Gene Detectives under fire

Based on an article from the Daily Mail

Nutters have hit out at the BBC over a “sick” and “exploitive” game show-style programme that reunites long-lost relatives.

Gene Detectives, BBC1’s latest breakfast time show, has received 29 formal complaints whilst more than 100 'disgruntled' viewers have registered their dismay on the Corporation’s Points of View forum.

The two-week, ten episode series, puts members of the public in touch with unknown relatives following a series of humiliating “trials”. From a shortlist of three possible family members, the contestant is asked to guess who they think they are related to before being told, during the grand finale, whether or not they are right. While the correct relative is reunited with the contestant, the other two applicants are sent home, and told that they do not have a long-lost family member.

John Beyer, director of mediawatch-uk, called on the BBC to pull the programme. He said: This is obviously causing offence to viewers and that plays no part in the BBC’s remit. I think it’s a mistake to trivialise such a serious issue, and to turn it into to some sort of quiz show is clearly a mistake – one that is not ringing well with viewers. For that reason, and with such levels of complaint, the BBC needs to review the programme – and not re-commission it.

   
Moving onto to federal court to decide if porn can be rated R18+

Based on an article from Australian IT see full article

The pornographic film industry will tomorrow begin a creative Federal Court action to have adult films that depict actual sex between consenting adults stripped of their X-rating.

The industry argues that such films should be rated R18+, meaning they could legally be sold in all Australian states and shown in cinemas.

Lawyers for AdultShop.com will argue that the federal Government's Classification Review Board routinely applies an X-rating to sex films that would not offend a "reasonable adult".

The OFLC is required to take "community standards" into account when classifying films but classifies most sex films as X18+, meaning they can be sold only in the ACT and Northern Territory and shown only in licensed premises in those territories.

Adultshop.com CEO Malcolm Day, whose publicly listed company is valued at $9 million, said standards had changed since the guidelines were drafted in 1984: Most reasonable adults would not regard an adult film, depicting sex between two consenting adults, with no violence, as offensive.

The test case is the decision in November by the OFLC and confirmed by the review board to give an X18+ rating to the film Viva Erotica, which contains close-ups of sex between men and women and between two women, but no violence or fetishes.

Day said an ACNeilsen survey conducted on Adultshop.com's behalf in September showed that 70% cent of adults were not offended by explicit sex films. But the review board said in its Viva Erotica decision that many would be offended by even the most fleeting of sexually explicit scenes.

AdultShop.com will present the court with an opinion from University of Sydney media academic Catharine Lumby, who argues most Australians are more concerned about violence than about sex.

It will also call on Alan McKee from the Queensland University of Technology to argue consumers of sexually explicit materials in Australia can fairly be described as reasonable adults: A film involving various forms of actual sexual activity, including close-ups, but with no violence would be unlikely to cause offence.

The Australian Family Association, which has been accorded friend-of-the-court status, will submit that a legal victory by AdultShop would render the X classification meaningless. Straight pornography would be classified R. Porn would be able to be sold through ordinary video outlets and adult shops

   
Top Gear deserves award for effective and persistent nutter baiting

From The Guardian

The BBC has received complaints after deciding to screen a mock rail crash on Top Gear despite Friday's Cumbrian train derailment in which one person died.

The segment saw presenter Jeremy Clarkson leave a people carrier on a level crossing in Lincolnshire as an unmanned 107-tonne diesel engine crashed into it.

The BBC said this morning that 43 people had complained while Ofcom said it had received three calls.

A BBC spokesman said it was agreed following discussions to screen the crash with a warning beforehand: We did think about it and that is why we decided to make an announcement before the programme to alert viewers to the fact there was an item about rail safety. He added that Network Rail had also been consulted and agreed the segment should go ahead.

The Network Rail deputy chief executive, Iain Coucher, said on Friday the segment was important in raising awareness about the dangers of level crossings: Though light-hearted in tone, the message is serious - don't run the risk at level crossings. Our people worked hard for months to safely plan this staged event and the results are breathtaking.

Top of the league in gun murder It is interesting to note that Thailand make a particular point of censoring guns from films & TV. Just possibly there may be other factors at play beyond media portrayal! From Nation Master Murders involving firearms (per million of population over a period of 2 years) South Africa: 720 Colombia: 510 Thailand: 312   Zimbabwe: 49 Mexico: 34 Belarus: 32 Costa Rica: 31 United States: 28 Uruguay: 25 Lithuania: 23 (32nd UK: 1)

Beyer takes topical opportunity for a rant

Thanks to Dan who spotted a Mediawatch-uk press release:

In the light of recent shootings in South London and the “Gun Summit” at Downing Street last week, John Beyer, Director of mediawatch-uk, is calling upon broadcasters and film makers to embrace a much more socially responsible attitude to their portrayal of the use of firearms in their productions.

We believe that this level of fictional violence shown on television, which is consistent with our findings for the last 12 years, is unacceptable and irresponsible. The people most responsible for promoting a culture of violence in which the criminal use of guns is portrayed more often than any other fictional violence are the film and television industries. From this quarter there has been a deafening silence and certainly no publicly announced undertakings to stop or even reduce the visibility of guns or other offensive weapons. The regulator, Ofcom, too has been silent despite the findings of their own research which states that 56 per cent of people say there is too much violence on television. (The Communications Market 2006, page 269)

In this age of “joined up” government and the trend for multi-agency approaches to problem solution the influence of film and television cannot be ignored nor can the industries remain aloof or beyond criticism for the culture of violence to which they have contributed. We call upon the film and broadcasting regulators to urgently review their film and programme policies, their codes and guidelines and ensure that the depiction of the use of firearms and other offensive weapons is curtailed forthwith. We welcome the emphasis now being placed by politicians upon family life and good role models. However, this must extend to film and television programme makers who must play their part in sustaining citizenship and civil society rather than setting models of behaviour that contribute to society’s problems and undermine attempts to deal with them.

We also call upon the Culture Secretary, Tessa Jowell, to take steps to ensure that the terms of the Communications Act 2003, which states that “material likely to encourage or to incite to crime or to lead to disorder is not included in television or radio services”, are properly enforced in the public interest.

Egypt bow to US request to block satellite channels

From the BBC

Egypt has stopped the transmission of a private Iraqi TV station which glorifies the Sunni insurgency in Iraq.

The United States has privately asked the Egyptian authorities to stop al-Zawraa which is carried on Nilesat, a government-owned TV satellite.

Mishan al-Jaburi, the owner of al-Zawraa says political reasons were behind the Egyptian decision. He accused Egypt of bowing to American pressure to stop carrying al-Zawraa.

The channel shows footage of attacks by Sunni groups against US and Iraqi forces. It also shows images of bloody and mutilated bodies of women and children which it identifies as Sunnis killed by US soldiers and Shia militiamen.

Al-Zawraa is still being carried by Arab Sat, which is jointly owned by all Arab countries.

Texas police raid a Chippendales show

From abc13.com

Texas Police arrested eight Chippendales dancers and three others during the first of three sold out performances accusing them of violating the Lubbock's adult entertainment ordinance.

Officers raided Jake's Sports Cafe about 30 minutes after the show started and the venue was closed. They arrested the venue's manager, the show's promoter and the dancers' manager along with the dancers in front of a disgruntled crowd of women.

Shortly after, several hundred women began chanting, Bring them back, bring them back and the City Council sucks, the City Council sucks.

Authorities say the dancers violated a city ordinance which bars contact between entertainers and patrons. Lt. Greg Stevens of the Lubbock Police said the dancers were simulating sexual positions with audience members.

Comparatively, it's a classy production, said Greg Jackson, Jake's Sports Cafe booking agent, adding that Chippendale dancers do not take off all their clothes.

Somalia to send censors to radio and TV stations

From CPJ

Somalia’s UN-backed transitional government said they would censor three private broadcasters over their coverage of deadly unrest in the capital Mogadishu, according to news reports and local journalists.

At least 12 people died and thousands fled the city on Monday after fierce artillery exchanges between Ethiopian-backed government troops and unknown fighters, according to international news reports. The fighting was the fiercest since the government took Mogadishu from Islamists last December.

The transitional government’s National Security Agency (NSA) ordered the executives of HornAfrik and Shabelle media groups, the two biggest media houses in Mogadishu, and Radio Banadir to stop reporting on government military operations and the flight of civilians from the capital, according to news reports and local journalists.

We were invited and warned to avoid certain news, Radio Banadir Director Ahmed Nur Ali told CPJ. The NSA will provide a written “code of conduct” in the coming days, he said. Officials announced that they would send censors to the stations to edit their news.

   
BBFC award 18 to film targeted at youngsters

From The Guardian

This year's finest British film cannot be seen by its target audience, or many of its young stars, after being given a 18 certificate by the British censors. Shane Meadows' This is England, which is released in April, is the story of a young boy seduced into a world of skinhead racial violence during the early Eighties. The film is based on the director's own experiences.

News of the certification came as the film was about to play to a packed cinema of schoolchildren at a Glasgow film festival last week. Organisers were forced to cancel the screening.

Producer Mark Herbert said: The entire point of the film is a positive one, to show the dangers of bullying, peer pressure and racism to young people. Now with this 18 certificate, we can't do it.'

The BBFC have objected to a scene in which the gang attacks an Asian newsagent, calling him a 'Paki cunt', and to a scene involving menacing violence against a mixed-race boy. We have strong indications that violence when accompanied by vicious racist language is something the public find very hard to accept, says BBFC spokeswoman Sue Clark. We also felt that while the film deals with racism in very subtle and complex ways, it might give out the wrong message to an impressionable audience.

Meadows refused to make any cuts to his film in order to achieve the 15 certificate: This is the film I wanted to make and it's had a great reception at festivals, where it has won awards from young audiences. It seems to speak to them in particular. There's no need for cuts.

Meadows and Herbert have demanded a meeting with the censors and are still hopeful they can persuade them to lower the barrier.

   
Review Board confirm ban on The Peaceful Pill Handbook

From Refused Classification

The Peaceful Pill Handbook has just been banned by the Review Board. Not surprising really, they are only doing what Ruddock, their master, wanted.

Iran closes website showing president watching female dancing

From The Guardian

An Iranian website fiercely critical of the president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has been shut down in an apparent fresh crackdown on anti-government dissent on the internet.

Baztab, a fundamentalist site which has previously accused Ahmadinejad of betraying the Islamic revolution by attending a female dance show, has been closed for acting against the constitution and undermining national unity.

The order coincided with the confirmation of Gholamhossein Elham, who has supported restraints on press freedom, as Iran's new judiciary minister. Elham, previously the government's official spokesman, last year urged prosecutors to pursue news outlets that printed "lies" about Ahmadinejad's government.

His appointment came as the government disclosed new measures to monitor and restrict unofficial news websites.

Baztab is one of Iran's most widely read political sites. It has been a staunch critic of the government's economic policies, which have produced surging inflation and high unemployment. The website also posted video footage purportedly showing Ahmadinejad watching a female dance performance at the recent Asian Games in Qatar, in breach of Iran's prohibition on women dancing in front of men.

The culture and Islamic guidance ministry said: Considering the large amount of such material, [Baztab] was recognised as an illegitimate internet site and its continued activity is illegal and banned.

Access to the site is now blocked on most Iranian internet service providers.

A sample of Kareem's blogging

From MediawatchWatch
See also www.FreeKareem.org

Here is a transcript of one of the articles which got him Abdel Kareem Soliman banged up for 4 years:

The Naked Truth of Islam As I Saw It In Maharam Bey Riots

The Muslims have taken the mask off to show their true hateful face, and they have shown the world that they are at the top of their brutality, inhumanity, and thievery.

They have clearly shown their worst features and have shown that in dealing with others they are not governed by any moral codes.

From what I have seen yesterday of the events at Maharram Beh, which were quite shameful, and have shown me more facts that they have tried to cover over the centuries.

They have indicated that Islam is a religion of peace and forgiveness, but their true face has been uncovered to show barbarism and thievery and fanaticism and not acknowledging others, and attempting to remove them from existence.

Some may think that the actions of the Moslems does not represent Islam and has no relationship with the teachings of Islam that was brought by Mohamed 14 centuries ago, but the truth is that their actions is not different from the Islamic teachings in its original form when it has urged people to deny others and hate them and kill them and take their property, things that they know well but they try to deceive people by falsely defending the teachings of Islam by extremists and they are hiding from the truth and they prefer living a lie.

I have seen with my own eyes the thugs as they break into our Christian brothers’ stores after the whole area of Maharram Beh was completely out of control of the government authorities, and I saw them as they ransack the contents of the store right and left, amidst cheering and shouting extremist Islamic slogans, and I saw them stealing the money from inside the drawers of the cash registers and splitting it among themselves as if it is justified by being owned by what they call the infidels and the worshippers of the cross.

I saw them break into a liquor store owned by a Coptic merchant Labib Lotfy and I saw them smash everything they can get their dirty hands on, including the refrigerator and the scale and the boxes and liquor bottles. I saw some of them stealing liquor bottles so they can get drunk after a hard day’s work against the Coptic infidels.

It is worth mentioning that although some people may think that this Christian-owned liquor store was particularly targeted because the owner is selling the forbidden alcoholic beverages that is forbidden in Islam, but another liquor store in front of the Christian-owned store happens to be owned by a Moslem merchant, and none of the thugs dared to attack, as they did with the Christian-owned store. Now you can see the hateful sectarian actions.

What the Moslems did yesterday in a very vulgar and criminal and horrible way proves beyond the shadow of a doubt that they don’t acknowledge others or their rights of existence or their rights to live with the freedom of expression and also consider them less than them, and these actions should be fought and exterminated for is it right to leave these horrible human beings to do what they want and kill, destroy, steal, and burn??!!

The Islamic teachings that was brought by Mohammed 14 centuries ago should be faced with courage and boldness, we should expose and show its faults and warn humanity of its dangers. We should, even though we are different –look with reason to these teachings that urges people, human beings, to become monsters that don’t know anything in life except killing and looting and plundering and raping and pillaging.

We should stand courageously and boldly against these teachings that became a plague on humanity and is not supported except by extremists like bin Laden and al Zarqawi and al Zawaheeri and the thugs that assaulted our Coptic brothers and burned their homes and stole their properties, and tried to assault their religious men and destroy their churches.

We should take off the religious and sectarian gown and look at matters in a more humane way. We should hold trials to all the acts of terrorism and extremism, that our Islamic history have kept their names and their criminal actions starting with Mohamed ibn Abdullah and his company of murderers like Khalid ibn el Waled and Omar ibn el Khattab and Saad ibn Abbi Waqqas and Moiizah Bin Shaabah and Samra bin Gandab and the kings of Beni Ummaya and Beni al Abbass and al Osman, and ending with the Moslem criminals of the modern day that became more famous than movie stars and singers.

