Australian Censorship

by **Jai** » August 18, 2010, 6:49 pm

It’s been over 10 years since I lived (as an immigrant in Australia) although I go back in holiday mode to see my children every year--- so when talking to an American friend about the censorship of WikiLeaks and other sites by the Thai government –I was a little taken back when he pointed out that not only was WikiLeaks banned permanently for viewing by all Australians, so were so many other Political sites. Where as Thailand has just banned it for a cartoon.
I didn’t think I could be quite that much out of touch---& he must be mistaken, so I jumped a proxy & went to read The Wiki report--- “Is the Internet Filter Australia's Berlin Wall”
I can’t give the Wiki link of course….. But the report is accessible---by Date or Author December 17, 2009 Gavin Heaton.

A little of it is below for other Australians who are as out of touch as me on the new Internet filter laws that will be brought in after the election –(if the A.L.P wins) ---and what are already in.

[i]“The internet filter proposed by Senator Stephen Conroy threatens all this. Thus far, the government have focused their arguments around the highly emotive issue of child pornography. There is no question that access to this sort of material should be prohibited. However, only 32% of the sites listed on the Australian Communications and Media Authority’s “blacklist” are related to child pornography. This means that a whopping 68% of sites on the list are there for other reasons – political, ideological, etc – and at the whim of the government in power at the time.
Moreover, the blacklist is NOT available for public scrutiny or independent review.

A copy of the blacklist was released on the Wikileaks website earlier in 2009 (a site which is, itself, blacklisted).

• In this radio interview with Latika Bourke, former High Court Justice, Michael Kirby suggests that the internet filter may well be the “thin edge of the wedge” when it comes to controlling what the Australian population reads, what it has access to and therefore, how it can behave online.
As pointed out by this article in the Sydney Morning Herald, content which is legal for viewing and consumption will also be filtered. This includes information which, while sometimes mildly confrontational, has social and cultural value, including websites which provide:

It would seem that the Australian Government (ALP) of late has been very active in censoring –even reports of censorship in other countries when related to the internet---as Stated by WikiLeaks

For anyone interested in some---but far from all-- of the sites the Australian Government does not think Australians should be allowed to view. They are listed as banned by Wikileaks Site
Under …

by **old-timer** » August 18, 2010, 6:58 pm

WTF as any of this got to do with Udon Thani ?

Jack and bung dung or whatever his name is might be slightly interested, laardvark doesn't count because he lives in OZ and has never been to UT.

OT..........top reporter...... $\:D/$

by **jackspratt** » August 18, 2010, 6:59 pm

Jai I think you may be on very shaky grounds providing the lists from wikileaks of sites banned by the Oz government.

While I have no truck with Senator Conroy and his reactionary, right wing attempts at censorship, what you have linked to is, inter alia, the keys to an Aladin's Cave of child porn.

Hopefully the mods will delete it asap. [-X

by **Jai** » August 18, 2010, 7:09 pm

Jack I think that Aladin found more then 32% of gold in the cave...........Would I be on shaky ground if i provided sites banned by the North Korean Government

Edit......Just realized what you were saying Jack......do you mean that you have been to the banned sites and that is all that is there....? if so....yup lets take it out.
But One of the sites is Wikileaks..

by **BobHelm** » August 18, 2010, 7:40 pm

I have moved this to World News.
I have deleted all the links to web sites,

Maybe draconian by me, to which I am sorry, but I do not have the inclination to check out Jack's claims & I do not believe that the removal of the sites stops the discussion!!

by **Jai** » August 18, 2010, 7:49 pm

They are not links by the way Bob

I did go and check out Jacks claim Bob-- ----while not all of them as the list is very very large......sure there are explicit sites there. But there are many others that make me wonder why the government is banning them,......Forced news, was the first I came across......showing you how to get free satellite signal....Sure doing that is illegal... should reading about doing that be illegal in Australia. Assisted Suicide was another site---well you do get put in prison if you are successful with that---should reading about it be banned to Australians.

Take the post down if you wish Bob......... its neither here or there for me.

by **BobHelm** » August 18, 2010, 8:01 pm

I will not take it down Jai.
Personally I think internet censorship is a reasonable topic for discussion.
I understand that Governments claim (& not just the Australian one) that it is vital to stop certain activities - child pornography & terrorism are two - I am still personally unsure that allowing the Government to decide what its' citizens see is an especially good idea. Far too much possibility and temptation of using it as a method of control.
I personally think monitoring site visitors & then prosections of any law breakers is a far better method!!

by **jackspratt** » August 18, 2010, 8:46 pm

I am happy for the debate to continue - minus the sites, which do include kiddie porn, otherwise they would not have been on Conroy's black list.

Unfortunately, as Jai says, the list includes other sites which are open to question, including by myself - and a pox on Conroy, and the Labor government, for including those sites, but hiding them from debate. Hence wikileaks.

Yes Jai, I have looked at a number of the sites, and I am alarmed by what is included (but not the child porn). To subject adult Australians to censorship of sites that show small breasted (though clearly adult) women, or peeing, or advocacy of suicide etc, is a travesty by a party (Labor) which has professed to represent a "liberal" Australia (not to be confused with the right wing, reactionary war mongers who mistakenly call themselves the Liberal (sic) Party).

The main thing that concerns me is that the listed sites are "secret", and therefore not subject to any debate. If you don't know what is there (and it is illegal to find out), how can the Australian public make up their mind if it is appropriate.

