From The Guardian

Civil servants working in politically sensitive areas will be required to sign away to the government the copyright, including newspaper serialisation deals, on any future books they may write, the foreign secretary, Jack Straw, revealed yesterday.

Confirming the government's latest attempt to curb disclosures by senior officials close to ministerial private offices, Straw published a Cabinet Office plan that would remove one of the incentives to publish.

In evidence to the public administration committee of MPs Straw deplored past lapses, most recently the memoirs of Sir Christopher Meyer, the British ambassador to Washington during crucial Bush-Blair encounters, which were serialised in the Guardian.

Straw said he did not write a diary - and felt uncomfortable working with people who did. His old boss, Barbara Castle, had done so and and been very nice about me on every page

From Butterflies and Wheels: "Fighting fashionable nonsense"

Reza Moradi was questioned by police at Saturday's free speech demonstration. The Washington Post reported:

It's my freedom, everyone's freedom, to expose these pictures and encourage everyone to do the same," said Reza Moradi, a protester who identified himself as an Iranian who has lived in Britain for eight years. Moradi was later questioned by police after someone lodged a complaint regarding the "nature of his placard," which featured a copy of the Danish cartoon depicting the Prophet Muhammad with a bomb in his turban, a London police spokeswoman said. After a brief, heated exchange with officers, Moradi left the protest on his own and then rejoined the demonstration later.

It now appears that Reza Moradi was told that he will be summoned to court for "offending" someone because he carried a placard with the Mohammad caricatures at the March 25 free speech rally.

From CTV.ca

Afghanistan isn't the only government where Muslim converts to Christianity are threatened with execution.

Saudi Arabia neither permits conversion from Islam nor allows other religions in the kingdom. There are no churches and missionaries are barred. Regular criticism in U.S. State Department reports on religious freedom have had no effect on Saudi policy.

While Islam accepts Christianity as a fellow monotheistic religion, Islamic Shariah law considers conversion to any religion apostasy and most Muslim scholars agree the punishment is death. Saudi Arabia considers Shariah the law of the land, though there have been no reported cases of executions of converts from Islam in recent memory.

The only other country in the region which carries the death penalty for apostasy is Sudan. Though no executions have been reported recently, a Sudanese man who allegedly converted was arrested in 2004 and reportedly tortured in custody, according to the State Department.

In Kuwait, a court convicted a Shiite man who publicly proclaimed his conversion to Christianity, but didn't sentence him since the criminal code did not set a punishment.

Other countries in the region, such as Egypt, do not have laws criminalizing apostasy, but those who do convert can still face prosecution.

In May, an Egyptian man who converted to Christianity was arrested on suspicion of "contempt for religion,'' a charge that entails a prison sentence of up to five years, said Hossam Bahgat, director of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights. The man, who has not been identified, remains in custody without charge, Bahgat said.

Authorities in Egypt and most other Arab countries will not recognize a conversion from Islam in official documents, such as identity papers, which usually state a person's faith.

Even if a convert is not prosecuted, the issue is the pressure they are going to face from their families, the religious establishment, their friends and associates, said Fadi al-Qadi, a Middle East spokesman for York-based Human Rights Watch. It would be overwhelming. They would be really isolated.

Turkey is a democratic country and, according to law, you can choose whatever you want, said Soner Tufan, himself a convert from Islam, who runs a Christian radio station, Radio Shema, in the capital, Ankara. But, he said, if someone converts, they can suffer some problems from their friends, relatives and neighbours _ or face difficulties getting a job in the civil service.

Most often, the issue of conversion reaches the courts in the context of marriage. While Islam accepts a Muslim man marrying a Christian woman _ one of the Prophet Muhammad's wives was Christian _ it does not tolerate a Muslim woman marrying a Christian man.

The November 2004 case of a Jordanian man convicted of apostasy came after his wife _ who remained Muslim _ and her family reported he had converted. The man, whom the court records did not identify, appealed his conviction to a higher court but lost.

From The Evening Echo

The German state of Bavaria today announced a ban on the use of mobile phones in schools to prevent students from viewing images of pornography and extreme violence.

Students can still carry their phones, but will have to leave them switched off during school hours, including during breaks, state education minister Siegfried Schneider said: School is no place for phoning and certainly not for distributing concoctions that endanger youth, Schneider said.

The ban comes after police recently found pornography and violent images on mobile phones seized from students at schools in the Bavarian towns of Augsburg and Immenstadt.

No doubt the immigration authorities will be getting worried. Surely any Muslim in a country with extreme punishment for apostasy can now claim asylum in the West just by publicly announcing that they no longer believe in Islam.

Based on an article from The Independent

Italy is considering granting asylum to Abdul Rahman, the Afghan man who was released from jail yesterday in Kabul, where he had faced the death penalty for converting to Christianity.

He was staying in a safe house last night after prosecutors dropped the case against him under intense international pressure. But Rahman will have to flee the country for his own safety, after several leading Muslim clerics called on Afghans to tolerantly kill him.

Rahman appealed for help to leave Afghanistan, and he is thought most likely to go to Italy, where the Foreign Minister, Gianfranco Fini is to ask the cabinet today to grant him asylum.

Fini was one of the first foreign politicians to take up the case of Rahman, and Pope Benedict XVI has appealed for his release. Italy has close ties to Afghanistan, having provided a home for the former king Mohammed Zahir Shah during his 30 years in exile. There is a possibility that Rahman will go to Germany, where he has lived before, and the United Nations says it is trying to help find a country to take him.

From Iran Focus

A radical hard-line cleric has been appointed as the new secretary general of the Supreme Council for Diffusion of Information.

The council falls under the ultimate supervision of hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and one of its main tasks is to ensure that the Internet would not be used by Iranians inside the country in any way that would violate “Islamic ethics” or pose a threat to “state security”.

Hojjatoleslam Hamid Shahryari has taken over from a layman, Nasrollah Jahangard. He and his colleagues constantly update the list of Internet websites that should be filtered.

Shahryari has run an Islamist website (hawzah.net) for several years and established a reputation for himself as a fiery theological student while studying in the seminaries of the holy city of Qom in the 1980s.

From SacBee

The Afghan man who faced the death penalty for converting from Islam to Christianity will be freed from prison and has asked for asylum in another country, U.S. and U.N. officials said Monday.

Hundreds of Muslims marched against a court's decision Sunday to dismiss the case against Abdul Rahman after heavy international pressure on Afghan President Hamid Karzai to drop the trial. Several Muslim clerics have threatened to incite Afghans to kill Rahman if he is freed, saying he is clearly guilty of apostasy and deserves to die.