We should show the world the truth of these criminals that unfortunately have become role models for our youth and our children and our women. We should expose their false teachings and show the world that they are a big danger that should be exterminated and removed from its roots.

Before you put on trial the people that are responsible for the crimes that occurred on Black Friday in Maharram Beh, you should first put on trial the dirty teachings that caused them to go on a rampage of stealing and plundering and looting.. put Islam on trial and sentence it and its symbols with a figurative execution so that you can be sure that what happened yesterday will never be repeated again.

For as long as Islam exists on this planet all your efforts to end wars and disputes and upheavals will fail because Islam’s dirty finger will be found behind every catastrophic event to humanity.

   
Ofcom investigating complaints about programme on Islam Channel

From black information link

Last month British-based Islam Channel suddenly suspended its popular current affairs show The Agenda fronted each morning by the prominent journalist and campaigner Yvonne Ridley.

There was no warning or explanation. Days then weeks went by, viewers' complaints and concerns mounted, but the mystery only deepened. Finally, the station relented and issued a very short press release blaming the TV regulator: Due to recent pressure from Ofcom The Agenda has been taken off air until further notice. The statement ended strangely: No further explanation will be given on the topic.

Did Ofcom really kill off The Agenda? A spokesperson for the watchdog confirmed that two complaints had been lodged against the show and were being investigated, but strenuously denied that Ofcom had interfered with the editorial sovereignty of Islam Channel's programme scheduling.

Preventing excessive nudity in Singapore by book banning

From Playfuls

A book featuring images of Asian celebrities has been banned in Singapore because of "excessive nudity," a government minister said.

The book Superstars, by Singaporean photographer Leslie Kee, contains portraits of 300 stars such as Aaron Kwok and Gong Li.

Information, Communications and the Arts Minister Lee Boon Yang said the country's Public Consultative Panel agreed the book should not be allowed to be sold in the conservative city-state.

An explanation for the ban came up in Parliament where a lawmaker asked about the basis for censorship in artistic publications.

In a written reply published in The Straits Times, Lee said current guidelines do allow for nudity in artistic works including photography publications "provided they are suitably depicted."

Superstars featured excessive nudity with photographs showing full frontal nudity, with public hair and genitals clearly visible, Lee said, exceeding the current standards for publications.

Blogger sentenced to 4 years in jail

From The Independent

An Egyptian blogger was sentenced to four years in jail yesterday for articles published on his website.

Abdel Kareem Soliman, 22, a former law student from Alexandria who used the internet alias Kareem Amer, was convicted of inciting hatred of Islam and insulting the President, Hosni Mubarak.

The harsh sentence marked the first time that an Egyptian blogger has been formally prosecuted for an opinion published online. Gamal Eid, part of Soliman's defence team, said: This is a dark day for all who are interested in freedom of expression and belief in Egypt. Four years is too much, we were expecting no more than one year. He is just a student, and hasn't committed any crime - he has just published his opinion.

Soliman was arrested last November, following a complaint by al-Azhar University, his former place of study and Sunni Islam's most important institution. He had referred in his blog to companions of the Prophet Mohamed as "terrorists", to al-Azhar as "the university of terrorism" and to President Mubarak as the "symbol of dictatorship".

Amnesty International said the conviction was a slap in the face for freedom of expression and added that the internet was the new front in the battle between those who want to speak out and those who would stop them.

While the Egyptian government refused to comment on the case, Soliman's provocative writing won him few sympathisers in Egypt's mostly conservative, Muslim society. Many believe that he went too far and the case has brought to the fore a debate about the limits of free speech in a predominantly religious society. A lawyer, who attended the court, said: I was hoping that he would get a harsher sentence... There are things that one should not talk about, like religion and politics. He should have got a 10-year sentence.

Soliman's lawyers are preparing his appeal.

   
Promoting technology solutions for online safety

From The Guardian see full article
See also Family Online Safety Institute

A new web safety thinktank launched in Europe today with the backing of major tech firms including BT, Verizon and Microsoft.

The Family Online Safety Institute is a non-profit organisation funded by membership of technology, telecoms and content firms and chaired by Nick Truman, head of internet security at BT.

FOSI will establish events, public education initiatives and offer a range of products to improve dialogue between government and tech firms.

Stephen Balkam, the chief executive of FOSI, said many parents are clueless about web safety while individual companies are struggling to respond to the situation.

FOSI is in talks with the leading social networking websites, he said,  MySpace in particular. He said that one aim of the initiative is to empower parents by educating them about easy tools they can use, such as the family safety settings within Microsoft's new operating system Vista and on Google UK.

Balkam described Google's safety settings as its "best kept secret", but said these kind of filters could be set so that a search for "sex" would bring up a safe sex site and Sex and the City, rather than porn.

He also referred to a programme in Scotland called the Online Safety Qualification, which educates children about online safety and presents an award at the end of the course. He said he believes the qualification is the first of its kind.

Partnering with the government will also be key to public education, although he added that FOSI's aim is not to advocate new legislation.

FOSI will hold the first international annual online safety conference, exhibition and awards event in Washington DC on December 2-4 2007.

And no doubt Pakistan's crime problems will be solved as a result

From The News

The Pakistan government has banned the portrayal of wicked characters as heroes in motion pictures and refused permission to release four new movies of this nature.

The central censor board has been ordered to decline permission to films that glorify villainous characters, Culture Minister Dr G G Jamali told the National Assembly.

He said that since Maula Jatt, made in the eighties, became a big hit and did a roaring business, a trend developed among moviemakers to go for such pictures.

Speaker Chaudhry Amir Hussain said many films were being made to depict people as supermen who were being shown using Kalashnikovs, repeaters, sten-guns and other weapons mercilessly. What kind of education are we imparting to our youth? he asked.

He said violence and bloodshed exhibited in such movies are brainwashing young men. You should try to discourage this trend.

Dr Jamal said the number of cinemas, which was 1,000 during seventies, has now come down to 210 because of the crisis that has hit the film industry. He said a committee of film people has recommended that there is a need for changes in the censor board. It has pointed out that the society also did not like vulgarity.

   
Seems little point asking the Irish film censor

Edited letter from Anthony who wrote to the Irish Times

I was surfing the net and came across the Irish Film Censor's website. After reading it for a while I sent emails to John Keller as posted above.

I simply asked the Censor to put on record his and / or (by extension) the Irish State's official attitude to / policy on / legality of, R18 material.

Even with an ongoing case they surely have a position on this, and a general statement wouldn't prejudice / undermine their prosecution.

I would like the Irish Times to try and get the Censor (on record) to answer all the questions I put to him in my e-mail.

Hopefully he'll take your newspaper a bit more seriously than Joe Public.

Here in the Republic, our previous Censor Sheamus Smith amused himself by banning a selection of softcore standard 18 rated videos every month. He'd send a list of prohibited videos every month to all licensed video shops in the country - note these videos were merely standard 18 rated ones, containing no actual depictions of sex whatsoever and mild enough nudity too. The UK R18 videos (even the pre-change in guidelines ones) were completely beyond the pale.

Until the (Irish) Video Recordings Act of 1993, British BBFC ratings were in practice accepted as if they had legal status here. Video Shops like Xtravision referred to them in their sign-up terms & conditions, one wonders what would have happened if say, a 16 year old was prevented from renting a video marked by the British Censor as 18 by a shop over here and took the shop to court on the basis it had no legal right to do so. . . When the Irish act was being proposed Smith wanted to go back in time and "re-certify" all the existing videos in circulation in Ireland, as had been done in the UK in 1984-1986. However on cost grounds this didn't happen and instead only "new" videos ie. ones released after Sept 1993 were made subject to the Irish certification process. Videos being re-released on DVD has mostly taken care of this anomaly. It does show the ambition, some would say megalomania of Smith though in attempting to try to certify 20 to 30 thousand different videos !

The problem with having a separate Irish (DVD & Video) Rating System as opposed to the Cinema Certificates process is as follows. The mass production processes involved in making DVDs, and the fact that the Republic of Ireland and the UK share a single language, and TV picture system (PAL) and also that the licensing rights for the R.o.I. & UK are (usually) sold together as well - all of this means there is in commercial terms a British Isles market. DVDs are pressed (by companies located in the UK) according to the master approved by the BBFC not the Irish Censor. The Irish Censor can never "undo" in the Irish market cuts imposed in the UK. All he can do is stick a different age rating (either up or down - mostly anecdotally it seems to be upwards) on the box.

If a video is banned in the UK and the distributor has (perhaps not expecting a ban) already gone to manufacture, then he might release copies here after getting an Irish certificate. The only example of this I've been able to find is a film called "Mikey", directed by Dennis Dimster, made in 1992 and denied a BBFC cert in Dec. 1996. The Melonfarmers site states that it is "available on Irish video with the boast that it is banned in the UK".

With the physically cuttable nature of 35mm cinema film prints, cuts can be restored or indeed extra ones made changing what the BBFC did. With DVD the Irish censor can only ban - not cut or restore cuts! Surely the whole point of having a separate censorship system to the UK is to be able to have different outcomes in practice not just in legal theory. Perhaps the British-Irish Council (part of the Belfast / St. Andrews Agreement) which involves democratic representatives of all of the British Isles (which is the commercial reality when it comes to DVD) should take over the classification system. The Irish government would appoint so many censors, Scotland, the Isle of Man, etc. etc. would do likewise thus retaining democratic rights. I put some of these points to the censor in a separate e-mail, along with my concerns about the composition of the assistant censors. All of the e-mails and replies follow here.

Anti Smoking film banned by Thai censors

From The Nation

Anti-smoking activists yesterday demanded thatThai film censors explain why they banned the 2006 Golden Globe-nominated satire Thank You For Smoking.

The film tells the story of tobacco-industry lobbyist Nick Naylor who promotes smoking at a time when the health risks are too obvious to ignore.

What a shame, Action on Smoking and Health Thailand secretary-general Dr Prakit Vateesatokit said. He added that the film was a wonderful tool in the campaign against smoking: The movie depicts sophisticated tactics used by tobacco companies to achieve what they want. This could have had an even bigger impact on the pubic than campaigns I have been running for more than two decades.

Thailand Health Promotion Institute chief Dr Hatai Chitanondh believed censors rejected the film because the title included the word "smoking". The title is a play on the common request posted in public places and buildings: Thank you for not smoking.

I'm wondering if the censors even bothered to watch the movie before rejecting it, Hatai asked, adding he deeply regretted the film would not be seen for the same reasons given by Prakit.

However, it is now too late to reverse the decision because distributors have returned copies of the film to the United States, apparently reluctant for censors to lose face, Hatai asserted. He watched it twice and insisted smoking is not observed in the film: So, what's the matter? What harm can this movie do?

Philippines continues to be a dangerous place for journalists

From CPJ

Hernani Pastolero, editor-in-chief of the community newspaper Lightning Courier Weekly, was shot dead in front of his home Monday morning in Sultan Kudarat township, on the southern Philippine island of Mindanao.

Pastolero was shot twice in the head by an unidentified assassin who escaped on foot. Local Police Chief Superintendent Joel Goltiao told local press that police investigators had already compiled a list of suspects, but as of today he had not ordered arrests. He declined to speculate about a possible motive for Pastolero’s killing.

The Committee to Protect Journalists is investigating whether Pastolero’s killing, the first in the Philippines this year, was related to his work as a journalist.

We hope authorities at the local and national levels will bring the killers of Hernani Pastolero to justice, and not let the case linger unresolved, as so many others have, said CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon.

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo today ordered the Philippine National Police to investigate the case and Presidential Spokesman Ignacio Bunyes condemned the killing.

GMANews.TV said the National Bureau of Investigation was investigating Pastolero’s connection to a land conflict between residential lot owners and a large private landholder.

According to CPJ research, three Filipino journalists were killed in connection with their reporting last year, making the Philippines on par with Afghanistan as the deadliest place in Asia to be a news reporter.

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights is currently conducting an independent probe into the recent rash of extrajudicial killings, including the unresolved murders of journalists, across the Philippines.

   
Mandatory censorship causes art-house releases to dry up in Ireland

From Irish Times

The range of films available to buy and rent at Irish outlets will be extended significantly when Minister for Justice Michael McDowell, introduces legislation providing revised censorship fees for minority-interest DVD releases. Art-house movies will be the principal beneficiaries of the new legislation, which is likely to be enacted this year.

Many foreign-language films have been passed over for release on the Irish market because their distributors regarded the certification fees as prohibitively high for movies with a limited audience.

The film censor, John Kelleher, has proposed a new two-tier scale for certification, and the Irish Film Censor's Office (Ifco) annual report for 2004 noted that it would be a positive development: Representations were made to Ifco during 2004 in this regard by both Irish and foreign video distributors requesting that a lower fee be charged for certifying non-mainstream video titles that might otherwise prove uneconomic to release. I believe this to be a reasonable request, and following further discussions with industry representatives, a proposal has been sent to the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform for the Minister's consideration.

The new two-tier scale will follow the Minister's introduction of a similar scheme for cinema releases in 2004, on the recommendation of the film censor. In the past, it cost as much to certify an art-house film as a mainstream one, Kelleher noted. Now, as a result of the new scale, the cost of an art-house film is one-quarter the cost of a mainstream one, and it is therefore financially feasible for distributors to release such films now.

Eoghan Burke, head of sales at Sony BMG, which represents a number of art-house DVD distributors in Ireland said:  In June 2004 a new cost structure for the certification of DVD/video was introduced and since then virtually all new art-house and niche titles available to buy in Irish retailers have dried up, bar the more commercially viable, forcing Irish buyers onto the internet to source their art house titles. There are now thousands of titles that have never been released for the Irish market.

Among the many art-house classics he cites as being passed over for the Irish market because of the cost of certification are Bicycle Thieves, Rififi, The Sorrow and the Pity and Rome Open City.

Belarus Internet cafes to spy for the KGB

From Charter 97

From now on an owner of an Internet-Cafe or a person authorized by him is to keep a log of domain names of sites read by users. A log of domain names is to be stores for at least 12 months and if necessary given to officers of state security, law-enforcing and state inspection agencies.

This demand is contained in a decree of Belarusian government“with the aim to regularize relations in the sphere of computer clubs and internet-café business. in case a user is suspected of a computer crime, the administration of an Internet-café is to inform relevant law-enforcing agencies immediately.

In line with the decree of the government, it is prohibited to distribute information forbidden for distribution in public communications network in Internet-cafes, to make attempts of unsanctioned access to informational systems of public-service communications networks, and to use programmes propagating cult of violence, cruelty, pornography.

