Censorsdyne launched as Children’s groups oppose filter (but Conroy says they’re wrong)
July 9, 2009 – 8:44 pmGetUp! has officially launched Censordyne, an ad and website campaign combo to help stop the Government from introducing Internet censorship in Australia. The group hopes to show the ad on Qantas flights in August when politicians are on flights to Canberra as Parliament resumes.
Watch here:
Children’s welfare groups Save the Children and the National Children’s & Youth Law Centre joined GetUp! in the campaign, issuing a joint statement (PDF):
We argue that the tens of millions of dollars that such a scheme will cost should instead be diverted to appropriate child protection authorities and police to prevent the abuse of children, and towards effective community-based education strategies that give children and parents the skills to protect themselves.
Further, PC-level filtering software should be promoted to and provided to parents that wish to protect their children from inappropriate internet content.
The Australian Library and Information Association, Civil Liberties Australia, Liberty Victoria, National Association for the Visual Arts, NSW Council for Civil Liberties, QLD Council for Civil Liberties and Dr Alex Byrne FALIA, University Librarian, UTS, also signed the statement.
Senator Conroy’s office responded, saying GetUp’s campaign misrepresents the Government’s position:
“For its last campaign on the issue, GetUp! falsely claimed that any form of filtering would slow internet speeds by 87 percent,” the statement said.
“Now it resorts to spurious claims about the future expansion of the list of content that may be filtered.
“The Government regards freedom of speech as very important and the Government’s cyber-safety policy is in no way designed to curtail this.”
Restricting the access of Australian Internet users to legal content is certainly an attack on freedom of speech.
With respect to the Internet filtering trial currently underway, IT News today reported that Senator Conroy said it was too early to determine how or if the Government’s policy direction on filtering might shift as a result of the trial. The final report on the trial will likely be available in September.
16 Responses to “Censorsdyne launched as Children’s groups oppose filter (but Conroy says they’re wrong)”
“The Government regards freedom of speech as very important”
They sure do. It’s fairly inconvenient.
By Simon on Jul 9, 2009
Instead of wasting well over $100 million of our money on a dodgy filter, why don’t they just go the Nth Korean way, cut the cables & switch the whole damn thing off.
Not techie hassles, would save us taxpayers a big lot of money and bonus, I’d get my real world life back lol.
By Daniel on Jul 9, 2009
I can see no sense in the government’s actions. I can only presume that they are dragging this out as a possibility for an issue at the next election.
By Sean the Blogonaut on Jul 9, 2009
I would like to think that this issue would actually hurt the ALP at the next election. It will if I have anything to do with it.
I know that this will be sold to god-fearing fundamentalists and those with a profound fear of the modern world as being “something important to protect the Children/Ourselves/Society” etc, so we are going to have to work hard at making sure the rest of the population is aware of the reality of the situation.
By Sam D on Jul 10, 2009
“The Government regards freedom of speech as very important”
That says it all, doesn’t it? Not “essential”, “non-negotiable” or “the bedrock of our democracy”, just “very important”. Makes it sound like an optional extra, a thing it’d be nice to have if it wasn’t too much trouble. Terrifying to think that’s how Conroy sees it.
By Tim Richards on Jul 10, 2009
Not happy about Get-Up using an advertisement for about Australian Internet censorship to cross promote the Soros/CIA/MI6/Mossad campaign to destablize Iran and de-legitimie its electoral process.
It’s not unexpected, but it is tasteless and should not pass without comment. The remarks in the ad about Iran are gratuitous, to say the least.
There’s more evidence of election fraud in the 2004 US election than in Iran’s recent contest. A lot more. See Robert Kennedy Jnr’s Rolling Stone article, for exapmple:
http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/10432334/was_the_2004_election_stolen
If Australians who oppose Internet censorship are to have faith in Get Up representing our interests, Get Up needs to clean up its act.
Context is crucial. This is a time when there’s a co-ordinated push to whip up anti-Iran hysteria and rationalize yet another unprovoked armed attack against a sovereign nation. At such a time, unnecessary sneering at the legitimacy of Iran’s recent election is repulsive.
Personally, I’m opposed to Zionism and Anglo-American imperialism, but I don’t expect Get Up to make incidental attacks on Israel, Britain or the USA in advertisements about censorhip in Australia.
Get Up should stop pushing hidden agendas – agendas that have nothing to do with the public interest and everything to do with special interests.
By Syd Walker on Jul 12, 2009
Seriously Syd, what the fuck are you on about now? Seriously, only you could link a passing reference to Iran’s elections in a ad to some bizarre conspiracy theory.
By Matthew on Jul 13, 2009
Matthew, in a short TV advertisement, every word is very carefully chosen. If you don’t know that, you know little about the advertising industry.
The Get-up ad promotes two key ideas: (a) the Australian Government’s censorship plans for the Internet are silly (b) the elections in Iran were rigged.