A senior Afghan official closely involved with the case said that Rahman would be freed shortly, but the details of how it would be done were still being hammered out. Meanwhile he is still in his cell at Kabul's notorious high-security Policharki prison late Monday.

U.N. spokesman Adrian Edwards made clear that Rahman was planning to leave the country once he is free: Mr.Rahman has asked for asylum outside Afghanistan. We expect this will be provided by one of the countries interested in a peaceful solution to this case.

Asked whether the U.S. government was doing anything or has made any offers to secure Rahman's safety after he is released, McCormack said where he goes after he is freed is going to be up to Mr. Rahman.

He urged Afghans not to resort to violence even if they are unhappy with the resolution of the case.

While officials said the case against Rahman was dropped, prosecutors also said earlier Monday they were still examining whether he was mentally fit to stand trial. Deputy Attorney General Mohammed Eshak Aloko told The Associated Press that he may be sent overseas for psychological treatment if a medical examination that started Monday concludes that he is insane.

Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah told a news conference in Kabul that he was optimistic the issue would soon be resolved.

Earlier Monday, hundreds of clerics and students chanting "Death to Christians!" and "Death to Bush!'" marched through the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif to protest the court's decision to toss out the case. Abdul Rahman must be killed. Islam demands it, said senior Cleric Faiez Mohammed, from the nearby northern city of Kunduz. The Christian foreigners occupying Afghanistan are attacking our religion. He warned of possible riots if Rahman is released.

From The Age

The United States Government has blocked a plan to create a red-light district in cyberspace.

Icann, the worldwide body that manages the internet, had been expected to approve website addresses ending in ".xxx" at an international meeting under way in Wellington, but it is understood it will not now vote on the proposal.

Canadian firm ICM Registry has spent five years and $US2.5 million campaigning for the right to manage.xxx web addresses, for which it would charge $US60 each.

Chairman Stuart Lawley said he was disappointed, but it was not realistic to expect a decision on.xxx in Wellington.

The US Commerce Department - which created Icann as an independent body to take over its management of the domain name system - raised concerns about proposed mechanisms for managing .xxx websites. But Lawley said he believed it was a "deliberate delaying tactic". Lawley said this was the third time the US Government had delayed .xxx addresses, and blamed the influence of religious conservatives in the US that appear to have access to the powers that be.

Lawley estimates there are four million adult websites, owned by 100,000 webmasters.

ICM Registry is not directly involved in the adult Internet industry, but has made no bones that it wants to make money selling .xxx addresses.

The company has won some support for its argument that setting up the red-light zone in cyberspace would make it easier to filter out adult websites so they could not be seen accidentally or by children.

Liz Butterfield, executive director of New Zealand's nonprofit Internet Safety Group, said .xxx was potentially positive and saw no reason why such addresses should not be allowed. But she said she doubted the addressing system would stop many adult website owners using other Internet addresses, such as .com. I think you have got to be realistic about what it would achieve

From the Daily Times

About a thousand Muslims rallied in Indonesia's capital on Sunday to support a proposed law banning pornography and obscene acts .

The protesters, including many women and young children, chanted "We refuse pornography!" as they gathered under gloomy skies in Jakarta to press parliament to pass the bill, which is supported by conservative Islamic politicians and preachers.

Those who only see this issue from a human rights, liberal and secular point of view are trying to disrupt efforts to curb pornography, said Ma'ruf Amin, a member of Indonesia's council of clerics.

From The Scotsman

An Afghan court yesterday dismissed the case against a man who faced the death penalty after converting from Islam to Christianity - because of a lack of evidence. A court official said Abdur Rahman would be released soon, but he added that the case had been returned to the prosecutors for more investigation.

The court dismissed today the case against Abdur Rahman for a lack of information and a lot of legal gaps in the case, the official said. The decision about his release will be taken possibly tomorrow. They don't have to keep him in jail while the attorney general is looking into the case.

Abdul Wakil Omeri, a spokesman for the Supreme Court, confirmed that the case had been dismissed because of problems with the prosecutors' evidence.

A Western diplomat said on condition of anonymity that questions were now being raised as to whether Rahman would stay in Afghanistan or would go into exile in a foreign country.

Rahman faced execution by hanging if he had been found guilty of apostasy under Islam's Sharia law. His trial had been due to start in a few days.

In an interview conducted via a human rights worker who visited Rahman in jail, before news of his release, he said he was prepared for death. I don't want to die. But if God decides, I am ready to confront my choices, all the way, he said.

He added that he did not want to leave Afghanistan, a possible option if he is allowed to go free: If I flee that would mean my country hasn't changed. It would mean that they have won, our enemies. Without human rights, without respect for all religions, the Taleban have won.

Hopefully the ISPs will also block the nonsense beliefs promoted by the church.

From Scoop

Church welcomes home computer block

Moves to block violent and pornographic material before it reaches home computers will protect children from the dangers of cyberspace, the Australian Bishops Conference said.

Chairman of the Bishops' Committee for Media, Archbishop Barry Hickey, said most parents were concerned at the presence of internet violence and pornography on their home computer, but many did not know what to do about it.

The opposition this week announced its policy to have Internet Service Providers (ISPs) filter out websites rated R or above and media reports yesterday indicate that the federal government is investigating and trailing the idea.

Archbishop Hickey said: Those with little technical know-how might not even know that such filtering equipment exists. It is much more effective to have ISPs block sites promoting violence and pornography before they ever reach home computers.

We welcome any moves by political parties to make home computers safer for children and less worrying for parents, he said.

From The Telegraph

The ultra-Conservative supreme court of Afghanistan is threatening to resist President Hamid Karzai's attempts to spare a man who faces execution for converting to Christianity. In a move that could scupper Karzai's efforts to resolve the crisis, the judge handling the case said he would brook neither presidential interference nor objections from Kabul's Western backers.

We [the judiciary] have nothing to do with diplomatic issues, Judge Ansarullah Mawlawizada told the Sunday Telegraph. We will do our job independently.

The judge's comments came after Karzai's officials hinted that Abdul Rahman, could be freed within the next two days in an effort to end the international outcry over his prosecution. Karzai has assured world leaders, who have telephoned to protest at the possible death penalty, that Rahman will be spared.