Egyptian Blogger's family disowns son on trial for contempt of religion

From Michelle Malkin
See also Free Kareem

There's a horrid development in the case of Abdul Kareem Nabeel Suleiman, the Egyptian blogger on trial for posting to his website statements calling for equal rights for women and protection of free speech, as well as other statements critical of the Egyptian government and Islam. The Free Kareem website reports:

The family of Abdul Kareem Nabeel Suleiman, accused of “contempt of religion”, has disowned him before his court verdict session on the upcoming Thursday. His father, a retired mathematics teacher, has demanded applying the Sharia ruling on him by giving him three days to repent, followed by having him killed if he does not announce his repentance.

The father of the accused also described the organizations that are working on having his son acquitted as “monkey rights” organizations, in his own words. He also described his son as the “monkey” who has imitated the atheists of the West in their intellectual thinking.

The family also said that they will announce their disownment of their son on the Internet as well...

Amer will learn on Thursday whether he faces 10 years in jail, following a trial that has been condemned by human rights groups. He is the first person to be prosecuted in Egypt for online writings; observers fear this may mark a new clampdown on freedom of speech...

His lawyer, Gamal Eid, said last week: I am very pessimistic about the verdict, but I have great hope for the appeal.

Malcolm Smart of Amnesty International said: Karim Amer's trial appears intended as a warning by the authorities to other bloggers who dare criticise the government or use their blogs to spread information considered harmful to Egypt's reputation.

   
Pretty Baby passed uncut

Good to see that Pretty Baby has been passed uncut again for today's DVD release.

Given the current hyper-sensitivity with anything connecting children and sexuality, it is good that the the naked 12 year old Brooke Shields hasn't become another worrying trigger for a 4am police visit.

Nutters release documentary detailing the rise of porn

From X Biz see full article

Anti-porn group CP80 and film company Living Biography have joined forces to release Traffic Control, a new documentary that details what it calls the rampant rise in Internet pornography and the fight to stop it.

CP80, which is the group behind the TruthinPorn campaign that seeks to move all adult sites into a single, clean Internet port, released the film at the end of January to coincide with a resolution from the Utah House of Representatives urging the U.S. Congress to do more to curb online porn.

I can't tell you how many stories I've heard, how many lives I've seen destroyed by pornography, Rep. Bradley Daw, the resolution’s sponsor, said. This is an absolute scourge on our society.

Ralph Yarro, founder of CP80, called the Utah resolution the shot heard around the world. Yarro added that Utah is one of seven states with similar resolutions on the table, adding that Oregon legislators will soon debate a measure that would label Internet pornography a public health emergency.

The film details the experiences of Shelley Lubben, a former porn star turned anti-porn activist who used the stage name Roxy, as she battled a drug and alcohol addiction and contracted herpes while working in the adult entertainment industry.

   
A question to the Irish censor regarding legality

It would surely be interesting to hear a little more about the High Court case mentioned.

From Anthony who wrote to the Irish censor, John Kelleher

As you are no doubt aware there has been a considerable change in the content "allowed" on DVDs & videos classified R18 (Restricted 18) in the United Kingdom in recent years.

What (in your opinion or IFCO practice) is the legal status of these DVDs & videos in the Republic of Ireland?

Have there been any successful prosecutions of this material either through postal/customs or seizure by gardaí? [Note I mean in recent times]

Are there any plans to formally legalise this content as in the UK ?

The British category is not an "Anything Goes" category with 15.4% [2002] to 24.1% [2006] of submitted items being ultimately cut by the BBFC. These "cuts" removed in one case [Pirates] 1 hour 34 minutes so they're not token either.

I feel the ongoing "grey area" unresolved nature of this issue means the State has less not more control and influence of what is seen here.

Also there is a continuing debate internally at Ofcom over whether the current ban on R18s being shown on Sky Digital's "Adult" channels should continue. If this were to change it would make the current situation in the Republic of Ireland even more farcical.

Your thoughts on these issues would be appreciated.

John Kelleher replied

I am reluctant to comment on the matters you have raised as, inter alia, they are the subject of ongoing High Court proceedings to which my Office is a party.

I am sure you will appreciate my position in this regard.

   
A question to the Irish censor regarding representation

From Anthony who wrote to the Irish censor, John Kelleher

I noticed that only one of the censors employed at IFCO (Mark Brennan), was what one could reasonably describe as a "young man" (albeit married with a child - not single). Given that surveys of public opinion have consistently shown "single young men" to be least in favour of censorship of films & videos, and that "older women" are most in favour; I would suggest the collective censors are unfairly unrepresentative of the public in their make-up and indeed the cinema going & video/dvd viewing public's general age.

The Irish Republic is still a very young (relative to our European counterparts) population - but you wouldn't guess that from the censors' make-up. I would like to see a man in his twenties, mid twenties, and early thirties added (replacing existing members) to the collective.

Finally regarding DVD releases - What real power does IFCO have to "reverse" UK BBFC decisions to cut a given title? Have any DVDs which have been cut in the UK been released in the Irish market uncut? Or is this something which is unfeasible / too much trouble for the distributors?

John Kelleher replied

Three out of our ten Assistant Censors are in their twenties. I am very satisfied that our team, the majority of whom are parents, includes a representative cross-section of people, both in terms of age and experience.

Our experience would not tally with the surveys of public opinion to which you refer, and I would be interested to know when, where and by whom they were carried out . We have commissioned a considerable body of independent research to assess public perception of our role and work, which has elicited favourable results from both adults and children.

As regards DVD releases, IFCO classifies what is submitted to us for release in Ireland. Our process, which is a statutory one, is not relevant to what happens in another jurisdiction.

Law proposal to ensure that censors see all of a game's content

Has anybody considered the possibility of allowing plug-ins of add-on content that is simply not written yet.

From CNET News

A US Senate Republican has renewed his push to slap new regulations on the video and computer game industry, including a ban on "deceptive" labels by ratings outfits.

Senator Sam Brownback reintroduced the Truth in Video Game Rating Act, first proposed last September. It calls for requiring video game rating organizations to play all games "in their entirety" before issuing labels and prohibiting game developers from withholding any "hidden" game content from raters. It would also punish ratings groups that "grossly mischaracterize" any game's content.

The current video game ratings system is not as accurate as it could be because reviewers do not see the full content of games and do not even play the games they rate, Brownback said.

The proposed regulations represent another reaction to a high-profile scandal surrounding the game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.

The bill's introduction drew opposition from the Entertainment Software Association, which lobbies for the video game industry. An ESA executive said the group believes the existing rating process is already sufficiently reliable and "remarkably useful" to parents.

Sen. Brownback's bill not only attempts to address problems that don't exist, but his recommendations are unworkable and will not help consumers, Carolyn Rauch, a senior vice president at ESA, said: For instance, how does one play a game in its 'entirety' when a game has no defined end?

A representative for the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) describes at its Web site how it goes about evaluating games. It says it requires game makers to submit answers to a "detailed questionnaire" about their products and a videotape or DVD that displays all "pertinent content," including the most extreme instances of sex, violence, language, drugs and gambling. They must also turn over pertinent content that is not playable, but will exist in the game code on the final game disc.

Brownback's bill also reflects his suspicion that those engaged in the rating process have conflicts of interest. It proposes directing the Government Accountability Office to issue a report on the effectiveness of the ESRB's rating system, with particular attention to whether the process would be better served if developed and administered by persons or entities with no financial interest in the video and computer game industry.

   
FCC closing in on regulation of violent TV programming

Based on an article from CNN

A draft report being circulated at the Federal Communications Commission says Congress could craft a law that would let the agency regulate violent programming much like it regulates sexual content and profanity, by barring it from being aired during hours when children may be watching, for example.

In general, what the commission's report says is that there is strong evidence that shows violent media can have an impact on children's behavior and there are some things that can be done about it, FCC Chairman Kevin Martin said.

The report also suggests that cable and satellite TV could be subjected to an "a la carte" regime that would let viewers choose their channels, a measure long supported by Martin: We can't just deal with the three or four broadcast channels, we have to be looking at what's on cable as well.

The report cites studies that suggest violent programming can lead to short-term aggressive behavior in children, according to an agency source who described the report.

The recommendations are sure to alarm executives in the broadcast and cable industries, members of the creative community and First Amendment advocates. Broadcasters are expected to object strenuously to any anti-violence regulatory regime, but have been skittish in going on the record.

   
Confusion about why hardcore should be illegal to sell

From AdultShop.com

Raids carried out this week by the NSW police on 7 sex shops in Sydney's King Cross area, have highlighted the inconsistency in laws governing the sale of X18+ material.

These raids have no doubt sparked confusion amongst the general public as to why X18+ films can be legally purchased in ACT and NT, but not in the States of Australia, such as Sydney's red light district area King's Cross.

The Sydney Morning Herald is also running a poll X rated films should they be legal? AdultShop.com encourage you to cast your vote and send a strong message to the government and OFLC who are responsible for the classification and consequently distribution of X18+ films.

After 4273 votes the poll was showing 83% in favour of X18+ being legal to sell

From The Sydney Morning Herald

Magistrates, politicians and police are regular buyers of X-rated films even though it's illegal to sell them, complains Australia's erotic industry body.

The Eros Association today called on both sides of NSW politics to show consistency in regulating X-rated material, saying it was a criminal offence to sell the films but legal to buy and own them.

The association's chief executive Fiona Patten, said there was "massive confusion" over the issue, which was highlighted this week by raids on seven Kings Cross adult shops.

Police yesterday said they had in effect shut almost all of the sex shops in the red-light district after raiding the stores searching for child pornography and other X-rated material.

However, Patten said officers were arresting adult shop owners one day and buying films for themselves the following week: There is nothing illegal in police officers buying X18+ rated films from adult shops and taking them home. Magistrates and even politicians are regular clients at many Sydney adult shops.

Feminists protest against BBC's The Verdict

Based on an article from Indy Media

There was a protest against the BBC programme, The Verdict,  at BBC TV Centre, White City on Sunday 11th February 2007

Representatives from the London Feminist Network and Justice For Women protested The Verdict,  a staged rape trial with a celebrity jury, real legal personnel and actors for claimant and defendants.

The organisers said: We asked the BBC to withdraw The Verdict but they have chosen to go ahead and further trivialise the trauma that rape victims undergo. For victims of rape, justice is very rare indeed and the conviction rate continues to fall.

We asked to see the producer of The Verdict and a representative of the BBC came to speak with us. We formally lodged a complaint in person and again asked the BBC to withdraw The Verdict.

As to whether the programme did trvialise rape, here's on opinion from The Guardian see full review

The programme was often good; often, dare I say, valuable viewing, apart from the grimly inexcusable way in which the camera lingered on the (unblinking, honest, thoughtful) face of Sara Payne during graphic sexual testimony. Thanks: we'd got the link. But far from exploiting or demeaning the idea of rape, it gave a timely and necessary lesson, to those who could sit through the anguished details and the well-acted tears, of the opacity which surrounds the reporting and prosecution of rape in this country, and the vagaries, ill and necessary, of the jury system. Hardly anyone, for instance, could have been left unaware, after this week's staging, of the staggeringly small number of reported rape cases which result in convictions. 6%,  nor, as crucially, of the guts and support needed to even make that report in the first place.

Nor could viewers have been left untouched by the anguish of this jury, even this staged jury, grappling with the burden of proof: tearful, exhausted, fraught by the end, reluctantly going for 'not guilty' despite strong instinct. Patsy Palmer, Jennifer Ellison and Honor Blackman looked shell-shocked by the end, torn by the thought they might come down on the side of the wrong - well, yes, actors, but you had begun to forget that, a little. Along the way we got some great slices of real real life: the nosy, dozy usher; the gossipy clerk; the barristers still awarding themselves, 40 years away from the desk at the front of the class, points for cleverness; a peppery old ex-judge, wise beyond his 194 years, a lifetime spent grappling with the same dichotomies filling the jury room with sound and fury.

Texas nutters eye adult industry for extra revenue

Based on an article from X Biz

Two Texas lawmakers have introduced separate pieces of legislation that would tax adult-oriented businesses in order to raise funds supposedly for victims of sex crimes.

A bill drafted by Rep. Ellen Cohen would add a $5 cover charge to all strip clubs throughout the state. If passed, Cohen’s bill would raise approximately $40 million in revenue per year for the state. However, the state Legislature would have the right to spend as it sees fit any amount raised in excess of $12 million.

A similar bill proposed by Sen. Royce West would put the onus on the businesses. His bill would call for a $5,000 annual registration fee for any adult-oriented business. West said the opening of an adult mega-store near his office inspired his bill. His bill also would require adult businesses to notify local officials of their intent to open a store or club at least 60 days prior to arriving in a community. West said he also was considering an additional sales tax to items sold or rented at adult video stores.

Both bills call for the projected revenue streams to go toward state-sponsored anti-sex-crime initiatives.

According to adult entertainment industry leaders in Texas, attempts by lawmakers to link sex crimes with sexually oriented businesses is unfair. To say there’s a link between sexual assault and gentlemen's clubs is ludicrous, said Angelina Spencer, the executive director for the Association of Club Executives. These taxes are a ruse to burden the club owner because somebody finds the business morally reprehensible. There is no evidence that links an increase in sexual assaults among women to adult entertainment clubs.

   
Criminalising porn viewing in Utah schools advances

From Desert News

Utah Youngsters who look at pornography on a school computer or bring pornography to school could be charged with a class B misdemeanor under a bill, HB100, passed by the House on Thursday.

Republican Representative Bud Bowman said Porn in schools is not a major problem now, but it is in society where minors and adults alike can easily find nude pictures of men and women on the Internet.

Bowman said he doesn't see school officials expelling or suspending a teenager for looking at porn once or twice on a school computer. But for those cases where it happens time and again, police and juvenile authorities want the option of charging the teen.

An adult who deals in porn in a public school can be charged with a class A misdemeanor under HB100, which now goes to the Senate. A class B misdemeanor carries a $1,000 fine and zero to six months in jail. A class A is a $2,500 fine and up to one year in jail.

   
Puerile police action over jokey Valentines cards

From The Sun

A florist was ticked off by 5 cops for having the words ‘Willy’ and ‘Fanny’ in his Valentine’s window display.

Mark Nicholas had cards saying Willy 4 Fanny and Who will you give one to this Valentine’s?

But four officers told him to take them down after complaints — and a fifth went to his home to issue a warning. Mark of Hayle, Cornwall, said: It seems ridiculous.

Police said: The words were not appropriate.

Nutters prepare for Life of Brian musical

Based on an article from ic Wales

Christian nutters in Wales have reacted angrily to plans to turn Monty Python's Life of Brian into a musical.

It is nearly 30 years since the Monty Python film, satirising the life of a man mistaken for Jesus, provoked condemnation from church and chapel congregations around the world who claimed it was blasphemous. A ban on screening it in Swansea cinemas stood for 17 years and was only lifted in 1997.

