Australian Government’s attempt to gag ISP filter critic backfires
October 24, 2008 – 7:02 amBreaking: SMH has revealed how Belinda Dennett, a policy adviser for Senator Conroy, tried to ‘bully’ Internode Network Engineer Mark Newton into keeping quiet with his criticisms of the Government’s clean feed proposal.
Newton wrote on Whirlpool earlier this week that he had received personal attacks from Conroy’s office, but didn’t mention what they were.
According to SMH, Dennett wrote an email to Internet Industry Association board member Carolyn Dalton in an attempt to pressure Newton into reining in his dissent.
“In your capacity as a board member of the IIA I would like to express my serious concern that a IIA member would be sending out this sort of message. I have also advised [IIA chief executive] Peter Coroneos of my disappointment in this sort of irresponsible behaviour ,” the email, seen by the Herald, read.
It is understood the email was accompanied by a phone call demanding that the message be passed on to senior Internode management.
Newton said he found the bullying “outrageous” and Senator Conroy was “misusing his influence as a Commonwealth Minister to intimidate a private dissenting citizen into silencing his political views”.
A spokesman for Senator Conroy said Newton’s accusation that the Government was promoting child abuse was “disappointing and irresponsible”. He said the purpose of the email was “to establish whether Mr Newton’s views were consistent with the IIA position”.
As ‘disappointing and irresponsible’ as Senator Conroy implying Senator Scott Ludlam supported access to child pornography? Moses didn’t miss it either:
Ironically, Senator Conroy has himself accused critics of his filtering policy of supporting child pornography – including Greens Senator Scott Ludlam in Senate Estimates this week.
More on that in last night’s blog post.
Newton says their explanation is beneath contempt. He writes on WP this morning that ‘Mr Conroy, Belinda Dennett, and Tim Marshall have been reading this forum for weeks, and they know perfectly well that my opinions are just that: my opinions. It simply isn’t credible that they’d attribute my views to the IIA.’ He says Conroy is a total disgrace.
I agree. To accuse those who oppose (which must now be bordering on 21 million Australians) as being pro child pornography is not only offensive, it’s an insult to those people who have suffered at the hand of an abuser.
Hey Mr Rudd. You see all this publicity? It ain’t the good type.
Update: Read my opinion article The high price of internet filtering at ABC News Online.
10 Responses to “Australian Government’s attempt to gag ISP filter critic backfires”
Wow, that pretty amazing. So not only will the filter make you feel like you’re living China, Conroy has gone an extra step by trying to silence any critics. Maybe he can send out the tanks for any future protests. Has Conroy set a precedent here? I’ve never heard of a politician taking this step before. I wasn’t going to write a letter to the Senator as I thought a letter to my local member would be enough, however this has changed everything. I’m just going to have to assume that when I do, his staffers will ring up my employer to threaten my job.
By Matthew on Oct 24, 2008
When I sent my personalised letters to various representatives (as suggested by No Clean Feed,http://nocleanfeed.com/takeaction.html) I included my name and address, it seems this may not have been a good idea. I am now having nightmares about being marched into a Gulag, the Government must be trying to find a use for those migrant dentention centres
By Stevian on Oct 24, 2008
I just saw a related article in Fairfax’s WAToday.com.au. Seems that *this* kind of censoring has made coverage. Pity it had to come out this way but it definitely would make people more aware of the situation.
By Anthony on Oct 24, 2008
Surely the Minister should face some action over this?
By Sean the Blogonaut on Oct 24, 2008
If this comes in, I will seek asylum in a free country. Even though I love Australia, the state of affairs at the moment show that dictators have taken over and are taking everything away from us. They have no concern about what the people want, only what they want.
By Julie on Oct 29, 2008
well, what do we do?
does somebody have a plan?
if not, like julie, i will also have to travel north to find freedom like a runaway slave.
By austroweb on Nov 2, 2008
This filter is undoubtedly childish and impractical.
Surely it would be a good idea to have a warning on the front page, similar to pornography sites?
“This site contains explicit images/language… blah blah blah”
Google has a safesearch feature, which can block explicit images/text. Wouldn’t this be the optimal alternative, instead of ridiculous censorship?
By denbeigh2000 on Jan 2, 2009