greed is the new religion.

    Take, for example, the chappie that sprawled fake pictures of Pauline Hanson all over his tawdry newspaper. “What a prize prat.” And where are the investigative journalists these days???

    I believe that if the media wasn’t so irresponsible with the freedom that they already have, then they might have a lot more of it.

    Bill

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