But yesterday campaigners vowed to hold fresh protests should the proposed new musical ever be staged in Wales or the UK.

Their ire came as it emerged founding Monty Python member Eric Idle has written a "comic oratorio" called Not The Messiah (He's A Very Naughty Boy), which will premiere in Toronto in June.

Stephen Green, Carmarthenshire-based head of nutter group Christian Voice, last night vowed to keep Not the Messiah out of the UK. Green, who led mass protests against Jerry Springer: The Opera, said, We would certainly be opposing such a blasphemous and scurrilous piece of work. With it being loosely hung around Handel's masterwork, it has got to be offensive to anyone who values music as means of expressing great ideas. If he brings that to Britain or Wales he can expect protests. He might not even get it off the ground here because we've been forearmed.

Richard Lewis, an independent councillor serving the Gower area, was one of those who voted to impose the ban back in February 1980. He said recently: We were right as a city council to ban Life of Brian. My views have hardened very much. I feel this latest musical is part of a continual drip feed of knocking religion and Christianity

After threats linked to death of Hrant Dink

From The Telegraph

The Turkish novelist and Nobel laureate Orhan Pamuk is living in exile in the United States and is believed to be in fear for his life.

Amid a climate of intimidation that has seen the prosecution and even murder of dissident intellectuals throwing into doubt Turkey's aspiration to the join the European Union, Pamuk, who is living in New York, is said to have told friends he has set no deadline for his return. Instead, according to the prominent Istanbul columnist Fatih Altayli, the writer has quietly gone into exile.

Following the murder of an ethnic Armenian journalist, Hrant Dink, last month, Pamuk expressed fears for his own safety. The writer enraged Turkish nationalists by acknowledging that under the Ottoman empire Turks had triggered the genocide of one million Armenians nearly a century ago.

During the 1990s, Pamuk, whose novels includes Cevdet Bey and His Sons and The Black Book, began to write candidly about human rights issues and free speech in Turkey. The country's authorities vociferously campaign against any suggestion that the state has inherited responsibility for the unacknowledged massacre of Armenians.

In an interview with a Swiss newspaper last year, Pamuk said: One million Armenians and 30,000 Kurds were killed in these lands but no one but me dares talk about it.

Two weeks ago, Pamuk abruptly cancelled a speaking tour of Germany, fearing that his engagements would expose him to hostile elements within the diaspora. Yasin Hayal, a nationalist charged with incitement to murder Dink, made what appeared to be a threat against Pamuk. He said: Orhan Pamuk be careful.

In meetings with Western leaders, Abdullah Gul, Turkey's foreign minister, has moved to address concerns that the law granted a veneer of legitimacy to the shadowy figures who were threatening its liberal intellectuals. He has promised reforms of an ambiguous law that allows nationalists to demand punishment for those they accuse of insulting the Turkish nation.

Gul admitted that Turkey's standing had been damaged by Dink's murder and the threat to Pamuk.

   
Pupils rally to support teacher

Based on an article from This Is Lancashire

Pupils and tutors have leapt to the defence the teacher under investigation after complaints about her supposedly "lurid" gothic vampire websites.

Support for teacher Samantha Goldstone of St Christopher's CE High School came as it emerged her debut vampire novel was in a good book guide alongside horror legend Stephen King.

As revealed in Saturday's paper, the English and drama teacher has agreed to stay away from the church school she has taught at for three years while the complaints are investigated.

Investigations centre on the part-time gothic fiction writer's personal websites and others that promote gothic literature written under her pen name Paigan Stone which she says contains adult content with vampire eroticism, violence and blood lust.

Following complaints from parents, headteacher Alasdair Coates has launched the investigation.
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But more than 60 messages have been posted on the Telegraph's website - many from past and present pupils and teachers supporting her.

One former pupil from Burnley writes: As a past pupil of Samantha Goldstone's I feel that the way she is being treated is appalling. She was a great teacher and has helped many pupils in their English and Drama work. What she does in her personal life should not affect her role as a teacher.

And a teacher writes: Mrs Goldstone may have been a touch naive by posting her picture on her website but what on earth has she done wrong?.

Another posted by a pupil named as "Laura" states: I'm one of Mrs Goldstone's drama pupils and she is the best thing that has happened to this school.

But not everyone is as sympathetic, one message reads: Do you think it is right for pupils ages 11-16 to see their teacher like this? St Christopher's is a respected school, and I don't think they should have teachers who do things like this.

   
Russell Brand winds up the nutters

From the BBC

Brits host Russell Brand has triggered  hundreds of complaints with jokes about the Queen and the Iraq war.

ITV1 had received around 300 complaints by Thursday morning, while broadcasting watchdog Ofcom logged a further 135. Ofcom said most of the calls concerned the tone of the jokes made during the ceremony, which was shown live for the first time in 17 years.

Broadcaster ITV defended Brand, calling him an edgy host for an edgy event, but apologised for any offence caused.

The presenter opened the show by poking fun at singer Robbie Williams, who is currently being treated in a rehab clinic for addiction to prescription drugs. Pointing at a padlock that formed part of the set, Brand said it was "Robbie Williams' medicine cabinet".

Announcing the international breakthrough artist award, Brand commented: I think a good international breakthrough would be if the British and American soldiers tell each other where they are standing.

ITV1 said that swearing was bleeped out before the watershed and the broadcaster said the complaints were about Brand rather than any bad language.

   
Lost in Beijing to be shown uncut

From EUX.TV

An uncensored version of one of China's entries in this year's Berlin Film Festival is to be shown at the Berlinale without the cuts that had been demanded by the authorities, festival officials said Thursday.

A Berlinale spokeswoman said that, because of technical and logistic reasons, it was not possible to screen the altered version of Lost in Beijing from 34-year-old Chinese director Li Yu.

The festival spokeswoman went on to say that the Berlinale was not expecting any incidents at Friday's showing of Lost in Beijing, which was one of two films from China entered in the festival's main competition.

The censors in Beijing have been very sensitive to films portraying contemporary life or movies that in some way touch on politically charged issues such as Tiananmen Square where the Chinese authorities launched a major crackdown of pro-democracy demonstrations in 1989.

We cut all the scenes of Tiananmen Square, the national flag, and we also cut scenes of dirty streets, Lost in Beijing producer, Fang Li, said.

Nutters complain about Times Online advert

Based on an article from The Guardian

An ad for the new Times Online website featuring a woman in a bra with money stuffed into her cleavage could be investigated by the advertising watchdog after a member of the public complained. The ad is accompanied by a quote from Top Gear presenter and Sunday Times columnist Jeremy Clarkson: Money and rumpy-pumpy are the twin engines powering everything we do. The twin engines allude to "news plus views".

The nutter said the poster ad, which is part of a campaign to promote last week's launch of the new-look Times Online, was irresponsible and should not be shown where it can be seen by children.

The Advertising Standards Authority is considering whether to launch an investigation into the campaign, on the grounds that it could be in breach of the advertising code for taste and decenc

Japanese government wound up by biography about princess

From The Telegraph

Japan's extreme sensitivity over its royal family was laid bare when it reacted furiously to an unauthorised biography of its most famous princess.

Lodging a formal protest with the government of the author's native Australia, the Tokyo government described the account of the life of Princess Masako as "disrespectful and distorted" and demanded an apology.

The rare intervention was delivered via the Japanese embassy in Australia. Ben Hills, the Australian author and a former journalist in Tokyo, refused to apologise yesterday and accused Japan of attempting to censor his book, Princess Masako: Prisoner of the Chrysanthemum Throne.

Princess Masako, wife of Crown Prince Naruhito, has been suffering from a depressive illness which has kept her from performing almost any royal duties since December 2003. Hills attributes her illness to the treatment she has endured since marrying into the royal family in 1993.

She has been allowed on only a few official visits overseas and has endured intense pressure to produce a son to secure the line of succession. In the event, the couple have only a daughter, five-year-old Princess Aiko, and the line of succession is now expected to revert to Prince Hisahito, Aiko's five-month-old cousin.

Japanese journalists traditionally report the imperial family in a reverential way. Honorifics and especially polite terms are used whenever writing about them. Hill's book, released in Australia and the United States but not yet in Britain, argues that the "tragic" story of Masako's marriage makes Princess Diana's ordeal look like a picnic.

Nutters post their Valentines message

From News 4 Jax

Billboards around the city are urging people to stop looking at pornography in the name of love. The messages showed on up on five of the daily billboards that are located around Jacksonville, Florida.

The billboards have the message:

Her gift for Valentine's Day -- stop looking at porn. XXXChurch.com

Instead of the chocolates, flowers, stuffed animals, cards or even dinner out on the town, the founder of the Web site XXXChurch.com Craig Gross said he had another idea: It's just to tell guys, especially, not to have the make-believe relationships with porn stars, but to concentrate on their marriages and their relationships with their loves ones.

Porn is everywhere. It is all over the Internet. There are some 400 million pornographic Web pages. We want people to talk about this issue, Gross said.

   
The costs of providing family Internet filters

From The Age

Families will be targeted by an advertising blitz and direct mail campaign as the Federal Government steps up its efforts to sell its proposed crackdown on internet pornography in the approach to the election.

Communications Minister Helen Coonan revealed yesterday the Government intended to use an $18 million, taxpayer-funded communication budget to write to all families alerting them to its 2006 initiative to supply households with a PC-based filter blocking inappropriate content.

The Age believes the Government's powerful advertising committee will this week decide which agency will win the lucrative tender for television and radio advertising to sell the $100 million porn filter initiative.

Senator Coonan clashed with Family First senator Steve Fielding at a senate estimates hearing in Canberra yesterday over why the Government had resisted concerted lobbying from Christian groups and its own MPs in favour of blocking content at the server level, rather than leaving households to control their own PC-based filter.

Senator Coonan said server-level filtering was ineffective and this Government will not be a party to something that's ineffective.

   
Does an interest in horror stories preclude one from working with kids?

I have also been made aware that many school teachers may possibly also have an interest in sex. Sack the lot of them!

Based on an article from This Is Lancashire

A teacher at a church high school is being investigated following complaints about her gothic vampire websites.

English and drama teacher Samantha Goldstone has agreed to stay away from St Christopher's C of E High School, Accrington, during the probe.

Investigations centre on the part-time gothic fiction writer's personal websites and other sites that promote her book and poems.

One section of her book, written under the pen name Paigan Stone, refers to a fictional student drugging a vampire student.

Her personal MySpace website, which has now been taken off public display, included supposedly provocative images & videos and also references to her gothic writing which she boasts contains adult content with vampire eroticism, violence and blood lust. The site also links to her published debut novel which includes references to a 17th Century vampire who lusts after women after being drugged with ecstasy.

Alasdair Coates, head teacher of St Christopher's, said: Concerns have been raised with me regarding the conduct of a member of staff and content on the internet. As soon as we got the complaints we took immediate action and the governors have been informed. These concerns have to be investigated appropriately and, while we do this, the member of staff has agreed to stay away from school. This is not an indication of guilt as we have not completed the investigation. There has been no formal suspension. Pupils and staff work hard to achieve high standards and expect us to look into allegations. However it would be unfair to discuss the exact nature of the allegations or identify the member of staff.

Goldstone, who has been at the school for three years said: I've been told by the school that I cannot comment on the matter.

Visitors to her website are told she is an English and drama teacher in Lancashire. It also says she has appeared in six anthologies for her poetry and short stories. Her book is widely available on websites including popular sites like Amazon.com. On her website she wrote: The recent success of Vampire novel Gabriele Caccini has been the fulfilment of a lifelong dream.

Video featuring passages from Koran taken down

From Islamaphobia Watch
See also Nick Gisburne's website

At YouTube, you can say pretty much whatever You want, as long as it's not about Islam. If that's not true, YouTube user Nick Gisburne begs to differ after his account “his entire account“ was deleted for its "inappropriate content." What exactly did he say? Well, nothing really. He let the Koran speak for itself.

Gisburne is a self-described atheist with, at least from the one video, a deep questioning of Muslim claims about the Koran. To express his doubts about Islam being a religion of peace, Gisburne created a 10-minute video, entitled "Islamic Teachings" that was nothing but violent quotations taken from the Koran instructing followers to kill nonbelievers and speed their way to Hell where Allah will torture them forever.

It would seem quoting the holy book in a sort of testament against itself was over the line for someone working at Google-owned YouTube. Not only was the video deleted without any type of warning to the uploader, but the uploader's account was also deleted with only the explanation (or accusation) of submitting inappropriate content, a category usually reserved for nudity or video violence.

Nick explains about the Content of the 'banned' video on his website

The quotes I used are taken from Skeptics Annotated Quran. The Skeptic's Annotated Quran abbreviates the long, flowery language of the Quran into more legible, easily digestible form. Thus it is not strictly verbatim, but it is a valid translation. It is not a commentary, nor is it a distortion of the content of the Quran.

For example:

Qur'an text As for the Disbelievers, Whether thou warn them or thou warn them not it is all one for them; they believe not. Allah hath sealed their hearing and their hearts, and on their eyes there is a covering. Theirs will be an awful doom.

keptics Annotated Quran: Don't bother to warn the disbelievers. Allah has blinded them. Theirs will be an awful doom

Subsequently YouTube changed their reason for censorship from 'inappropriate content' to 'copyright violation'

You Tube contend that the removal of Nick's account was due to repeated copyright violation as they had previously removed video clips from Richard Dawkins' Root of All Evil, the scene with Ted Haggard. After that YouTube removed a video called Colbert vs Dawkins

Beyer Recommends.. Me!

Beyer applies for Chairmanship of the BBC

Surely there will only be one viewer left should he get the job...himself

From Mediawatch-UK

John Beyer of mediawatch-uk has applied for the BBC chairmanship, arguing that is tailor-made for him: the job is all about championing the viewer.

He is among 23 applicants for the £140,000-a-year post.

Proposal to install state Internet filter in Norway

From Slashdot
see also original article (in Norwegian)

A Norwegian Web filtering system, comparable to the Great Firewall of China, has been proposed to the Norwegian legislature.

It would, if enacted, block all Web sites and servers that contain hate material (racial hate, pro-Nazi sites, hate towards the government, etc.), most kinds of pornography (not only child pornography), foreign gambling sites, and sites that share copyrighted or other material that it is not legal to share.

Reactions have been mixed; however they are mostly negative.

Thai TV soap offends Laos and is pulled

From the Bangkok Post

The Thai soap opera Pleng Rak Song Fang Khong (The Mekong Love Song) was yanked from Channel 7's schedule after the government of Laos complained that several scenes were inappropriate.

Souvanna Phouyavong from the Lao embassy in Bangkok, said the Information and Culture Ministry asked station executives and the show's producer, to adjust some parts of the programme that Lao officials consider "inappropriate".

Channel 7 decided to replace it with another show.