Rahman was prosecuted under anti-apostasy edicts enshrined in Afghanistan's sharia law, which makes it a crime punishable by death for any Muslim to renounce their faith. Despite the risk, however, up to 10,000 Afghans have secretly converted to Christianity in recent years, disillusioned with what they see as Islam's overzealous involvement in politics.

The case has highlighted tensions between the West's vision of Afghanistan as a liberal democracy and the orthodoxy of the country's powerful Islamic judiciary, whose outlook is shared by much of the population. Yesterday, Downing Street became caught up in the row, after criticism that no senior minister had joined the international condemnation of the case.

President George W Bush, said he was "deeply troubled" by it; the Australian prime minister, John Howard, said it as "appalling" and the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, spoke to Karzai personally.

In Britain it was left to a junior Foreign Office minister, Kim Howells, to echo President Bush's words. Critics contrast Straw's silence on the issue with his speedy condemnation of the publication of cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed, and accuse him of double standards.

Rahman is being held in a Kabul prison after a court appearance last week. The Afghan authorities say they suspect he is mentally ill, and so may be unfit to stand trial - which would allow the supreme court to dismiss the case without loss of face.

But in Kabul's mosques last week, talk about the Rahman case was uncompromising. Rejecting Islam is insulting God, said Mullah Abdul Raoulf at the large Herati mosque. Cut off his head!

This seems a bit of a non-story to me. The actors can use a non lighted cigarette. The glow and smoke can be added later digitally

From The Times

For Joanna Lumley, famous for her role as a chain-smoking fashion editor, the rules are Absolutely Fatuous.

Today is the last gasp for actors in Scotland smoking on screen in a ban that will soon stub out the cigarettes of Britain’s television characters.

The Scottish authorities have brushed off pleas by Lumley, who played Patsy in the BBC comedy Absolutely Fabulous, and other opponents of the measure to lighten up.

From today, actors north of the border will be banned from filming scenes with cigarettes, cigars or pipes. Even a request to permit herbal cigarettes has been rejected.

ITV, which films the Rebus detective series, based on the Ian Rankin books, is now amending the scripts for the next three dramas, which will be filmed shortly. The scriptwriters have opted to turn the ban to their dramatic advantage. Rebus falls foul of the law when he attempts to light up in his favourite watering hole, the Oxford Bar in Edinburgh. He may emerge as Scotland’s smoking ban martyr.

The ban in Scotland, which follows similar curbs introduced in Ireland in 2004, is to be followed by legislation for England next year, which could have the same consequences for actors on stage or screen.

Based on an article from the Daily Mail

A demonstration championing free speech in central London passed off peacefully. Some protesters carried placards featuring cartoons that infuriated much of the Muslim world.

About 250 protesters gathered in Trafalgar Square to demonstrate against the uproar generated by the controversial Danish cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad.

Police said no arrests were made but one man was questioned by officers after they received a complaint about the nature of his placard. It showed a copy of the cartoon depicting Muhammad with a bomb in his turban.

Iranian Reza Moradi, who has lived in London for eight years, left the protest after being quizzed by police and returned later.

Nine Muslim counter-protesters wearing black-and-white head scarves were escorted from the protest.

A police spokeswoman said: Police informed them they were free to go wherever they wanted, but because they had scarves covering their faces and they were chanting, officers remained with them.

Risdon initially had announced that he would allow protesters to display banners and wear T-shirts depicting those images. However, he later withdrew the invitation posted on the rally's website, asking demonstrators not to show the cartoons out of fear their display would alienate sympathetic Muslims and give credibility to a far-right political group, the British National Party, which has used the cartoons as a rallying cry.

The decision sparked hundreds of angry responses on the website by those planning to attend the march, many of whom deemed Risdon's change of heart as political censorship.

From the New York Times

So  called preachers used Friday prayers to call for the execution of an Afghan Muslim who converted to Christianity, despite growing protests in the West. The conversion of the man, Abdul Rahman, 15 years ago was brought to the attention of the authorities as part of a child custody dispute.

The Bush administration and European governments have strongly protested the case as a violation of religious freedom. But Rahman has drawn a strong reaction in Afghanistan, too, and for many hardline clerics, there is no greater offense than apostasy.

One speaker, Maulavi Habibullah, told more than a thousand clerics and young people gathered in Kabul: Afghanistan does not have any obligation under international laws. The prophet says, when somebody changes religion, he must be killed.

Germany's chancellor, Angela Merkel, told reporters on Friday that she had been assured by President Hamid Karzai in a telephone call that Rahman would not be executed, The Associated Press reported.

A senior government official said Rahman would be released from jail soon, Agence France-Presse reported. The agency did not identify the official, who added that there would be a top-level meeting on the case on Saturday.

Based on an article from News.com.au

the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) has been flexing newly provided powers to insist upon 'enforceable undertakings'.  The next series of Big Brother will feel the brunt.

Network Ten made the undertaking to the Australian Communications and Media Authority yesterday after the watchdog found a third episode of the 2005 series of Big Brother Uncut breached broadcast standards to ensure that all TV content is suitable for 15 year old children.

ACMA received two complaints from viewers about an episode aired on July 4 last year. The media watchdog found the episode went beyond the suitability of the MA (15+) classification and the network did not properly describe the episode as containing strong adult themes, sexual references, implied sexual behaviour and full frontal or partial nudity.

In its list of undertakings to ensure it met community standards, Ten has pledged to improve codes of conduct and housemate training to increase awareness of sexual harassment, assault and bullying.

Ten also said it had brought in a Rape Crisis Centre manager and a media studies academic to look at its precautions to prevent sexually demeaning behaviour in the house.

Production staff will improve the way they monitor housemate behaviour from the control room and draw up new guidelines. The control room will use the guidelines to identify risky situations and immediately refer them to production executives for advice, Ten said.

Two classifiers will view Big Brother Uncut episodes before they are shown to ensure they meet standards, and report back to ACMA every week on any complaints received.

ACMA chairman Chris Chapman said it was important community standards were upheld. The classification scheme set out in the code reflects well-accepted community standards and provides safeguards against the broadcast of inappropriate material. It is imperative that broadcasters stay within its limits.

From the BBC

Sources South Park has exacted revenge on its former star Isaac Hayes by turning his character Chef into a paedophile and seemingly killing him off.

The opening episode of the 10th series, screened in the US on Wednesday, appeared to be a satire on Scientology. Hayes, a Scientologist, quit the animated comedy after a different episode ridiculed the religion.

In the new show, Chef is brainwashed by the "Super Adventure Club" - thought to be a veiled reference to Scientology. The other characters are angry at "that fruity little club for scrambling his brains".

