We may have a new government but it looks like they’re going to be just as painfully conservative in some areas as the last lot. On New Year’s Eve (nice sneaky date for it) the communications minister Stephen Conroy announced a plan to filter internet content at the ISP level. This despite the fact that every computer-savvy person knows it just won’t work. Complaints that the plan was repressing free speech was met with this comment:
“Labor makes no apologies to those that argue that any regulation of the internet is like going down the Chinese road,” he said.
“If people equate freedom of speech with watching child pornography, then the Rudd-Labor Government is going to disagree.”
I can only roll my eyes in despair at that kind of statement. CP is so often used as the tool of censorship, it’s endlessly frustrating.
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Meanwhile, Adultshop.com lost its appeal in its attempt to make X-rated (sexually explicit) adult videos legal throughout Australia.
This opinion piece sums it up well and offers this depressing comment:
This court case has, for the first time, shed light on how the offensiveness test is applied to sexually explicit material in Australia. In the past, it has always been assumed that a majority needed to be offended. What the court has confirmed is in fact the opposite: that a minority will suffice.
A depressing start to the year.
I am outraged over this court ruling in Australia. The government and the courts are full of pro-censorship demagogues that only trample on constitutional freedoms. Hopefully, my fellow Americans will boycott Australia to protest this ruling.
Um, Jovan, the last thing we Australians would want is a boycott by Americans.
Our constitution doesn’t guarantee freedom of speech which is why the government can get away with this sort of censorship.