There were at least three parts of the programme that upset Lao authorities, said Souvanna, including a scene where an actor gives dok champa (plumeria flower) to his loved one, but she refuses to accept it. The character is so disappointed with her response that he throws the flower into a garbage bin. Souvanna said dok champa is the national flower and official symbol of Laos, and it was considered inappropriate for the actor to discard it in such a way.

There was also a scene in which a character proposes to his girlfriend. In Lao tradition, this should be presided over by senior members of both families: In the programme there were no phu yai [village bigwig] at the ceremony and this is inappropriate from a Lao point of view.

Other parts of the programme could also create misperceptions about Lao women, Souvanna said.

   
In protest of widespread book banning

From Playfuls

Book censorship is spreading in Egypt now that numerous self-appointed authorities have received the absolute right to ban, sue or destroy a book for so-called religious and security reasons.

Islamic institutions like the Azhar and state-run bodies such as the Interior Ministry and the Ministry of Education have the right to review books and withdraw them from the market.

Last week, a court banned foreign schools from teaching a book entitled History of the World, which according to the Cairo-based Egyptian Gazette, contained information considered blasphemous and humiliating to Islam.

Another book was recently confiscated by the arts division in the Interior Ministry for allegedly criticizing modern Islamic scholars and questioning their eligibility.

On the one hand, books focusing on religious and political matters are confiscated for broaching taboo subjects. On the other hand, religious books that arguably "entice hatred" are sometimes left on book shelves.

In the event of censorship, people calling for a ban have only to petition the office of the prosecution, and a case is almost immediately upheld against both the author and the publisher if the book is deemed "insulting to Islam" or to the ruling regime.

Nawal Saadawi, a well-known author and outspoken critic of the government, had five books banned by her own publishers less than two weeks ago. Saadawi's autobiography and another controversial play called God Resigns in the Summit Meeting were among the books removed from display.

Saadawi believes that the security police are behind the ban. Every single copy of God Resigns in the Summit Meeting was shredded by local publisher Madbouli, who did not even give Saadawi a copy of her own book, and kept the manuscript.

National Secular Society write to easily offended Clare College

From the National Secular Society

Staff and students at Clare College should make a stand for free speech instead of backing those who would destroy it, says the National Secular Society (NSS).

Reacting to news that a student who published a satirical issue of the student magazine that poked fun at religion is to be disciplined, Terry Sanderson, President of the NSS said: We are shocked that the staff and even the students union at this supposedly liberal college have joined the attack on this student because he had the temerity to poke fun at religion. Free expression is such a precious commodity and is under such ferocious attack at present from religious interests that it is disgraceful that no-one is standing up for this young man’s right to be rude about religion – even about Islam.

Sanderson has written to the master of Clare College, Professor Tony Bader and to the Senior Tutor, Patricia Fara as well as the president of the Students Union, Calum Davey, as follows:

We write after seeing reports in the local Cambridge press indicating that a contributor to your student magazine Clareification faces disciplinary action for having printed items that some people thought were “offensive” or “inflammatory.

If these reports are true, we wish to register our profound disquiet that a supposedly liberal college has reacted in this way. The reaction risks undermining one of the most precious and important rights that we have in this country: freedom of expression.

Satire aimed at religion is no different to satire aimed at any other ideas and should not be punished or restrained. The freedom to poke fun at those who take themselves too seriously is a time-honoured tradition in this country. Regrettably, it is rapidly being eroded by cases like this. We urge you to think again and stand four-square behind the satirists, instead of disciplining them.

We would like to remind all concerned that satirising religion – even if that religion is Islam – is not racism, as this episode has been dubbed. Religion and race have very different characteristics. We would have heartily joined the condemnation if the satire had been racially motivated, but according to the reports we have read, the issue of Clareification in question was devoted to religious satire.

We would like to draw your attention to a case that is pending in France at the moment, in which a satirical magazine, Charlie Hebdo, has been brought to court by an Islamic organisation for re-publishing the Danish cartoons that are at the centre of so much controversy. In the French case, academics, artists and politicians of all hues have rushed to the defence of the magazine. Letters of support and statements defending free speech have been issued by some of the most influential people in the country – including Mr Sarkozy, who is potentially the next President of France.

Your own reaction – as reported – does not bear comparison with the principled French reactions. It sides with the oppressors and censors who are doing so much to retard open debate in academe and elsewhere.

We call on you to support the publishers of the magazine and to tell the would-be censors that their protests have been heard but that they will not prevail. Without the freedom to debate, discuss and, yes, mock, ideas and ideologies, there can be no informed political discourse. Satire is an indispensable tool in the operating of a truly free society.

   
Top Gear: complaints about a dead cow on the roof rack

From Brand Republic

The BBC's Top Gear has landed itself back into controversy, when a stunt involving a dead cow strapped to presenter Jeremy Clarkson's car roof prompted 91 complaints.

Media regulator Ofcom has so far received 10 complaints about an item, while 81 viewers have complained directly to the BBC.

The episode was an American fly-drive special which saw presenters Clarkson, Hammond and James May taking a pit stop in Mississippi, where producers challenged them to make dinner from roadkill.

After a dead squirrel failed to whet their appetites, Clarkson returned with a deceased cow strapped to his roof. While Hammond and May descended into hysterics, Clarkson rapidly reversed and turned the car, to make the dead animal fall off.

Jan Creamer, chief executive of Animal Defenders International, said: In this case, it is not a matter of whether the animals suffered for the programme, but the fact that 'Top Gear' is making light of an activity that is so demeaning to animals. Top Gear is being completely irresponsible promoting this activity. Our message is simple. If a family programme like this thinks it is reasonable to degrade animals in this way to endorse such unthinking attitudes to our fellow creatures, then we must encourage viewers to boycott it.

However, the BBC is standing by the programme, and a spokesman said: Viewers are well aware of the type of humour on 'Top Gear 'and this was very typical of its irreverent humour. However, no offence was intended.

   
Lost in Beijing heavily censored for festival showing

From Variety

Producers and sales agents representing Chinese film Lost in Beijing are prepared to risk the wrath of the censors and will show the film in its uncut version at Berlin's European Film Market. A spokesman said: Films Distribution, in agreement with Li Yu and the producer Fang Li have decided that it will screen the integral, uncensored version on the market screenings regardless of the censors' decisions,

China's Film Bureau has already told the filmmakers that the film should not compete in the Berlinale's main competition, as it has not been approved by its censors. The censor objected to sex scenes and questioned certain moral values depicted and asked for 15 extensive cuts including a storyline about the relationship between a massage parlour boss and his employee and scenes showing dirty streets, prostitution, gambling, the Chinese flag and Beijing's Tiananmen Square.

As the market screenings are for buyers and not open to the public, the filmmakers could technically argue they have not contravened the Film Bureau's ban.

The film makers said it still hopes to reach agreement with the Film Bureau for a public screening of a version with different cuts before its Feb. 15 competition slot: But we still don't know which version will be discovered by the Berlinale audience.

The government requires that all Chinese-made films receive full approval before traveling to foreign festivals. Filmmakers who skirt the regulations risk penalties that include being banned from working.

Satirical student magazine winds up Cambridge college

Based on an article from Cambridge Evening News see full article

A student at Clare College in Cambridge was in hiding today after printing satirical Mohammed cartoons in a student magazine. For his own safety and that of others, the student, who is British, has been taken out of his current accommodation and put in a secure place.

The article is said to be so inflammatory [doesn't take much to wind up the easily offended] the undergraduate has been taken to a secret location for his own safety.

Senior college officials were locked in urgent talks about how the material came to be published and what action to take against the student at the centre of the row.

A university spokesman said police had been made aware of the incident. But a police spokesman said: This is a matter for the university authorities to deal with.

The student magazine, Clareification, printed a cropped copy of one of the famous cartoons of the prophet Mohammed next to a photo of the president of the Union of Clare Students. The cartoon was captioned with the president's name and vice versa.

There was also comment suggesting one was a violent paedophile and the other was a prophet of God, great leader and an example to us all.

The paper had been renamed Crucification for a special edition on religious satire. The front page included headlines stating: Ayatollah rethinks stance on misunderstood Rushdie.

Easily enraged students have bombarded the Union of Clare Students with complaints and vice-president of the university's Islamic society described it as "hugely offensive" and "crude unabashed prejudice."

In a rare move, Clare College fellows have called a Court of Discipline which will sit in judgment on the youth responsible for sparking what is being regarded as one the most embarrassing incidents for the university in years.

In a statement issued by Clare College, senior tutor Patricia Fara said: Clare is an open and inclusive college. A student produced satirical publication has caused widespread distress throughout the Clare community. The college finds the publication and the views expressed abhorrent.

   
Censorship Amendment Bill progresses

From Refused Classification see full article

This week the Classification (Publications, Films and Computer Games) Amendment Bill 2006 was back for a second reading. The bill was first introduced into the House of Representatives on December 7th last year. At the time the Attorney-General Philip Ruddock showed how the bill could be used to increase censorship: The minister, rather than the director, will also determine fee waiver principles to be applied by the director and the convenor when waiving fees payable under the act for applications.

In the past, Des Clark, the Director of the OFLC, has allowed fee waivers to groups such as the Australian Family Association. Much to their displeasure, he had also refused them. With the Attorney-General calling the shots, these groups are going to have a much easier time challenging ratings.

On the plus side, it allows for DVD extras to escape scrutiny if it is thought that their content does not exceed the rating of the film itself. This is an obvious plus for small companies such as Siren when releasing something like an extras laden Something Weird DVD.

Accredited Censorship in Turkey

From Today's Zaman see full article

The Hrant Dink murder will be remembered not only for its shocking impact but also for the imprint it left on the press. The largely abhorred murder caused a chronic problem of the Turkish media to resurface: accreditation.

The accreditation of TGRT TV, which broadcast camera footage of the suspect Samast, who was taped with the Turkish flag in hand,  was revoked by the Turkish General Staff. Unless the TV station is re-granted accreditation, its reporters will not be allowed in military facilities.

Accreditation is, in fact, a fairly recent phenomenon that has only spread after diversification in the media. With the influence of the opening up during Prime Minister Turgut Özal's governance, the number of media organizations operating in various areas has dramatically increased. Private TV stations, which began broadcasting in the 1990s, became the turning point for the transformation from the single-channel era to the diverse broadcasting world. The diversification created the need for accreditation. Today, a number of state institutions, including the General Staff, resort to accreditation and restrict the access of the disliked media organizations into the institution concerned.

While accreditation is announced publicly for some occasions, sometimes only certain reporters and organizations are invited to official events, where the undesired are left out through non-invitation.

The fundamental problem with accreditation practices in Turkey is vagueness. The institutions relying upon this practice are often reluctant to publicize their rationale behind their specific preferences.

The Press Council made an attempt in May 2003 to ensure the adoption of objective accreditation criteria. Chairman Oktay EkÅŸi invited the General Staff to announce their accreditation criteria.

The council noted that some leading media bodies, including Kanal 7, Samanyolu TV, Zaman daily, Yeni Åžafak daily and Vakit daily were left out in the General Staff's accreditation list. Asserting that this situation caused doubts to arise about the objectivity of the accreditation criteria of the General Staff, the council called on the General Staff to announce its criteria. In an unsurprising reply, the General Staff said there was no change in its accreditation criteria.

Today, the combined circulation of papers not accredited by the General Staff is 1,040,000, which constitutes one-fifth of Turkey's total national circulation.

Teenage Mutant ninja Turtles take a pounding

From Canmag see full article

The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are funny action heroes, but they’re still martial arts badasses. They have to take out the bad guys, and that requires violence. Too bad the ratings board won’t allow the best parts of their fights in the new TMNT film.

The MPAA set a mandate early on that nunchucks to the head will never pass a PG rating. Director Kevin Munroe said: They still use their weapons, it’s just you’ve got to kinda cut around it

Perhaps it’s best for the international marketability of the film. Nunchucks are absolutely illegal in the UK, said producer Thom Gray. You can't even show them being whipped around. You could show them in a belt but you can't show 'em [in use]. And the throwing stars are totally illegal. You get into Germany and Scandanavia and they really say, 'No way, that has to come out.'

It's not going to be that apparent in the fights because there's so much going on and your eyes are not even going to see it. But clearly we were told up front, don't whack anybody over the head with a nunchuck because it's going to come out.

TMNT opens to US theatres on March 23rd, 2007.

Committee to Protect Journalists reports on 2006

From Committee to Protect Journalists
Read Attacks on the Press

Journalists were killed and jailed for the work in growing numbers in 2006, the Committee to Protect Journalists reports in its new analysis of international press conditions, Attacks on the Press.

Targeted assassinations from Iraq to Russia, the rise of popularly elected autocrats in Latin America, and the erosion of neutral observer status for war correspondents all threatened press freedom in 2006.

Reported and written by the staff of the Committee to Protect Journalists, Attacks on the Press also details a record-setting year of violence in Iraq, where 32 journalists were killed in the line of duty. Attacks on the Press documents hundreds of cases of media repression in dozens of countries.

Advert featuring accidental male kiss withdrawn

From Christian Today see full article

A Snickers commercial that aired during the Super Bowl and featured two car mechanics accidentally kissing has been immediately withdrawn following complaints from several gay rights organisations that labelled it as “homophobic.”

Mars Inc. also erased all related content on their website in response to the criticism. The company apologised for the infraction in a public statement, saying the commercial was intended to be funny, not offensive.

In the commercial, two auto mechanics are seen to be biting into a Snickers bar, each from either end. As a result, the two unintentionally kiss each other and become instantly uncomfortable.

Pro-homosexual organisations took offence to the commercial when later the two men begin tearing hair from their own chests so they could appear more “manly.” The characters’ reactions were viewed as demeaning.

The Snickers website also featured alternate endings to the commercial which viewers could vote on. One depicts a man grabbing a wrench to strike his coworker, who then responds by placing the other man’s head under the hood and slamming it shut.

I don't know what kind of mind-set it takes to think it's okay to slug another guy because of a mistaken kiss, said Neil G. Giuliano, president of Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation: It's just unacceptable.

   
Saddam hanging video banned in Australia

From Refused Classification

In a bizarre game of bluff between AdultShop.com and the Australian censor, the widely distributed video of Saddam's hanging has been banned.

The hanging video was submitted with the expectation of an R18+ certificate (available for retail sale to adults). This would have then demonstrated the hypocrisy of allowing the selling of non-consensual killing whilst banning films showing consensual and non-violent sex.

It seems that the Australian censor didn't play ball and inconveniently banned the hanging video. Of course the knock on is that the censors have now criminalised all those Australians that have downloaded a copy already.l

South Korea to target cyber crime

From Korea Times

South Korean police have announced that they will implement an anti-cybercrime operation during the next three months, with more than 700 police officers taking part. Operators of Web sites that host illegal content will be punished.