He eventually meets his comeuppance after falling off a bridge and being burned, stabbed and mauled by a lion and a grizzly bear.

At his funeral, one of the children says: A lot of us don't agree with the choices the Chef has made in the last few days. Some of us feel hurt and confused that he seemed to turn his back on us. But we can't let the events of the past few weeks take away the memories of how Chef made us smile...We shouldn’t be mad at Chef for leaving us. We should be mad at that fruity little club for scrambling his brains

Hayes did not participate in the episode but his lines were apparently patched together from previous recordings.

From Prison Planet

For the first time in what some fear will signal a growing trend, Google Inc. has banned and removed a mainstream news website from all its worldwide search engines, seemingly due to the website's reports on China's geopolitical affairs and military technology.

Space War is a reasonably tame mainstream website that focuses on geopolitical affairs and satellite and military technology advancements. It is based in Australia and carries articles from AFP and United Press International.

In a statement posted on its website today, the President and Publisher of Space.TV Corporation Simon Mansfield released the following comments: Google Inc. has banned SPACEWAR.COM, a news site covering military space. Reasons for the ban by Google are unclear. The company did not communicate with Space.TV Corp., the owner of SPACEWAR.COM, prior to its action, and Google representatives did not respond to requests for comment. Google Inc.'s preferred method of banning a site is to delist its primary domain URL - www.spacewar.com - from the Google search index. Google also can reduce a site's page rank, or eliminate it entirely, as it has done to SpaceWar.com. Google Inc in the wake of pressure from the Chinese government has begun blocking access to various websites deemed unfriendly to the "Boys From Beijing"

At this stage we have no evidence to suggest this is the reason why Google has banned SPACEWAR.COM. The lack of any forewarning that SPACEWAR.COM was operating in violation of Google's increasingly strict search engine compliance requirements, however, leads us to suspect the ban is politically motivated.

It is important to stress that Space War is not even outright hostile to the Chinese government, it simply reports on publicly available information about its military progression and relations with other countries.

Update: After a complaints campaign, Google has agreed to re-index the Space War website mentioned in this article.

From The Telegraph

A 15-year-old boy who raped four young girls after watching hardcore pornography was sent to a young offenders' institution yesterday for four years.

At Manchester Crown Court the boy admitted four rapes and was told he would have to spend five years under supervision once he was freed.

From Metro

The United States and three NATO allies with troops in Afghanistan urged the Kabul government to respect the religious freedom of an Afghan convert to Christianity who faces the death penalty there.

The United States, which counts Afghan President Hamid Karzai as a key ally in the region, raised the case with visiting Afghan Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah, calling on Kabul to uphold Afghan citizens' constitutional right to choose their faith.

We hope that the Afghan constitution is going to be upheld and in our view, if it's upheld, then of course he'll be found to be innocent, said Nicholas Burns, the State Department's third-ranked diplomat.

An Afghan judge said on Sunday a man named Abdur Rahman had been jailed for converting from Islam to Christianity and could face the death penalty if he refused to become a Muslim again. Sharia, or Islamic law, stipulates death for apostasy.

While we understand the complexity of a case like this and we certainly will respect the sovereignty of the Afghan authorities and the Afghan system, from an American point of view, people should be free to choose their own religion, Burns told reporters, flanked by Abdullah.

Abdullah said his government had "nothing to do" with the judicial case, but added: I hope that through our constitutional process, there will be a satisfactory result.

Italy called in the Afghan ambassador in Rome, two Berlin cabinet ministers spoke out and Germany's top Catholic cardinal demanded his freedom. Canada said it was concerned and urged the Afghan government to meet its human rights obligations.

The protests present a dilemma for Karzai, who needs foreign troops to defend against al Qaeda and Taliban remnants. Some 23,000 U.S. troops are in the country. Germany has 2,700 soldiers in Afghanistan, Canada has 2,300 and Italy has 1,775.

Abdullah said the Afghan embassy in Washington had received "hundreds of messages" from Americans about the case: I know that it is a very sensitive issue and we know the concerns of the American people

Former Italian President Francesco Cossiga wrote to Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, now campaigning for reelection, and urged him to withdraw Italian troops from Afghanistan unless he wins assurances from Kabul over Rahman's safety: It is not acceptable that our soldiers should put themselves at risk or even sacrifice their lives for a fundamentalist, illiberal regime.

German Development Minister Heide Wieczorek-Zeul said she would appeal to Karzai directly: We will do everything possible to save the life of Abdul Rahman, she told the daily Bild, which said Rahman had converted to Christianity while living in Germany for nine years.

Germany's top Catholic prelate, Cardinal Karl Lehmann, described the case against Rahman as "an alarming signal": German bishops will try to ensure Christians in Islamic countries enjoy the same rights as Muslims have in our country.

From the Daily Record

Radio 1 DJ, Chris Moyles, has been reprimanded for calling newsreader Georgina Bowman a "slut" during his breakfast show.

Ofcom investigated his joke, made during a hand-over in November, after four listeners complained that it was offensive A BBC spokesman said: This comment was part of the light-hearted atmosphere that the team sought to create.

From Kansas.com

The Kansas House gave tentative approval today to a bill restricting signs that advertise sexually oriented businesses. The sign restrictions were added to a bill updating the state's highway advertising laws.

Billboards advertising adult video stores, strip clubs and other sex-related businesses would be banned within a mile of highways.

Republican Virginia Beamer, proposed the amendment, which is identical to a bill that is pending in the Senate. It is one of several measures sex-shop opponents are employing at the state level and in communities across the state.

The bill, 253, advanced to a final vote in the House.

From the BBC

The government has finally won its battle of wills with the House of Lords over proposals to outlaw the "glorification" of terrorism.

In the sixth round of parliamentary "ping pong", peers accepted the government plans by a majority of 112.

Charles Clarke warned peers that Labour had made a manifesto commitment to outlaw the glorification of terrorist attacks and intended "to honour it".

Many peers felt the new law was too vague and would curb freedom of speech. It was also opposed by Conservative and Liberal Democrat MPs.

Home Office Minister Baroness Scotland of Asthal urged peers to back the government, saying the glorification offence was easily understood by "the ordinary man in the street".

Conservative spokesman Lord Kingsland asked Tory backbenchers to abstain this time because otherwise the government would use the Parliament Act to push through the Terrorism Bill, which would cause a nine month delay. He said Clarke had given an undertaking to "reconsider all the measures on terrorism" that were already on the statute book and to replace them. This would give peers the chance to look at a range of issues that have given us deep discomfort in the course of this bill.

