censorship - the new australian pledge of allegience

rc-am rcollins at netlink.com.au
Fri May 28 08:14:49 PDT 1999



>Angela, cd you give us a bit more detail on the precise content
>of the legislation.

the short version is that it brings internet communications under the auspices of the censorship board [1], and, further, makes it illegal to post stuff onto the internet (which by all accounts includes email lists) that have an adult classification. (already, it is illegal in australia to sell or distribute computer games which have an adult classification, btw.)

hence, a blanket has been thrown around speech that parallels the blanket thrown over increasingly privatised entities (such as prisons*, govt tendering for many services) which are ruled by commercial confidentiality laws.

[1] it may appear that all that's being targeted is 'porn' (hence the prominence of the porn industry in the opposition), but that is not really the case since the changes to the print and film censorship laws made over six (?) years ago. then, the laws were changed to make it illegal to publish anything which was deemed to incite illegality, and the definition of obscenity has been broadened. given the range of things which are illegal, including for instance the effective removal of the right to strike, it is now very easy, under these laws, to prosecute the publication of material calling for a strike. this was the case for print media, but has now been extended to internet communications. moreover, it confines the decision as to what is illegal to the decisions of a tribunal appointed by the govt (the classifications board), which has recently been restructured to include more reps of the 'community', still appointed by govt - and it should be obvious what this means. courts can appeal decisions, and charges are laid by the director of public prosecutions, but they are increasingly restrained to deciding on the technicalities of the classification decision rather than the merits of the case, much like in refugee and immigration matters.

hope that's clearer.

for more info, and for the details of the legislation, see

http://www.efa.org.au/Campaigns/alert99.html http://rene.efa.org.au/liberty/debate1a.html#DCITA99 http://www.anatomy.usyd.edu.au/danny/freedom/ http://rene.efa.org.au/liberty/ http://www.efa.org.au/Campaigns/may28/index.html http://www.efa.org.au/Campaigns/may28/index.html

also, yahoo australia news will most likely have links to news items running for now.

Angela --- rcollins at netlink.com.au

*the state of Victoria, where I live, has the highest numbers of prisoners on private prisons than anywhere in the world - over 50%.



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