Police are looking to cut down on malicious comments, insulting or abusive language, illegal political campaigning, fraud, porn and gambling sites, and spam.

Unlike previous crackdowns, which focused on specific types of crimes, this so called crackdown will be a dragnet that targets every kind of cyber offense,’ an official at the National Police Agency said: People used to think cybercrime was high-tech crime that a small number of technicians commit, such as hacking and spreading viruses. However, today we see incidences of the Internet being involved all types of crime, including murder, robbery, fraud, forgery and defamation.

Among the 70,545 cybercrimes committed last year, fraud accounted for 37.8%, followed by hacking, 22.7%; libel, 13.4%; and illegal Web site operation, 10.4%.

The number of those charged with online libel has jumped in recent years with 1,850 in 2004, 3,509 in 2005 and 3,953 last year.

In January, pop singer Yuni killed herself after suffering from depression, and her agency claims she was hurt by malicious also posted comments posted on her blog and other Web sites. Actress Kim Tae-hee, pop singer Rain and transgender entertainer Harisu have also filed suits against Internet users who supposedly defamed them on the Internet.

Korea struggles to define obscenity

From AVN

The prosecution in the case of Ma Kwang-soo, a literature professor who was indicted in 2006 for posting obscene materials on his personal website, has been struggling to define the guidelines for what constitutes obscenity.

Kwang-soo's novel, Happy Sarah, was at the center of another obscenity charge ten years ago, as the cover of the book features a man and a woman with their genitals exposed. Kwang-soo was imprisoned for the book's content in 1995.

When Kwang-soo was indicted again in November for the words and pictures on his website, he told the Korea Times that he could not understand the standards the prosecution used to judge literary obscenity: I thought legal standards had changed, as more than 10 years have passed since Happy Sarah was ruled illegal by the court.

An official at the Seoul Western District Prosecutors Office told the Korea Times that the investigation has been extended: because [the office] has to compare the case with other literary obscenity cases. We have been investigating what kinds of words and pictures on the web have led to indictments of those who posted them and what kinds of rulings they have received.

Canadian Bishop rails at mobile phone porn

Definition of religious thinking: Nonsense In, Nonsense Out

From The B.C. Catholic

Vancouver Archbishop Raymond Roussin, is expressing great concern about Telus Mobility’s decision to offer cell-phone pornography.

Canada’s second largest phone company started offering pornographic photos and videos to its customers last month, and confirms it has been receiving complaints from supposedly upset customers.

Archbishop Roussin said, Telus Mobility has crossed the line which brings the problem of the accessibility of pornographic material further into the public realm.

He noted that considering the problems pornography is causing in society the move is especially ill-considered. Given the increasing awareness about the problem of sexual addiction to pornography through Internet access, and the abuse that this perpetuates of vulnerable persons, Telus’s decision is disappointing and disturbing.

The archbishop plans to raise his concerns with parishes and schools throughout the Archdiocese of Vancouver. He is also considering directing Catholic institutions to terminate their contracts with Telus Mobility.

   
Australian company ban lads' mags from the workplace

From The Age

Workers at a Queensland Rail (QR) workshop in central Queensland have been warned not to take men's magazines such as FHM or Zoo Weekly to work or face the sack.

The rail provider said several men's magazines including Picture, People, FHM and Zoo Weekly were considered inappropriate by management.

At least some members of the all-male workplace, who did not wish to be identified, were upset by the stance, complaining in a letter to the local newspaper that their rights had been violated: The question has to be asked - does QR have their own review board on offensive material? We believe this is an invasion of our basic human rights.

QR's position also drew the ire of Zoo Weekly's editor Paul Merill, who compared the company's stance to Hitler's Third Reich: This is the worst form of censorship, taking away a bloke's basic right to be able to read what he likes. Hitler tried to ban any literature he didn't like, and now the poor rail workers are suffering in a similar way. We'll certainly be looking at how we can airlift some copies in as a stop-gap measure. We just hope the men are bearing up in the meantime.

QR chief executive Bob Scheuber stood by the ban, saying the magazines breached the company's 12-year-old code of conduct which was supposedly supported by most staff members: As a values-driven organisation QR is committed to creating work environments that show respect for people in all our actions. I make no apologies for this.

He said the code of conduct banned all sexually explicit, violent and criminal material as well as offensive, abusive, threatening, harassing and bullying material.

   
Extreme Associates challenge the Miller test

From AVN

With the Extreme Associates obscenity trial still months away, the company's defense team has filed another motion to dismiss the indictments against Extreme and its co-owners Rob Black and Lizzy Borden. This time they are challenging whether the all-too-familiar Miller test for obscenity can be applied to the World Wide Web.

Their attorneys have asked Judge Gary Lancaster, whose brilliant analysis in granting an earlier Motion to Dismiss was later reversed by the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, to consider new arguments for dismissal; among them:

• That the federal obscenity statutes are unconstitutional;

• That the Miller test's requirement that the charged material be "taken as a whole" is impossible to accomplish in the context of the World Wide Web;

• That the "community standards" prong of the Miller test used in determining whether a particular work is obscene cannot be applied to an online "community";

• That obscenity code Sections 1461 ("Mailing obscene or crime-inciting matter"), 1462 ("Importation or transportation of obscene matters") and 1465 ("Transportation of obscene matters for sale or distribution") are impermissibly overbroad;

• That the digital video clips charged do not fall within the range of tangible material eligible for prosecution under two sections of the obscenity law.

Should the Court decide that the above points are insufficient for a dismissal of the entire indictment, the motion also asks that the Court clarify certain points of law before the case moves forward:

• That the "material to be taken as a whole" regarding the charged video clips refers to the entire Extreme Associates website;

• That the applicable "community" within which the charges are to be considered, for the purposes of the Miller test, is the entire World Wide Web; and,

• In the alternative, if the Court rules that the "community" has to be a geographic area, that that community should be the Central District of California, where Extreme's headquarters are located, rather than the Western District of Pennsylvania, where the clips were originally viewed by postal inspectors.

French state stands behind freedom of speech

From The Telegraph

A state attorney Thursday called for the dismissal of a court case brought by French Muslims against a satirical weekly that printed caricatures of the Prophet Mohamed, saying the cartoons denounce terrorists' use of the Muslim faith but do not damage Islam.

The trial, which opened Wednesday, has drawn nationwide attention in a country with Europe's largest Muslim community and a strong commitment to freedom of expression and secularism.

The publication and its director, Philippe Val, are charged with publicly abusing a group of people because of their religion. Val risks a six-month prison sentence and a fine.

The state prosecutor, whose role in court is to defend French law, argued in favor of the magazine, which on Feb. 8, 2006, printed three caricatures, two of them reprints of those carried by a Danish newspaper in 2005 that stoked anger across the Islamic world. One caricature was an original.

It is not faith in Islam that was stigmatized by these caricatures. It is not an attack on religious convictions as such, said prosecutor Anne de Fontette. Instead, she argued, the caricatures denounced terrorists who pretend to be acting in (Islam's) name or in the name of the prophet.

Another presidential candidate, centrist leader Francois Bayrou, testified for the weekly, calling freedom of expression the central pillar of the society in which we live. It protects us all, believers, nonbelievers, agnostics.

The French Council for the Muslim Faith complained that the case has taken on a political character.

A verdict is expected March 15.

   
French politically correct censorship

From The Telegraph

Gallic PC is on the march and is sweeping all before it. Not even foreign brand names have escaped the axe as writers fall foul of French television chains, DVD editors and film distributors who are demanding changes that the creators claim amount to "unacceptable censorship".

A Mercedes must be referred to merely as a "German sports car". Ferraris, Coca-Cola, Prozac and references to drugs, religion, fat people or embarrassing illnesses are a big "Non non". And when a doctor in the series Grey's Anatomy advised a patient to smoke a cigarette a day to combat stress, it was inexplicably transformed into "a daily bowl of rice".

French writers responsible for the subtitles and dubbing of foreign films complain they are the victims of political correctness. Jean-Louis Sarthou, the president of the audiovisual commission of Sacem, which represents half of France's 400 writers of dubbing and subtitles, said that when it comes to foreign films or television programmes, smoking is out, drinking is out and sexual -references are beyond the pale: For the last 15 years, a real psychosis has developed among our clients vis-à-vis anything politically incorrect. They demand that we remove insults and any reference to sexual or religious groups, drugs, alcohol, cigarettes or even brand names.

In a conference on the "Liberty of Writing" organised by Sacem, the practice was almost unanimously condemned.

In one episode of Footballer's Wives, "fuck you" was translated as a very restrained, in French, "Go do yourself". In the French version of an American film or television series nobody drinks a Coca-Cola, instead ordering a "fizzy drink". Nor do they take Prozac but "an anti-depressant". They also prefer to use "sticky tape" to Sellotape. A Ferrari became a "lovely red sports car". Writers say they are often required to Gallicise names. In a German series for children, the insult "fat" was changed to "idiot".

And as one internet poster pointed out: Can you imagine a world in which all the 'fucks' in a Scorsese film were replaced by 'Good grief'?"

Sudan closes paper for reporting on beheading of editor

From Reporters without Borders see full article

The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the indefinite closure today of an independent Sudanese daily for publishing an article about the beheading of an editor last September.

A state prosecutor imposed an immediate ban on the prominent Arabic-language Al-Sudani which carried an article on January 31 discussing the murder of Mohammed Taha Mohammed Ahmed, editor-in-chief of the private daily Al-Wifaq, in violation of an official ban on writing about the case.

This absurd act of censorship is a good measure of where press freedoms stand today in Sudan, CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon said. The closure on Al-Sudani should be lifted immediately along with this news blackout on the case of our murdered colleague.

The prosecutor said the paper violated Article 39 of Sudan’s provisional constitution and provisions in the 2004 Press and Publication Act regarding harming public interests and professional ethics and inciting religious and ethnic hatred. He said he had imposed the ban under Article 130 of the 1991 Code of Criminal Procedure to prevent any influence on the procedures that are still before the investigative authorities.

The Al-Sudani article reported that those accused of the editor’s murder would stand trial next week.

   
Author of banned book fights back against China censors

From Boston.com See full article

The Chinese author of a book about long-dead Peking Opera stars has become the latest challenger to the ruling Communist Party's censors, daring them to explain their secretive ways before the law.

Zhang Yihe's Past Stories of Peking Opera Stars and seven other books were yanked from Chinese stores this month on the orders of propaganda officials, according to Zhang and other authors.

She has now issued a denunciation of the ban and threatened to sue the publishing authorities. It was you who treated me as a thought criminal, who robbed me of my rights to expression and publication as a citizen, Zhang wrote in the letter to a senior publishing official, dated January 28 but made public by her on Friday: Banning my book should be done through open, just and independent judicial procedures. I will defend to the hilt my rights under the law.

Zhang's lawyer, Pu Zhiqiang, told Reuters he was unsure how the author would seek redress and whether they would sue.

The ban on Zhang's book has not been entirely effective though. Pirated copies can be picked up on many streetside book stalls in Beijing.

Nicolas Sarkozy supports freedom of satire

From The Telegraph

Nicolas Sarkozy, the centre-Right frontrunner for the French presidency, yesterday earned the ire of Muslim groups when it emerged he backed a satirical magazine's publication of cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed.

Lawyers acting for the magazine Charlie Hébdo, which is being sued for defamation by two Muslim groups for reprinting controversial Danish cartoons, read out a letter from Sarkozy, the interior minister, in which he said he preferred too many caricatures to an absence of caricature.

I am eager to lend my support to your newspaper, which belongs to an old French tradition, that of satire, wrote Sarkozy. Having very often been the main target of Charlie Hébdo, Sarkozy added that he backed it in the name of the freedom to laugh at anything.

The court erupted into laughter when the lawyer read out Sarkozy's name, followed by his campaign slogan, together, everything is possible. But his statement provoked the wrath of the official French Council for the Muslim Religion, CFCM, an Islamic umbrella group that Sarkozy helped create four years ago.

Furious at what it saw as government interference, a spokesman for the CFCM said last night that the comments were "unacceptable" and that its heads were considering resigning en masse in protest. It's out of the question for a minister for religious affairs to take such a position. There's no neutrality, Abdallah Zekri said.

The CFCM was set up to represent the estimated five million Muslims in France.

Later Sarkozy, who was in Toulon yesterday, reiterated his support for the magazine: I am not in favour of any kind of censorship, whether of men, ideas or religions.

   
Amazon refuse to ban cock fighting magazines

From Seattle pi

Amazon.com said it would keep selling two magazines about cockfighting, despite renewed threats of a lawsuit from the Humane Society of the United States.

But the online retailer said it would again remove videos that depict dogfights, months after the issue was originally raised by Humane Society officials.

The Humane Society said it plans to formally file a lawsuit Thursday morning in District of Columbia Superior Court, accusing Amazon.com of operating an illegal: animal-fighting paraphernalia sale and distribution scheme.

Humane Society officials originally threatened to sue Amazon.com last July, saying the online retailer was violating the federal Animal Welfare Act by offering The Feathered Warrior and The Gamecock, two cockfighting magazines.

Seattle-based Amazon.com, however, said Wednesday the magazines are legal and would continue to be sold on its Web site. Refusing to sell books or magazines simply because their messages may offend is censorship, spokeswoman Patty Smith said: The customer is the best judge of what is and isn't appropriate for their reading habits.

The Washington, D.C.-based Humane Society maintained the cockfighting magazines and the dogfighting videos violate federal animal cruelty laws, and said its lawsuit would continue. Cockfighting is legal only in Louisiana and New Mexico.

Last June, Amazon.com was among the companies that pledged to remove a DVD, Hood Fights 2,  from its Web site after complaints that the video showed scenes of dogs fighting, along with street fights between people.

That case was different than the cockfighting magazines, Smith said, because the video depicted actual violence.

   
Film not shown in India for fear of vandalism

From India eNews

Censor Board chief Sharmila Tagore has blamed police authorities after Parzania, a film about communal violence in Gujarat in 2002, could not be released in the state.

Tagore feels that that government had been too soft on those who threatened to disrupt the screenings of Parzania. The police have to provide security. They have to take responsibility. It is the responsibility of the police to enforce law and order, she said.

The multiplex owners in Gujarat have refused to screen Los Angeles-based Indian filmmaker Rahul Dholakia's film fearing vandalism from Hindu rightwing activists.

The veteran actress also spoke at length about other issues like the controversy over the release of Hollywood flick Da Vinci Code last year and the ban on smoking in films. Tagore said Information and Broadcasting Minister Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi's action over Da Vinci Code had made the Censor Board 'seem a little redundant'.