The prime minister had said the measure would allow action to be taken against people with placards glorifying the 7 July bombers - which were seen in London during protests against cartoons satirising the Prophet Muhammad.

From The Sydney Morning Herald

A blockade against internet pornography and violence is now a possibility after the Communications Minister, Helen Coonan, showed signs of buckling to backbench demands for action on this issue.

A day after scoffing at a Labor plan to force internet service providers to filter out porn and violence, Senator Coonan yesterday changed tack and said the Government had not ruled out such a filtering system.

This followed a demand from a Liberal backbench campaigner on the issue, Guy Barnett, who described current home-based measures as "unsatisfactory" and rejected Senator Coonan's earlier suggestions that mandatory filters would be costly and of "questionable benefit".

Senator Barnett, who late last year got 62 Coalition MPs to sign a plea to the Prime Minister, John Howard, for more action against internet porn and violence, said yesterday: I will not roll over on this issue. I will continue to pursue this in the best interests of Australian children.

On Tuesday, Senator Coonan rejected Labor's plan for a mandatory filter on internet porn and violence, saying it would only result in slowing down the internet for every Australian without effectively protecting children from inappropriate and offensive content. She said home-based filtering of computers using free or low-cost software was the most effective way to protect children.

Senator Barnett questions this view, because he says many parents do not take up the software. But yesterday Senator Coonan's spokeswoman said the Government has not ruled out ISP-based filtering and is currently undertaking a trial in Tasmania in conjunction with the internet safety agency NetAlert.

This was the third Government investigation of ISP-based filtering since 2001 and the Government was actively trying to overcome technical impediments to ISP-based filtering.

Labor's approach would only block internet sites that were listed but thousands of pages were added or changed every day, she said.

Senator Barnett said industry experts had told him filters could be introduced without undue detriment to services.

From GameSpot

While a piece of Utah legislation seeking to have video games with "inappropriate violence" classified under the same statute that applies to pornography fell into legislative limbo earlier this month, a similar Oklahoma bill has passed the House without a single opposing vote.

Last week, the Oklahoma House of Representatives approved HB3004 unanimously, with 97 Representatives voting for it, none against it, and four excused from the voting.

The Oklahoma bill makes it illegal for stores to sell or allow minors to view any game with inappropriate violence. If passed, retailers would not even be able to display the games for sale unless the bottom two-thirds of their covers were obscured by "blinder racks" in the same way that adult magazines are.

While the bill's formatting on the matter is a little different, the text bears a striking resemblance to that of Utah's piece of legislation when it comes to defining inappropriate violence. According to the law, that term would be defined as any depiction in a game that, when taken as a whole, has the following characteristics:

a. the average person eighteen (18) years of age or older applying contemporary community standards would find that the interactive video game or computer software is patently offensive to prevailing standards in the adult community with respect to what is suitable for minors, and
b. the interactive video game or computer software lacks serious literary, scientific, medical, artistic, or political value for minors based on, but not limited to, the following criteria:
(1) is glamorized or gratuitous,
(2) is graphic violence used to shock or stimulate,
(3) is graphic violence that is not contextually relevant to the material,
(4) is so pervasive that it serves as the thread holding the plot of the material together,
(5) trivializes the serious nature of realistic violence,
(6) does not demonstrate the consequences or effects of realistic violence,
(7) uses brutal weapons designed to inflict the maximum amount of pain and damage,
(8) endorses or glorifies torture or excessive weaponry, or
(9) depicts lead characters who resort to violence freely

The bill's definition of inappropriate violence specifically mentions games, so similar depictions in books, movies, or music would not be covered. If passed, store owners caught selling such games to minors would be charged with a misdemeanor and fined $500 on a first or second offense and $1,000 on future offenses.

Having passed the House, the bill has now moved to the Oklahoma Senate.

From the China Post

Legislation proposed by Muslim legislators to ban pornography and obscene acts in Indonesia will not affect whether scantily-clad tourists can sunbathe on the resort island of Bali, Indonesia's vice president said Monday.
Jusuf Kalla was responding to fears among members of the island's Hindu enclave that the bill would have a chilling effect on its tourist industry by criminalizing sunbathing, as well as being incompatible with its Hindu culture.

Do not worry, we (the government) don't agree (with everything in the bill), Kalla told tourist chiefs on the island. I am sure if it is passed, it will not wreck your rights. All the political parties are listening to your complaints.

From Manchester Online

The staging of controversial musical Jerry Springer The Opera brought protesters to the streets of Manchester last night - but placard-waving supporters of the show outnumbered Christian protesters.

But on the streets outside the Opera House last night, a small group of around 10 protesters opposed to the show were out-numbered by a group of noisy Manchester comedians, who carried placards reading "Don't Gag the Gagsters".

Organiser Mike Landers, who heads the Manchester Comedy Forum, said: We are concerned about freedom of speech. There seem to be a lot of things conspiring against this freedom because of the protest against the Prophet cartoons and the religious hatred bill. We think it is the job of comedians to be able to say what we think, even if it offends people.

From the excellent MediawatchWatch

Mike Landers reports:

We gathered in the Sports Cafe on time, hurriedly finishing off placards and so on. A nice little turn out, and then we found out that the tables around us were occupied by people going to see the show and were laughing themselves silly at some of the slogans.

The original plan was to wander up to the Opera House around 6.30pm (7.30pm show start) but a distinct lack of Christian “opposition” meant we kept putting it back and putting it back. As the queues of audience members grew and still no sign, we finally made the Executive Decision to head up at about 6.50pm.

As we gathered opposite the Opera House, there were a lot of curious looks from the Springer audience, but as soon as the placards were unveiled, there was a big cheer and a lot of laughter.

A round of interviews (TV and radio) with myself and John Cooper, more laughter and chanting and some grateful thanks from some of the backstage crew, who left with their own stickers.

Eventually some of the Christians turned up at about 7.15pm. We serenaded them with “You’re late! And you know you are!” as they took station right outside the doors. A quick countup of protesters versus anti-protesters led to the football style chant of “16-3! 16-3!”.

At 7.30pm, showtime so time to retire to the pub. I wandered past the Opera House at about 8.45, and one of the protestors was still there. Earlier she had given out a huge number of handwritten cards about spreading the word of God. As my good friend Geoff said, quite frankly, with dedication and determination like that, she’s wasted doing what she is doing.