Do you think that’s mere accident? Or are you happy about the cross-promotion of two quite different campaigns?
I understand that in the circles in which Get Up people and their ad industry friends move, such views about the Iranian elections are so commonplace and universally accepted that no-one may have thought much about it. That’s quite possible.
If so, I would like to correct their complacent certainty.
It’s one thing to swallow western mainstream propaganda without exercising one’s own critical faculties. It’s another to regurgitate it, publicly, whilst pretending to be doing something else.
The final cheek is to ask for public subscription to support this agenda. Yuk.
Why doenn’t Get Up ask for a top up from Soros if they’re running low on cash?
By Syd Walker on Jul 13, 2009
@Syd Walker
The Australian Christian Lobby seemingly agree with you and requests Qantas to review the claims before airing the ads.
http://au.christiantoday.com/article/iran-claims-a-long-way-from-truth-about-protecting-kids-online/6635.htm
“Iran claims a long way from truth about protecting kids online”
The ACL also give tacit approval to R rated and X rated pornography
The ACL is “hopeful the current trial results will show that kids can be protected from X and R rated pornography with an opt in system for adults who wish to view this material”
———-
Now the job for the ACL is sift through the millions of sites on the Internet (several million) and rate them according to the standards of the Australian government.
To put it mildly they don’t have the resources and neither does the government or any of it’s agencies particularly that RC material includes a very broad range of material indeed.
Ownership of bestiality is prohibited in Tasmania and Western Australia and seemingly also New Zealand – but not in New South Wales where it has been sold in selected outlets within this State.
By Bob Bain on Jul 13, 2009
Hi Bob
I wish you were right, but I fear the ACL does not agree with me – not on the basis of the item you’ve cited.
First, the ACL (unlike me) seems to want to restrict showings of the ad.
My preference would be for Get Up to produce a better and more effective ad (without an unnecessary dual focus) – but I’ll settle for simply making the point, when the opportunity arises as it has here, that the Get Up as currently released includes gratuitous (and most likely inaccurate) commentary about the recent Iranian election results.
The ACL’s position is different. It says:
“It would be disappointing if people responding to Get Up’s plea for money were donating thinking Iranian-style censorship is what the Rudd Government had in mind.”
It refers to: “a misleading campaign comparing the Rudd Government’s cyber safety policy with Iranian-style political repression.”
Actually, I think that’s a smart line of attack for the ACL and other proponents of Internet censorship (which, of course, i’m not).
The ACL is probing the ad’s weakest point. The notion that Rudd and co are trying to bring in an Internet censorship so they can rig elections – or turn Australian society into something more akin to Iran – is crap. Most people will see through that crap, whatever their views on the legitimacy of the recent Iranian election.
That’s another reason why the spurious Iran commentary should ideally be taken out of the Get Up ad, if it is serve its primary overt goal effectively: building mass opposition to the Australian Government’s plans for mandatory Internet censorship.
By Syd Walker on Jul 13, 2009
One Whirlpoolian has reported that the Censordyne ad was shown on the Sky News channel this morning.
By Eddie on Jul 13, 2009
Syd, really now, do you honestly think the Get Up campaign is some sort of “cross promotion to destabilise Iran”. It’s those kinds of comments from you that make me and others not take anything you say seriously at all. I don’t care if the election were rigged or not in Iran. I really don’t. The media did report that people said they were, but it’s really hard to prove and may be sour grapes from the opposition (and the media reported that too). The advert is about censorship here. I don’t why you are focusing on such a trivial, one line of dialogue in the ad. Anyway ACL is talking about “Iranian-style censorship”, NOT election rigging. And the Labor party’s censorship plan with a secret list with no oversight is practically the same as China’s and Iran’s. I could really do without the insane conspiracy theories. Save them for your blog.
By Matthew on Jul 13, 2009
Regarding Qantas rejection of the Censordyne ad this would be in accordance with general airline policy – given that anythng which might cause inflight panic or disruption will be rejected. This includes publications (for instance) that carry articles on the failures of air safety including accounts of air line disasters.
It could be that the word Iran in a political context may create dangers to staff and passengers if it arouses anger and hostility.
Qantas are not censoring the ad. They are simply being cautious as they have to be.
By Bob Bain on Jul 14, 2009
Hi Matthew.
You wrote: “The advert is about censorship here.”
I agree. That’s what it should be about. But it isn’t, as I pointed out.
He further wrote: “I could really do without the insane conspiracy theories. Save them for your blog.”
I’m sorry Matthew, whoever you are. I had no idea you had proprietorial rights over this blog’s comments. Thanks anyway for your tacit permission to publish what i like on my own blog. Very liberal of you in the circumstances, in view of your evident displeasure.
By Syd Walker on Jul 14, 2009
I still have NOT seen this ad screened on free-to-air TV.
I wonder why.
Censorship, anyone?
By Max T on Sep 4, 2009