On Dasmunsi's decision to see Da Vinci Code before giving it a green signal, she said it was an 'avoidable lack of communication' and the minister did not even involve her in the screening he held for Christian groups or in the decision he reached. Calling Dasmunsi a 'super censor', she said he should realise: that there is an organisation like us under him that is doing the job and that is why we are there.

Tagore said she was worried about the precedent that Dasmunsi had set.

   
Euthanasia book may get more peaceful passage in New Zealand

From tvnz.co.nz

New Zealand's chief censor, Bill Hastings, says he would be happy to take a look at a controversial book due to be launched this week by Euthanasia advocate Phillip Nitscke.

Nitscke also known as Dr Death is planning a trip to New Zealand this week to showcase his book The Peaceful Pill.

Attempts are being made to have it banned in Australia.

Hastings says a book by the Hemlock Society called Final Exit was given an R18 restriction in this country in the 1990s.

He says his office has yet to receive a copy of the book, but anyone with concerns is free to ask to have it looked at.

   
European mobiles go self regulating

From X Biz

European telecom operators, content providers and organizations have signed an agreement to develop self-regulating codes by February of next year.

23 companies agreed to help control minors from accessing adult material via mobile devices and support awareness campaigns in an effort to protect children from pedophiles and prevent access to porn and violent images.

This agreement is an important step forward for child safety, the EU’s Information Society and Media Commissioner Viviane Reding said. It shows that responsible self-regulation can work at a European level.

The telecom operators also agreed to enable parents to classify unsuitable content and customize their children’s mobile devices. Parents are also encouraged to read available safety information and talk with their kids about the risks of using cell phones.

   
Legal thinking behind failed blasphemy case

Press release from Christian Voice

A summons for a private prosecution for blasphemy against Mark Thompson, Director General of the BBC, and producer Jonathan Thoday in respect of Jerry Springer the Opera was refused late on Friday 12th January by Horesferry Road magistrates.

District Judge Miss Caroline Tubbs decided that a ruling in judicial review which went against the Christian Institute had prejudiced criminal proceedings for blasphemy, and that the production was covered by an escape clause in the Theatres Act 1968.

Solicitor Michael Phillips said:

In essence, as to whether a summons should be issued, the leading case is that of Ian Charlson. In that case it was held that there are four main questions for a Magistrate to consider. Those are (1) whether the allegation is an offence known and if so whether the essential ingredients are present, (2) if the offence is out of time, (3) whether the court has jurisdiction, (4) whether the informant has the necessary authority to prosecute. In addition, it must be considered whether the prosecution is vexatious.

(1) District Judge Tubbs held that blasphemous liable is an offence known to law. However, prosecution, she said, is prevented because of s2(4) of the Theatres Act 1968: No person shall be proceeded against in respect of a performance of a play, or anything said or done in the course of such a performance - (a) for an offence at common law where it is of the essence of the offence that the performance or, as the case may be, what was said or done was obscene, indecent, offensive, disgusting or injurious to morality. She held that the application falls within this provision.

(2) She also held that the essential ingredients of the offence are not prima facie present. As the High Court considered the case in the Judicial Review brought by the Christian Institute: I have made a judicial assessment as to whether the presence of the essential ingredients of the offence are prima facie present. I am supported in that view by the decisions of the Administrative Court and the GPCC [the BBC's internal Governors' Programming Complaints Commission -Ed] in this very play. I do not find it credible that they would have come to their respective decisions if the performance / programme they considered in great detail, with Christian religious sensibilities in mind, in fact contained the essential ingredients of an even more serious matter - a criminal offence of blasphemous libel.

In essence, those were the main reasons why she refused to issue a summons.'

Stephen Green has asked Phillips to proceed with an application to the High Court to review the District Judge's decision and he will make a further statement in due course.

   
Political changes allow restoration of cuts to Nepal film about slavery

From Malaysia Sun

Nepali film director Narayan Puri, who was the first in Nepal's film industry to dare make a film on the Maoist movement when the guerrillas were banned as terrorists and paid for the defiance by having censors hack his film ruthlessly, has been revived by the winds of change blowing in since then.

Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala, whose name is being suggested for the Nobel peace prize for signing a peace accord with the Maoists and ending 10 years' of bloodshed, was also at the helm of the country in 2002 when Puri made his controversial film, Aago (Fire).

However, things were vastly different then. Though 'Aago' did not refer to the Maoists by their name, it was seen as glorifying the guerrillas.

The censor board first ordered Puri to cut out nine scenes and then, sat on the negatives for 11 months, preventing its release.

In 2005, when the Koirala government had given way to King Gyanendra's regime, formed through a bloodless coup, Aago continued to suffer at censors' hands. Along with nearly six other films, it was tacitly banned from Nepal's theatres.

However, after the fall of King Gyanendra's government in April, Puri is now re-making Aago, restoring the scenes deleted by the censors.

Aago refers to the kamaiya system, the old tradition of bonded labour in Nepal that despite being abolished by the government on paper flourishes in the homes of ministers and civil servants: In winter, when Nepal celebrates the Maghe Samkranti festival, it is also the time for rich people to buy slaves from markets, just like they buy cows and goats. Such sales can be seen all over midwestern Nepal.

One of the deleted scenes in Aago shows revolutionaries going to the villages and trying to motivate people to oppose such customs. Another shows a teacher educating villagers so that they can understand how they are exploited and what their rights are.

The censor board never returned the deleted scenes to me, says Puri. When I asked to have them back, I was told they were lost. If the negatives had been intact, I could have simply added them to the film. But now, I have to shoot them again.

The shooting is nearly complete and the new Aago will be screened this month.

Annual Report on Saudi

From Reporters without Borders

The country remains one of world’s biggest enemies of press freedom. Two journalists were dismissed in 2006 for going beyond the limits set by the dominant ultra-conservative religious authorities.

The Saudi regime maintains very tight control of all news and self-censorship is pervasive. Enterprising journalists pay dearly for the slightest criticism of the authorities or the policies of “brother Arab” countries. The tame local media content means most Saudis get their news and information from foreign TV stations and the Internet.

Journalist Fawaz Turki, of the government daily Arab News, was dismissed in April for writing about the atrocities perpetrated by Indonesia, a Muslim country, during its 1975-99 occupation of East Timor. He had previously been warned for criticising Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in print.

The regime directly censored some journalists. The culture and information ministry told journalist Kinan ben Abdallah al-Ghamidi without explanation on 30 November that he could no longer write in the government daily Al Watan. He had already been forced to resign as the paper’s editor in 2002 after reporting that US troops were using the country’s military bases.

The privately-owned daily Shams was closed for a month on 16 February and its editor, Battal Alkus, dismissed for reprinting some of the cartoons of the Prophet Mohamed first carried by a Danish paper in September 2005.

Unlike in China, where a blocked website is passed off as a technical problem, Saudi filters say openly that certain pages on a site have been censored by the authorities. Targets are mostly pornography, but also political opposition, Israeli publications and homosexuality.

Blogs are a problem for the censors, who tried in 2005 to completely bar access to the country’s main blog-tool, blogger.com. They gave up after a few days and now just censure blogs they object to, such as “Saudi Eve,” the diary of a young woman who discusses her love life and criticises government censorship, which was added to the blacklist in June 2006.

Images of exploitation: The general synod

General Synod exploiting the gullible by blaming porn

A small edit and even the Melon farmers could join the demand that the government: sets up an inquiry to determine whether standards of behaviour are being fatally eroded by constant subjection to religious suggestions and images promoting the exploitation of other human beings..

From The Guardian

The Church of England's general synod is to debate calls for tighter controls on pornographic videos and broadcasts because of fears that viewers are being exploited.

A motion from the church's diocese of Lichfield is demanding that the government sets up an inquiry to determine whether standards of behaviour are being fatally eroded by constant subjection to suggestions and images ... promoting the exploitation of other human beings..

The diocese is warning that negative and degrading images are putting public safety at risk. In a background paper to synod members in advance of the debate at Church House in London on March 1 it claims:

Standards of taste and decency are changing ... the retort: 'If you don't like it, switch it off' ignores the danger that such films pose to society ... the British Board of Film Censors ... is making pornography easier to access by giving hardcore material 18 certificates. And material which previously would have been classified 18 is now being classified as 15 ... material previously classified as 15 is now being classified as 12.

The boundaries are continually being pushed back. If you continue to walk closer and closer to the edge of the cliff you must eventually either stop or fall off. Those pushing the boundaries in the media show no sign of doing either.

What appears to have spurred concern is the 18 certificate given to a DVD called Destricted, described as porn by the film-maker and photographer Sam Taylor Wood who was involved in making it.

They've just picked up a Zimbabwe National Army payslip

Zimbabwe newspaper editor threatened

From the BBC

Zimbabwean newspaper editor Bill Saidi has been sent a bullet in the post with a note warning: "Watch Your Step".

Enclosed with the bullet was a copy of a cartoon from last Sunday's edition of The Standard showing three baboons laughing over an army salary slip.

The week before a story claimed that many soldiers are deserting the army and moving to South Africa to work as security guards for better pay.

Critics say President Robert Mugabe has ruined what was one of Africa's most developed economies following the collapse of the commercial agriculture sector in 2000.

I was shocked to see the bullet. Someone was trying to send a dreadful message to us, the acting editor of the private weekly said.

After receiving the anonymous warning, Saidi said the army had written to him requesting a meeting to familiarise itself with the operations of the paper. A date would certainly be put aside for the meeting, he said.

In recent years, the authorities have closed down newspapers critical of the government and introduced increasingly strict laws restricting the media, but the Standard is one of the few to survive.

   
ie Europe muscling into Internet TV

From the BBC

An EU bid to make internet broadcasters subject to the same laws as traditional television is "seriously misguided", a House of Lords committee has said.

Proposals risk damaging the new media industry, pushing broadcasters to set up outside Europe, the committee said.

The committee was discussing European Commission plans to update the 1989 TV without Frontiers EU directive. The Audiovisual Media Services Directive aims to reflect huge changes in broadcasting in recent years.

It has proved controversial as the EU attempts to increase regulation of video content on the internet, and create a "level playing field" between traditional TV-based and online broadcasts. The EC argues that new broadcasters are effectively competing for viewers and advertising and should be subject to the same rules.

But the all-party Lords European Union Committee rejected this, saying it was not the role of regulation to protect established broadcasters from new competition operating under different business models.

Committee chairman Lord Freeman said: We believe that this attempt was seriously misguided and any future efforts to do the same would be in grave error. Such an attempt risks damaging the new media industry, which is a vibrant and important sector of the UK's economy.

The committee said enforcing the new directive would be difficult, as the pace of change in new media was so quick the definition of services covered may not offer enough legal certainty.

There was also particular concern about attempts to water down the "country of origin principle", which allows broadcasters to offer pan-European services, while complying with the laws of the country they are based in.

Lord Freeman added: Most of our concerns on the proposed directive rest on whether the country of origin principle, which we see as essential to the proper operation of single market legislation, will be maintained. We are firmly convinced that it should be.

Nasty laws proposed in Bahrain

From Gulf News

A Bahraini lawmaker is pushing for strict prison terms for people charged with downloading pornographic material off the internet, parliament sources told Gulf News.

The punishment is a part of a package of prison terms and fines suggested in a Bill presented by Council of Representatives member Abdullah Al Dossari.

We have noted an alarming surge in cyber crimes resulting from impressive technological developments, but the perpetrators are not always punished. I am submitting this Bill to deter anyone who wants to steal money or disseminate destructive ideas or spread vice, Al Dossari said in the motion.

The MP suggested anyone who uses the internet to download, possess, host, publish or distribute pornographic material should be jailed for one year. In its drive to consolidate its status as the "telecommunications hub of the Gulf," the kingdom has made access to the internet easily available.

However, Islamists have complained the authorities have not exerted sufficient efforts to block sexually explicit material, a charge the Ministry of Information has repeatedly denied. In its 2005 report the OpenNet Initiative (ONI) said that Bahrain was blocking three pornographic sites.

Denigration of religious precepts or defamation of national figures would warrant a three-month prison term and a 1,000 Bahraini dinar (Dh9, 694) fine.

Commons Committee

   
Extending the sex offenders register

From Hansard, thanks to UKRudeGirl
See committee minutes for details of the parliamentary discussion

A Commons committee, The First Delegated Legislation Committee, discussed the proposed extension of the sex offenders register on January 29th.

The Crimes being added to the list of crimes liable to registration are:

* outraging public decency
* theft (eg underwear theft as eported by the press)
* burglary with intent to steal, inflict grievous bodily harm or do unlawful damage
* child abduction
* harassment
* sending prohibited articles by post
* improper use of public electronic communications network

It is at the discretion of the police to apply to the courts for a Sexual Offence Prevention Order, which results in the offender being placed on the sex offenders register. This is normally done if police believe the person might commit another sex-related crime.

The committee were a little self congratulatory about protecting children but seemed to give little consideration to the possibility for abuse via vindictive or inappropriate use of the new law.

If accepted the order will be fast tracked into law within 2 weeks.

   
...So Australian censor taken to court

From Adultshop.com

AdultShop.com, a leading adult retailer, have lodged an appeal in the Federal Court of Australia seeking judicial review of the decision by the Classification Review Board (Review Board) to give an X18+ classification to the explicit erotic film, Viva Erotica.

The application for judicial review follows the publication by the Review Board on 4 January 2007 of its written reasons for upholding the classification.

AdultShop has always maintained the correct classification for Viva Erotica is R18+ and is appealing the X18+ classification on the grounds that the Review Board: has not reflected current community standards in its classification of Viva Erotica; and has wrongfully assumed the Classification Guidelines are an accurate reflection of current community standards.

In addition, AdultShop maintains the Office of Film and Literature Classification, the government agency that provides support to the Review Board, has not properly consulted the Australian community to determine whether explicit erotic films are likely to offend the average Australian adult.

AdultShop’s Managing Director, Malcolm Day, said: the decision by the Review Board was made despite overwhelming evidence put before it that demonstrated the majority of Australian adults are not offended by films involving actual sex.

At the hearing before the Review Board in November 2006, AdultShop produced evidence in the form of reports from three independent experts, including prominent feminist academic and Sydney University Associate Professor, Catharine Lumby, as well as a national survey carried out in September 2006 by ACNielsen. The results of this survey revealed only 30% of Australian adults considered films involving actual sex to be offensive. The Review Board disregarded the evidence and found that Viva Erotica was offensive. By law, all classification decisions must reflect current community standards, and we are confident the Federal Court will acknowledge that the views of the average Australian are not reflected in the current Classification Guidelines, said Day.

If successful, this appeal should have the effect of bringing classification decisions in Australia in line with Europe, the United States and New Zealand, concluded Day.

Blamed for the dour state of Indonesia's film industry

From Asia Media see full article

Amid simmering tensions between a new generation of filmmakers and the industry's long-established figures, the two parties sat together in a public meeting recently to discuss problems within the industry.