I’ll write more, set up a webpage to show the pictures, but from memory the slogans were:

“Down with protests”
“Don’t gag the gagsters”
“Jerry Springer stole my other cheek”
“Free Speech! I’m a believer!”
“Its digusting. Its a musical, not an opera”
“It was either this or the hoovering”
“I don’t care about blasphemy, I just hate opera.”
“For one night only: Much Ado About Nothing”
“Stop being so bloody silly.”
“Golf Sale”.

Very tired, but happy.

From ABC

The Federal Opposition has outlined a plan to block Internet pornography reaching home computers.

Opposition Leader Kim Beazley says a Labor government would introduce laws requiring Internet service providers to offer a "clean feed" without pornographic and violent sites. Beazley says Australian parents do not want their children to be exposed to such material: Block it at the point of the provider as opposed to the point of the parent and if that particular household wants to opt into the pornographic sites then they make an active decision to do so.

The reality is ... only about a third of the parents put some sort of blocker in relation to the sites on their home computers, it's too hard for most of them but if you did it at the level of the provider, probably very few people would opt in.

However the Federal Government says Labor's plan to block Internet pornography from reaching home computers will only slow down online services for everyone.

Communications Minister Helen Coonan says PC-based filters are more effective and do not affect the performance of the Internet. PC-based filtering remains the most effective way of protecting children from offensive Internet content as well as other threats that are not addressed by Labor's ISP filtering programs.

Coonan also says Labor's plan is prohibitively expensive: A previous government review into the filtering technology that is the basis of Labor's plan also found that it would involve implementation costs of around $45 million and ongoing costs of more than $33 million per annum for ISPs for questionable benefit.

From The Guardian

Channel Five was yesterday rebuked for airing gruesome scenes of plastic surgery before the 9pm watershed.

Brand New You featured five women sent to Los Angeles to be transformed by surgeons, dentists and stylists.
But media watchdog Ofcom said explicit, close-up scenes of surgical scissors cutting through flesh and skin being lifted away from the face were unacceptable for children who might be watching.

Five failed in its appeal against the verdict, arguing that the series, shown at 8pm, was preceded by an on-air warning and that the scenes were justified by context.

There seems to be a new definition of the word 'tolerance' that justifies the killing of one's fellow man because he does not believe in the prescribed brand of unbelievable nonsense.

From the BBC
From The Times

An Afghan man is being tried in a court in Kabul for his conversion from Islam to Christianity.

He could be sentenced to death for the act and his refusal to recant. The trial of Abdul Rahman reflects the struggle between religious hardliners and reformists over what shape Islam will take in Afghanistan.

Rahman is being prosecuted for an attack on Islam, the punishment for which, under the draft constitution established in 2004, is death.

The constitution says Islam is the religion of Afghanistan, yet it also mentions the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and Article 18 specifically forbids this kind of recourse, one human rights expert said in Kabul last night. It really highlights the problem the judiciary faces.

Rahman was arrested last month after his estranged family - with whom he was in dispute over the custody of his two children - denounced him as a convert. Rahman was found to be carrying a Bible and was charged with rejecting Islam.

He acknowledged during his trial that he did convert 16 years ago.

The prosecutor, Abdul Wasi, said he had offered to drop the charges if Rahman would convert back to Islam, but he had refused to do so. Wasi said therefore that Mr Rahman must get the death penalty.

The trial judge has also described Rahman's action as an attack on Islam. The Attorney-General is emphasising he should be hung, Judge Alhaj Ansarullah Mawlawy Zada, who will be trying his case said. In this country we have the perfect constitution, it is Islamic law and it is illegal to be a Christian and it should be punished.

Nick Harvey, the Liberal Democrats’ defence spokesman, said: This is a horrifying situation and it makes a mockery of the efforts we are making to bring Afghanistan back into the international community. We have committed many soldiers to the situation in Afghanistan, many of whom will be committed Christians; we have spent huge amounts of money and committed resources and so I think we can take a strong moral position on this and explain to the Afghan authorities that to prosecute or even kill someone for having a different faith is unacceptable.

If the judge imposes the death penalty, Mr Rahman will still have two avenues of appeal under Afghan law — the Provincial Court and the Supreme Court. The death penalty has to be ratified by President Karzai.

From AVN

The Supreme Court turned back (refused?) an appeal today from a photographer who claimed a federal decency law violated her free-speech rights to post pictures of sadomasochistic sexual behavior on the Web.

Justices affirmed a decision last year by a special three-judge federal panel upholding the 1996 law which makes it a crime to send obscenity over the Internet to children.

The Supreme Court appeal was brought by photographer Barbara Nitke, whose work is featured in the book Kiss of Fire: A Romantic View of Sadomasochism, and by the National Coalition for Sexual Freedom.

Material that is obscene is not protected by the First Amendment, but Nitke's lawyer contends her work is art that is not obscene.

The conclusion is that the law requires that those sending obscene communications on the Internet take reasonable actions to keep it away from children, like requiring a credit card, debit account or adult access code as proof of age.

Certainly an illuminating quote: We do not think any decent-minded person would want to watch this show.

Based on an article from ic Liverpool

More than 500 Christians descended on St George's Plateau to make their feelings about Jerry Springer: The Opera coming to the city very clear.

Nutters in the region were protesting in the hope of deterring people from buying tickets. The show is part of the Empire Theatre's summer season and campaigners plan to stage a series of demonstrations over the next two months and throughout its run.

Dave Allen, from Merseyside Christians Against Jerry Springer, said: We regard this production as disgraceful, disgusting and dirty. We do not think any decent-minded person would want to watch this show.

It very clearly demeans our Lord Jesus Christ by depicting him as a baby in a nappy and makes God out to be a bumbling fool. There is no doubt about it, we will be raising our voice very strongly over the next few weeks to show our disgust.

From Monsters & Critics

The ban Britain imposed on the slogan of Australia's new tourism campaign - So where the bloody hell are you?- has been repealed.

Perhaps the change of heart was helped on its way by Prince Edward who used the word 'bloody' on Australian TV. Edward lost his temper with a member of his staff. The prince then turned from the camera and shouted at an aide typing on a laptop: You don't know how annoying that bloody clicking is over here.

The presenter on Australia's Channel 7 mumbled: So it's OK for royalty then.

Britain's watchdog Broadcast Advertising Clearance Centre (BAAC) upheld an appeal by Australian Tourism Minister Fran Bailey.