Don Chipp will be rolling in his grave.

by **MALC** » August 18, 2010, 9:43 pm

old timer ur wrong again. yes ardvark lives in oz.but he has a drink with me in justins bar and eats in the irish clock.

by **Jai** » August 18, 2010, 10:09 pm

There were no links to sites Jack as Bob can confirm–in Thailand at the moment Wiki is also banned--my mistake was to underline & blue them

The sites that are blocked are just a tiny number in what the labor government wishes to block with their new internet filter law, if they become the government after Saturday—they have tried to keep the lid on this by banning news sites like Wikileaks from giving out the figures -- well it succeeded with me—I was completely surprised by it. If it had come from the “Mad Monk’s” side, then I suppose it wouldn’t have been so surprising, as to see it from the ALP.
Conroy like Blair seem to be the new labor---straight from university to a political job and a Senate seat at 30 odd. Happy to break his own state laws by having Surrogate children while proposing draconian stuff like this.

Anyway as Old Timer said when I first posted it.……….WTF has this to do with Udon.

Absolutely nothing O.T, so I’ll drop off it.

by **Bandung_Dero** » August 19, 2010, 5:57 am

old-timer wrote:WTF as any of this got to do with Udon Thani ?

Jack and bung dung or whatever his name is might be slightly interested, laardvark doesn't count because he lives in OZ and has never been to UT.

OT..........top reporter...... $\:D/$

That's BanDung_Dero you ignorant olde *******. AND personally I don't give a toss about Australian censorship and the particular site referred too.

by **jingjai** » August 21, 2010, 8:26 pm

On another censorship issue...
I guess the message here is: don't f**k with The Pentagon or The CIA? :-k

If you can't prosecute the site...prosecute the messenger?:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/w ... claim.html

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange facing arrest over 'rape' claim
Julian Assange, the founder of the Wikileaks website, is facing a warrant for his arrest over an accusation of rape.

By Colin Freeman
Published: 11:48AM BST 21 Aug 2010

The warrant was issued by prosecutors in Sweden, where the Australian-born internet activist was on a visit last week.

"We can confirm that he's wanted. He was charged last night - the allegation is suspected rape," said Karin Rosander, director of communications at the national prosecutor's office.

"One is rape and one is molestation," she said, without giving details. During his visit to Sweden, Assange held a press conference where he announced that his whistleblower website was intending to publish further secret military documents on the war in Afghanistan.

The website has already published thousands of pages of intelligence information, infuriating the US government, which claims the disclosures may have compromised military security and put informants' lives in danger.

Supporters of Mr Assange believe he has been the victim of a smear campaign to discredit him. The Wikileaks Twitter page dismissed the assault claims, which first appeared in Sweden's Expressen newspaper, as "dirty tricks".

It said: "Expressen is a tabloid; No one here has been contacted by Swedish police. Needless to say this will prove hugely distracting."

Mr Assange, whose current whereabouts are unknown, also sent an email to the Swedish daily newspaper, Dagens Nyheter, saying that he had not yet been contacted by police.

"Why these accusations are popping up right now is an interesting question. I have not been contacted by police. These allegations are false," he said.

Mr Assange has close ties with Sweden, where WikiLeaks has said it keeps some of its servers. The purpose of his visit there was also to apply for a publishing certificate to make sure the website, which has servers in Sweden, can take full advantage of Swedish laws protecting whistle-blowers.

He also spoke at a seminar hosted by the Christian faction of the opposition Social Democratic party and announced he would write bimonthly columns for a left-wing Swedish newspaper.

US officials have called the Wikileaks disclosures, including more than 70,000 documents detailing the war in Afghanistan, as one of the biggest security breaches in American military history.

The Pentagon said this month it would be the "height of irresponsibility" if WikiLeaks went through with a new threat to publish outstanding documents it had on the Afghan war.

It wants the site to expunge all classified material from the Internet and return the material it had to the US government.

News of the warrant came as the Wall Street Journal reported that Pentagon lawyers have concluded that Wikileaks acted illegally in disclosing the military documents, and are now considering possible criminal charges.

Several officials told the newspaper that the Defence and Justice departments were now exploring legal options for prosecuting Mr Assange and others involved on grounds that they encouraged the theft of government property.

Prosecuting Wikileaks would be a complex procedure, however, and expose the Obama administration to accusations of trying to stifle legitimate journalism.

by **Aardvark** » August 22, 2010, 5:51 pm

MALC wrote:old timer ur wrong again. yes ardvark lives in oz.but he has a drink with me in justins bar and eats in the irish clock.

Thanks Mal, don't worry about the sexpat keyboard commando , I dout we will ever see him in person. His profile says he is 65 years old, but he claims to have a young family and talks like a 40's something Space Cadet :mrgreen:

See you in three weeks my old Mate, and if he's got the guts Young Timer knows where to find me

Y/T $\:D/$

by **Aardvark** » August 22, 2010, 5:57 pm

Sorry, that was off Topic

I personally didn't know about these filters etc, not good news imo, although Kiddie pictures etc I agree with, get rid of them :evil:

by **jackspratt** » August 22, 2010, 8:59 pm

A welcome update from the Swedish Prosecutor's office:

Assange no longer wanted

Chief prosector Eva Finné has come to the desicion that Julian Assange is not suspected of rape. Considering that, Assange is no longer arrested in his absence.

Eva Finné will make no other comments during Saturday night.

http://www.aklagare.se/In-English/

Would one be paranoid in seeing the dark hand of Langley/Arlington as being behind these accusations? :-k

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