Prominent young filmmakers such as Mira Lesmana and Riri Riza were present, along with Indonesia Film Festival organizer Noorca Massardie, director Garin Nugroho, actor Alex Komang and old figures such as M.T. Risyaf, director of the 1987 comedy Naga Bonar.

The discussion allowed the industry's bigwigs an opportunity to vent their frustrations at the current state of affairs, all agreeing the problem lay with the Film Law.

Young director Riri Riza said after the Saturday discussion that the biggest obstacle hindering the industry in Indonesia was the presence of the law, drafted to serve the interests of the ruling government at that time. He said the law was: irrelevant given the current dynamics of the industry.

Riri acknowledged the regulation had moral intentions, but said, When a regulation no longer supports the development of an industry, then maybe it is time to rescind it.

Under the law, film is designed to preserve and to develop the nation's culture with the aim of supporting national development.

Riri said his main objection to the law was the presence of a government censor: There should be no censorship of films. However, there should be age classifications. People should be free to choose which films they want to watch, he said.

Muslims contend in French court that the Mohammed cartoons were racist

Based on an article from IOL

The row over Danish cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed will be replayed in a French court next week when two influential Islamic groups sue a Paris satirical weekly for inciting hatred against Muslims by printing the caricatures.

The two Muslim associations aim to show that reprinting the cartoons was a provocation equal to anti-Semitic acts or Holocaust denial that are already banned under French law, Dalil Boubakeur, rector of the Paris Grand Mosque, said recently.

The weekly Charlie Hebdo, which put out a special edition with the cartoons, argued religions are not beyond criticism and letting Muslims censor the media would curtail a basic right.

During the cartoon controversy, offended Muslims demanded an apology and a ban on criticising Islam. President Jacques Chirac accused Charlie Hebdo of willfully provoking Muslims.

France's five million Muslims make up Europe's largest Islamic minority, but there was little unrest here during the controversy because the French Muslim Council (CFCM) urged people to back the legal option rather than street protests.

A Paris court will hear the case next Wednesday and Thursday and issue its ruling at a later date.

Boubakeur, who is also head of the CFCM, said one cartoon, which showed Mohammed with a bomb for a turban, was especially offensive because it had the Muslim profession of faith on the turban and thus aimed at all Muslims and not just terrorists.

Szpiner, a prominent Paris lawyer, said the Grand Mosque's complaint was not about blasphemy because it singled out only two of the 10 cartoons printed by Charlie Hebdo as racist: We admit that one can caricaturise the Prophet, he said, expressing a view contrary to a widespread belief in the Muslim world that images of Mohammad are forbidden: No French court would accept an argument based on that Muslim belief. The issue is not the principle of caricaturising the Prophet, but a racist aggression against French Muslims, telling them they are terrorists.

Boubakeur hoped the case would show France needed tighter laws to protect against Islamophobia. The Grand Mosque suit is based on a law against insulting a group on religious grounds. But he opposed a specific hate-speech law for Muslims or anything like a recent law France passed making it a crime to deny that Armenians suffered genocide in Ottoman Turkey in 1915: We're thinking about a general law, not just one for Jews, one for Armenians and one for Muslims, One can have differences of opinion about religion, but one cannot spout hate because hate favours violence."

Bangladesh news censorship formalised

From CPJ

The Committee to Protect Journalists is greatly concerned about new regulations imposed by the Bangladeshi interim government that severely restrict news reporting. The Emergency Powers Rules of 2007, announced on Thursday, restrict press coverage of political news and set penalties of up to five years in prison for violations.

The new rules aim at a wide range of political activities. Those dealing specifically with media allow the government to ban or censor print and broadcast news about rallies and other political activities that it deems “provocative or harmful.” Under the rules, the government can seize printed material and confiscate printing presses and broadcast equipment. The government also has power under the regulations to censor or block news transmitted in any form.

These rules give authorities sweeping powers of censorship that will deprive Bangladeshi citizens of independent information at this critical time of political upheaval, said Joel Simon, CPJ’s executive director. We call on the interim government to rescind these repressive rules immediately.

Bangladesh has been embroiled in political turmoil since October, when Prime Minister Khaleda Zia’s administration came to an end in the run-up to constitutionally mandated elections. Voting had been scheduled for this week but was postponed when opposition parties protested irregularities. President Iajuddin Ahmed stepped down as leader of the caretaker government and declared a state of emergency on January 11, following bitter clashes between supporters of the two major rival parties.

The regulations took effect today and will remain in force until the government lifts the state of emergency, according to Thursday’s announcement.

   
Accident leads to inevitable call to ban Jackass

From The Scotsman

A man has described the horror of seeing his son turn into a human fireball after copying a stunt from a film.

Stuart Harrison, 11, was rushed to hospital with severe burns following an incident at his home in Inverclyde. Stuart is still being treated on hospital.

It is understood he was engulfed by flames after copying scenes from Jackass: The Movie by spraying himself with deodorant and setting himself alight.

Stuart's father and his mother, Pearl, want the Jackass TV series and the 18-rated films banned following the incident. The film, which stars Johnny Knoxville, originated from the MTV series Jackass. It has the tagline "Do not attempt this at home" and contains a number of pranks and stunts that did not get past the television censor.

It was reported the boy watched the film in his bedroom with his twin brother and best friend before acting the scene out.

   
Germany guilty of a heinous crime against humanity

From The Telegraph

People who question the official history of recent conflicts in Africa and the Balkans could be jailed for up to three years for "genocide denial", under proposed EU legislation.

Germany will table new legislation to outlaw "racism and xenophobia" this spring.

Included in the draft EU directive are plans to outlaw Holocaust denial, creating an offence that does not exist in British law.

But the proposals, seen by The Daily Telegraph, go much further and would criminalise those who question the extent of war crimes that have taken place in the past 20 years.

The legislation will trigger a major row across Europe over free speech and academic freedom.

Deborah Lipstadt, the professor of Modern Jewish and Holocaust Studies at Emory University, Atlanta, believes the German proposals are misplaced: I adhere to that pesky little thing called free speech and I am very concerned when governments restrict it. How will we determine precisely what is denial? Will history be decided by historians or in a courtroom?

Berlin's draft EU directive extends the idea of Holocaust denial to the gross minimisation of genocide out of racist and xenophobic motives, to include crimes dealt with by the International Criminal Court.

The draft text states: Each member state shall take the measures necessary to ensure that the following intentional conduct is punishable: 'publicly condoning, denying or grossly trivialising of crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes as defined in'... the Statute of the ICC.

A German government spokesman said: Whether a specific historic crime falls within these definitions would be decided by a court in each case.

If agreed by EU member states, the legislation is likely to declare open season for human rights activists and organisations seeking to establish a body of genocide denial law in Europe's courts.

Annual press freedom survey 2007

From Reporters without Borders see full article

The report lists the worst violations in repressive countries, including major culprits North Korea, Eritrea, Cuba and Turkmenistan, but also looks at democracies, where progress needs to be made too.

A disturbingly record number of journalists and media workers were killed or thrown in prison around the world in 2006 and we are already concerned about 2007, as six journalists and four media assistants have been killed in January alone.

But beyond these figures is the alarming lack of interest (and sometimes even failure) by democratic countries in defending the values they are supposed to incarnate. Almost everyone believes in human rights these days but amid the silences and behaviour on all sides, we wonder who now has the necessary moral authority to make a principled stand in favour of these freedoms.

The publication by a Danish newspaper of cartoons of the Prophet Mohamed focused the world’s attention in 2006 on the issue of freedom of expression and respect for religious beliefs. Democratic countries did not defend Denmark, whose embassies were attacked, or the journalists who were threatened and arrested. Europe especially seemed to choose silence for fear of offending Arab or Muslims regimes.

Media workers in the Middle East were once again the victims of the region’s chronic instability. 65 journalists and media assistants were killed in Iraq and kidnappings were more frequent there and in the Palestinian Territories. Despite repeated promises, the region’s governments have not introduced significantly greater democracy.

In Latin America, the murder of nearly a dozen journalists in Mexico with virtual impunity, the continued imprisonment of more than a score in Cuba and the deteriorating situation in Bolivia (nevertheless the best-ranked country of the South in the Reporters Without Borders annual press freedom index) are all signals to the international community to be very vigilant.

Press freedom violations in Asia peaked with 16 media workers killed, at least 328 arrested, 517 physically attacked or threatened and 478 media outlets censored in 2006. Censorship is very widespread and complete freedom to speak and write is rare in Asia.

Many African governments, especially those in the Horn of Africa, distrust media workers. The killers of journalists are also not being punished and are still being protected by governments and all-powerful politicians in Gambia and Burkina Faso.

Dictatorships also seem to be tightening their grip on the Internet and at least 60 people are in prison for posting criticism of the government online. China, the leading offender, is being copied by Vietnam, Syria, Tunisia, Libya and Iran and more and more bloggers and cyber-dissidents are in jail.

Number of blocked Thai websites soars 500%

From The Nation
See also Freedom Against Censorship Thailand (FACT)

This year is becoming Thailand's 21st century version of George Orwell's 1984, as the number of blocked websites has risen 500% since the coup, according to the campaign group Freedom Against Censorship Thailand (FACT).

The "blocklist" numbered 13,435 websites as of January 11, compared to 2,475 on October 13 last year.

The huge jump showed a frightening increase in thought control and abrogation of civil liberties and human rights in Thailand, FACT said in a statement.

Some anti-coup websites such as 19sep.org have been blocked six times since the coup took place last September.

In the wake of September 19, many Thai Web discussion boards were blocked or ordered to self-censor, stifling freedom of expression and freedom of association, FACT said.

It said the identity of blocked websites had not been disclosed to the public, and government agencies had not revealed what criteria they used in regard to blocking sites. The group said that the Ministry of Information and Communication Technology (MICT), which does much of the censorship, had a budget of Bt5 billion.

It would appear Internet censorship is the only function of the Ministry of 'Information' yet MICT discloses no information to the Thai taxpayers.

A King is Born! (mock up)

ASA dismiss prawn brain complaints

Based on an article from ASA see full adjudication
Spotted by MediawatchWatch

An ad in The Grocer magazine, for The Big Prawn Company, featured an image of a framed painting depicting the nativity. A king prawn was shown in the manger in place of the baby Jesus. Text underneath the picture stated A KING IS BORN' ORDER NOW TO ENSURE A CHRISTMAS DELIVERY THE BIG PRAWN CO. The Big Prawn Company launches its new King prawn in December.

Nutters from Food Chain Solutions and the public thought the image of the nativity scene with a prawn in the place of the baby Jesus was offensive, especially to Christians.

The Big Prawn Company said they had not intended their ad to offend and had believed that most readers would understand that the approach was meant to be light-hearted. They did not believe the ad was disrespectful or mocking of religion and explained that they had a running theme of using puns involving prawns to advertise their company and did not believe that the ad would cause serious or widespread offence. The Big Prawn Co. said they printed an apology in the subsequent issue of The Grocer and said that they would not use the ad again. The Big Prawn Company received 16 complaints.

The Grocer said they had given serious consideration to the ad before running it. They thought the ad was intended to be humorous, rather than offensive, and because The Grocer was a specialist title, with a diverse readership encompassing all faiths, they concluded that it was unlikely to cause serious or widespread offence. They Grocer said that they had received 28 complaints about the ad.

The ASA acknowledged that the Big Prawn Co. had issued an apology to those who complained to them about the ad and that they had also published an apology in The Grocer. We noted they had no plans to use the ad again.

While we noted some readers had been offended by the depiction of a prawn in place of the baby Jesus, we considered that the approach would be seen as light-hearted by most readers of The Grocer; it was unlikely to cause serious or widespread offence. The ASA did not find the advert in breach and no further action is necessary.

   
South Africa now will prosecute webmasters of adult sites

From X Biz

After a year-end ultimatum from the Film and Publications Board warning that websites with a .za URL cease posting adult content or shutdown, many have complied. But the few websites that remain now face prosecution, according to South African authorities.

In September, the Film Publications Board, which has authority over the country’s Internet media, issued a warning to adult sites operating in the country. The warning gave the sites a Dec. 31 deadline to stop selling adult DVDs or distributing adult content online.

Film Publications Board compliance coordinator Yewande Langa said the crackdown on adult websites was part of a series of efforts supposedly to shield the nation’s youth from pornography. He added that the board is compiling a list of offending websites that continue to remain online after the deadline. The list will then be turned over to authorities, who plan to shutdown the sites and prosecute the webmasters.

According to a report in a local paper, a South African webmaster who gave his name as “Ian” said he has not yet heard of any sites being shutdown and that it is “business as usual” for the country’s online adult entertainment industry.

Under South African law, the sale of pornography is legal for licensed brick-and-mortar retailers selling to those who are 18-years-old and above.

South African authorities said they targeted websites because many licensed retailers use the Internet to advertise, but not sell, adult DVDs.

   
Nutters waiting for state provided Internet filters

Based on an article from News.com.au

Up to 2.5 million Australian families are said to be waiting for the Federal Government to deliver on a promise to protect children from online pornography.

A $93 million plan to offer every household in Australia free internet filtering software was expected to be running by the end of last year.

But seven months after the announcement, billed as the "single biggest commitment" to protecting Australian families in the history of the internet, some parents are still waiting to install the promised filters on their home computers. The filtering technology, which blocks X-rated sites and offensive words, was also to be installed at public libraries across Australia.

Family First nutter Senator Steve Fielding said the wait was a disgrace: This shows the Government is not serious about protecting our kids from this vile material.

But a spokeswoman for Communications Minister Helen Coonan said the software would be available soon: These things have a long lead-in time.

"We are finalising the portal and it should be ready in the first quarter of this year. It will be worth the wait. Every Australian family will be able to access a free internet filter that they can tailor to their own personal value judgments.The launch of the software will be accompanied by a $18 million national advertising campaign to highlight the benefits of parents using online filters.

And of course nutters argue the proposed measures do not go far enough. Senator Fielding has called for new laws to force internet service providers to block pornography before it reaches the home.

   
Mayor drops plans to ban the N-Word

From Gamasutra

After facing intense opposition against a proposed ordinance that would have outlawed the use of the "nigger" in his town, Brazoria Mayor Ken Corley announced that he would drop the proposal altogether.

Corley's decision brought applause from most of the 200 people who gathered in the middle of Main Street to discuss the issue.

While almost all speakers said they condemned the use of any racial epithets, most said the Brazoria County town of 2,800 has few racial problems, and the proposed ordinance would cause more problems than it would cure.

A violation would have been a Class C misdemeanor, the lowest category of offense, which is punishable by a fine of up to $500.

David Hudson, an attorney with the First Amendment Center at Vanderbilt University, said the proposal clearly would have violated the First Amendment.