I am pleased that common sense prevailed and the regulators realised the campaign was intended to be cheeky, friendly and very Australian, Bailey said in a statement. My faith in the British sense of humour has been restored.

The oath 'bloody' ranks 27th on the BAAC's list of offensive words that may not appear in advertisements, just after 'crap' and just before of 'God'. Also off-limits are bastard (6th), bollocks (8th), bugger (21st), sodding (24th) and Jesus Christ (25th).

From the BBC

The Chief Rabbi of Israel, Yona Metzger, has called for the creation of a world body with representatives from the major religious groups.

Rabbi Metzger was addressing the International Congress of Imams and Rabbis for Peace in Seville, Spain. He called for the formation of a "United Nations of religious groups" which could "bring a bridge between religions to help the bridge of the diplomatic way".

That plan has broad support from key participants like Frederico Major, the co-president of the Alliance for Civilisations, the lobby group for international conflict resolution, supported by the United Nations and initiated by Spain's Prime Minister, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero.

The speeches at this conference rather than using polite, diplomatic language have at times been brutally direct. When the Rabbi Metzger harangued mainstream Muslims for not standing up to Osama bin Laden, Islamic leaders nodded in agreement.

The religious leaders have three days to come up with a manifesto that aims to convert their words into actions.

From CBC

An appeal from the Catholic Church for New Zealanders to boycott an episode of South Park has resulted in a record audience there for the controversial cartoon.

The Bloody Mary episode of South Park drew more than six times the normal audience, New Zealand broadcaster TV Works announced.

The episode was seen by 210,000 viewers, according to Rick Friesen, the broadcaster's chief operating officer. In the past month, he said, an average South Park episode typically draws about 32,500 viewers to the network's C4 youth channel.

During the broadcast, however, more than 350 people protested outside the TV Works headquarters in Auckland.

The protest centred on a statue of the Virgin Mary, with participants — clutching Bibles and religious icons — singing hymns, reciting the rosary and offering other prayers. A Catholic priest who led the protesters in prayer asked God to enlighten those responsible for the cartoon and strengthen them to see how much harm they can do.

Last weekend, New Zealand's Roman Catholic bishops issued a letter urging parishioners to boycott the channel and its sponsors. The Federation of Islamic Associations of New Zealand also protested the episode and said it was deeply offensive.

Based on an article from Asia Media

When questioned by an American reporter about the Chinese government's censorship of the internet, the premier defended the mainland's record by quoting Irish Nobel laureate George Bernard Shaw, who once said: Liberty means responsibility. [That's why most men dread it].

Premier Wen Jiabao said: Every citizen can exercise their right and freedom to use the internet. BUT... every citizen must also abide the law, and safeguard our national, social and collective interests.

Former Bingdian Weekly editor Li Datong, who was sacked over the appearance of a controversial article in the newspaperin late January, said the premier's argument was flawed. It's absolutely right for Mr Wen to say that citizens have the freedom of speech which is guaranteed by the constitution. But do we really have the freedom?First of all, no individual or organisation in China is allowed to run their own newspaper or publication. All media is owned and controlled by the government. Liberty means responsibility. But who should decide what is good and what is wrong? If a person said something untrue and illegal, he should be punished by the law. At present, the officials can arbitrarily close any public discussion simply because they don't like it.

Freedom of speech put to brutal test By Chow Chung-Yan

Grandmothers were pinned to the ground for petitioning outside the Great Hall of the People, while journalists were detained just minutes after Premier Wen Jiabao defended China's record on free speech.

Wen also talked about the freedom of speech guaranteed to every citizen by the constitution. However, for the petitioners who managed to breach the tight police blockades yesterday to voice their grievances outside the Great Hall, the only thing they tasted was the dirt on the ground.

Beijing mobilised thousands of police officers during the annual meeting of the National People's Congress to keep order and prevent public petitions. The streets around Tiananmen Square were filled with uniformed and plain-clothes officers who regularly checked passers-by.

But to their embarrassment, about 10 petitioners managed to sneak past and tried to voice their concerns on the stairs of the Great Hall at the end of the press conference. The petitioners protested against corruption, illegal land requisitions and rampant crime. But they were quickly pinned to the ground and whisked away by police.

Two Spanish reporters, an Australian television crew and two South China Morning Post reporters were also detained for covering the incident. The police later released the journalists.

Based on an article from The Daily Star

Adaptation of the anti-obscenity law in parliament in January revives nutter hopes of bringing back 'golden days' to the film industry as the makers and those involved in pornographic films have gone into hiding.

Parliament on January 31, adopted the anti-obscenity law that can land any 'pornographic'/ vulgar filmmaker in prison for three years. Action can be also taken against the artists, crew, officials, exhibitors and any person involved with the vulgar film.

Producers of vulgar films have stopped their ongoing projects realising perhaps they would be in trouble if they continue.

Producers themselves halted the making of around 30 films after the adaptation of the new law, said Kamruzzaman Babu, staff reporter, daily Prothom Alo: Producers of these low grade films fear that their movies would not run and they will not be able to be make any profits.

According to different newspaper reports, the law-enforcing authority has shutdown three cinema halls for screening uncensored and vulgar Bangla movies. Another 16 cinema halls known to be screening pornographic films are marked to face the same fate if the allegation against them is proved.

With such initiative from the government, we hope to see more family oriented movies, that would increase the number of viewers, said Chashi Nazrul Islam, director and member Bangladesh Censor Board.

Cinema hall owners, too, are very careful in picking the right movies to avoid punishment since the new law took effect. Makers of these films are not ready to admit that showing obscenity in films is a crime. Because they that adult scenes shown in the movies do not depict vulgarity, rather it's a demand of the day.

From CBS47

A federal judge has ordered Google to give the Bush administration a peek inside its Internet-leading search engine. But the company will not have to turn over a list of people's search requests -- potentially sensitive information that it has fought to protect.

U-S District Judge James Ware issued a 21-page ruling today telling Google to provide the Justice Department with the addresses of 50-thousand randomly selected Web sites indexed by its search engines. The company has until April third to turn over that information.

Ware, however, decided Google won't have to disclose what people have been looking for on its widely used search engine.

The government plans to use the data for a study that the Bush administration hopes will help revive a law meant to shield children from online pornography.

From Inquistion21

The Australian Government has shut down a parody website that mocked Australian Prime Minister John Howard. The website featured a satirical speech that 'apologised' for the Iraq war. The site was down for two days before a phone call from Melbourne IT advised the owner that it had been shut down 'on the advice from the Australian Government'. We now tell Australians how to access the blocked site and also reproduce its contents.

