Australia’s 20 Worst Cases of Censorship and Moral Outrage in 2008
20. You can’t put a vagina on a female sculpture At least not in Queensland. A nude female sculpture (with a vagina) at a beach side park in Bribie Island had Moreton Bay Regional Council mayor Allan Sutherland pink with embarrassment. The council removed the statue because it was not their job to ‘deliberately go...
Conroy and Landfeldt respond to secret report article, trial delayed
Senator Conroy has responded to an article published on the front page of The Sydney Morning Herald which revealed that the Government has sat on a report that labeled mandatory ISP filtering as being fundamentally flawed since February. Senator Conroy also has announced the live trial has been delayed until mid-January. Here is the entirety...
Denmark’s net censorship blacklist published on WikiLeaks
Just two days after a list of URLs on Thailand’s Internet censorship blacklist were published on WikiLeaks.org, the contents of Denmark’s blacklist has also been published on the same site. According to WikiLeaks the list contains 3863 sites blocked by Danish ISPs participating in Denmark’s censorship scheme as of February 2008. They write in their...
High-level report which found filtering flawed kept secret
Update 23/12/08: Thanks to front page pressure on The Sydney Morning Herald, the DBCDE has been forced to release this report. Download the PDF. I’ve published Conroy’s response here. Asher Moses at Fairfax reports that a ‘high-level report’ on ISP filtering given to the Federal Government in February was kept secret. The report, which was...
Filtering not about freedom of speech, P2P filtering to be tested: Conroy
In the latest topic open for comment on the DBCDE blog, Promoting a civil and confident society online, Senator Conroy says the Government does not view the debate about mandatory ISP-level content filter as an argument about freedom of speech. He also reveals that ‘technology that filters peer-to-peer and BitTorrent traffic does exist and it...
Thailand’s secret Internet blacklist published online
WikiLeaks has published a list of over 1,200 websites recently added to Thailand’s Internet censorship blacklist. Wikileaks says every blocked site has the internally noted reason of “lese majeste” — criticizing the King — however, it is obvious that many sites were blocked for quite different reasons. It would appear, in fact, that the judiciary...
DBCDE still evaluating filtering trial applications, SAGE-AU won’t support
ISP’s who applied to take part in the filter trial have still not heard from the DBCDE on whether their application has been approved, despite the department wanting to start the trial on December 24. A spokesperson for Senator Conroy says they are still evaluating the applications. More at News.com.au. Do we really need anymore...
Eat my shorts: More on The Simpsons and Chris Illingworth cases
Mark Pesce has written an excellent article over at his usual haunt, ABC Unleashed, titled Simpsons and sensibility. It’s a look at the Simpsons Porn case which made headlines last week (court document available here as a PDF). ABC took their time publishing it so a lot of what Mark says has been discussed elsewhere...
Filtering wrap up: Bloggers wipe out McMenamin, Watchdog
Jon Seymour and Stilgherrian replied swiftly to Bernadette McMenamin’s (Child Wise) sickening accusation that Australians who protest mandatory ISP filtering are advocating child pornography. Jon writes: Bernadette McMenamin’s business is moral panic. She has a vested interest in it. From her point of view, an ineffective filter is actually a very good thing, because it...
Protesters advocating child pornography: Bernadette McMenamin
Bernadette McMenamin, CEO of child protection organisation ChildWise, says those aware of the facts regarding mandatory ISP filtering are advocating child pornography. She told Australian IT that people are growing hysterical about misinformation that is being spread about the filter. “Instead of hearing hysteria from the minority we need to hear from the Government and...
Brisbane net censorship protest report and photos
There may have been some hiccups, like not being able to hear the speakers on the megaphone and typos in the information pamphlets, but Brisbane’s rally against mandatory ISP filtering did what it set out to do: generate some heat and raise some awareness. Two hundred to three hundred people converged on Brisbane Square, opposite...
Spiked Online ramps up UK coverage of Aussie filter
Spiked Online, a UK publication with the modest ambition of making history as well as reporting it, has published three articles on Australia’s net censorship plan. Guy Rundle gives a detailed run down of the proposal and its conservative connections in his article, Tear down Australia’s Great Firewall Reef (c’mon Guy, it’s Great Barrier Web). ...
