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December 01, 2005

Quaint, it ain't

The notion that anyone could be carted off to jail these days for sedition seems faintly preposterous -- almost in the same league as being transported as a convict to Australia for nicking someone's hanky. But we're there with the anti-terror laws. Far from taking us back to the 1950s, John Howard seems hell bent on going even further back in time -- to the 1850s, the 1750s ... back to when it was a very serious crime to rubbish the government. What has happened here, that things should have got to this point? The Gilbert + Tobin Centre of Public Law (http://www.gtcentre.unsw.edu.au/) provides a detailed guide to the government’s proposals in its publication "Briefing on sedition offences in the Anti-Terrorism Bill 2005". It's at http://www.sisr.net/apo/SeditionBriefing05.pdf. Be informed.
Posted by belinda at 09:08 AM | Comments (0)

July 02, 2003

Libel cover

Bloggers who republish potentially libellous information gleaned elsewhere have been protected from being sued by a new court ruling in the US. According to Online Journalism Review, "The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled on June 24th that First Amendment protections against libel will be extended to information that is republished through outlets like e-mail lists and weblogs." Wired News has the story at http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,59424,00.html.
Posted by belinda at 10:10 AM | Comments (0)

Letting the good stuff through

Most of us would be happy to see child pornography blocked online but a too-tight regulatory system would be bad for freedom of speech. Reporters Without Borders have produced a new report, "The Internet Under Surveillance Obstacles To The Free Flow Of Information Online", to examine these issues. Vint Cerf's introduction to the 151-page report on the RSF site (http://www.rsf.org/) states: "Free citizens must exercise due diligence to assure that their governments are not hiding political censorship behind a putative moral facade". Find out about the report at http://www.rsf.org/rubrique.php3?id_rubrique=378report and find the report itself in PDF at http://www.rsf.org/IMG/pdf/doc-2236.pdf. You can also read country-specific sections. Australia's is at http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=7233.
Posted by belinda at 10:06 AM | Comments (0)