Read More on Inquisition 21

From the BBC

As multiple murderer Daniel Gonzalez is convicted, BBC News looks at the killing spree he carried out.
By the age of 24, Gonzalez had become bored and frustrated with his life. Unemployed, friendless and using drugs regularly, he spent most of his time watching horror films and playing computer games..

Gonzalez wanted to be a famous serial killer. He wanted to make newspaper headlines and he wanted to spend a day being Freddy Krueger - a fictitious child-murderer from the Nightmare on Elm Street films.

To do this, he believed he would have to kill 10 people - so, on 15 September 2004, he set out on a campaign of murder.

Gonzalez admitted manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility - claiming he was a schizophrenic and voices in his head told him to act like Freddy Krueger.

But the jury dismissed his story and convicted him of murder.

Gonzalez's childish fascination with horror films may briefly have given him the newspaper headlines he craved - but it could not excuse the real-life horror of his crimes.

From The Guardian

An independent theatre festival in Toledo lost its government subsidies this week for refusing to cancel a show that satirises the Pope and advocates atheism.

It is the latest front in a battle that has raged since February around comedian Leo Bassi's act, Revelation, which has angered the Catholic church in Spain, sparked violent protests by the extreme right in Madrid and fuelled a nationwide debate on artistic freedom.

Bassi's show, which also pokes fun at Christian evangelists in America and the Old Testament, will be performed today at a makeshift venue. Donations will help compensate for the €7,000 (£4,857) in lost subsidies.

But the curtain will rise amid controversy. Last Sunday the archbishop of Toledo, Antonio Cañizares, said the show was "blasphemous", "anti-Christian" and an "insult to the church". Days later, the local and regional governments of Toledo threatened to withdraw festival subsidies if the show was not cancelled. It could offend Catholic sensibilities, a spokesman said.

At the end of the show the New York born comedian directs the audience to his website, where there is a form on which they can renounce their faith. He considers the work "reverse evangelism".

In February about 200 members of the extreme right asked the Socialist prime minister, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, to "apologise" for "the offence to Catholic principles". In March police defused a bomb near Bassi's dressing room at the Alfil Theatre in Madrid.

In June Bassi takes his show to a venue near the Vatican in Rome.

From IWPR

Civil rights activists and movie buffs have hailed a decision to show a harrowing film in Belgrade about a Bosnian rape victim. They greeted the premiere as a sign that Serbs are becoming more willing to acknowledge the extent of war crimes committed in Serbia's name in the Nineties.

By contrast, nervous distributors in the Bosnian Serb entity, the Republika Srpska, RS, refused to show the film at all, citing fears of uproar.

Grbavica, by the Sarajevo director Jasmila Zbanic, and winner of this year's Berlin film festival, had its first screening in Belgrade on March 6.

The film about a Bosnian Muslim who gave birth to a child after being raped in a Serbian detention camp won a standing ovation in the Serbian capital, in spite of its deeply controversial theme.

Zbanic made no apologies for the unequivocally political message of her film, saying she hoped it would remind moviegoers of the fate of thousands of Bosnian women raped during the 1992 to 1995 war.

After winning the Berlin prize, she expressly pointed out that the two men in charge of the Bosnian Serb war effort, Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic, remained at large. Zbanic's comments created more uproar in the RS capital Banja Luka and in Belgrade than the film's provocative script.

Oscar Film Private Enterprise, the only film distributor in the RS, decided not to show Grbavica. The company's director, Vlado Ljevar, said after the film was shown to a test audience of about 40, they concluded that a screening would be counterproductive and would not be economically viable. We don't want to screen a film that would provoke Serbs and cause a revolt, while we would stand to make no money from it, said Ljevar.

Dragica Banjac, a professor in Banja Luka's economics faculty, said she was angry she would not be able to judge the film's merits for herself: I feel offended as a citizen, just as I am offended that no one has spoken out against this form of censorship.

By contrast, a defiant atmosphere attended the first screening in Belgrade, where filmgoers, civil society activists, actors and filmmakers gathered in force. A clutch of hard-line nationalists who tried to disrupt the projection, shouting "Serbia" and "traitors", was quickly ejected. When Svetlana Petrusic, a former journalist, attempted to read out a written statement condemning the film, security guards whisked her off.

From AVN

A bill introduced on March 16 in the U.S. Senate seeks to require all commercial websites that provide “material that is harmful to minors” to register and operate within a Top Level Domain set aside specifically for that purpose.

Sponsored by Sens. Max Baucus (Democrat) and Mark Pryor (Democrat), the “Cyber Safety for Kids Act of 2006” mandates that the International Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers establish the new international TLD and have it operational within 90 days of the enactment of the bill. The Secretary of Commerce will be empowered to devise and enforce regulations for the operation of the TLD, and will be responsible for imposing civil penalties on any Web publishers who do not abide by the regulations. Under the legislation, companies that fail to register in the new domain within six months of the establishment of the new TLD would be subject to civil penalties.

According to the bill, which is not expected to be addressed by the Senate until after it returns from a weeklong recess that begins March 20, The term ‘material that is harmful to minors’ means any communication, picture, image, graphic image file, article, recording, writing, or other matter of any kind that is obscene or that a reasonable person would find…with respect to minors, is designed to appeal to, or is designed to pander to, the prurient interest; depicts, describes, or represents, in a patently offensive manner with respect to minors, an actual or simulated sexual act or sexual contact, an actual or simulated normal or perverted sexual act, or a lewd exhibition of the genitals or post-pubescent female breast; and taking the material as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value for minors.

Although the bill does not specifically use the term “pornography,” it’s clear from the language that online adult entertainment is exactly what the bill seeks to control. It’s also clear from the language that it is an attempt to approach certain now-enjoined requirements of the Child Online Protection Act from a different angle, according to First Amendment attorney J.D. Obenberger.

From Hollywood Interrupted

Sources from inside Paramount and South Park Studios report that parent company Viacom pulled last night's scheduled repeat of the high-rated Trapped in the Closet episode after the humorless Scientologist movie star Tom Cruise threatened to cancel all publicity for Mission Impossible:3 if Comedy Central aired the episode that satirizes Scientology and mocks his sexuality again.

Not only is this the first time that the South Park creators have been officially censored in their ten hit seasons with Comedy Central, Viacom officials also reportedly ordered Matt Stone and Trey Parker not to discuss the reason why their episode was cancelled.

The South Park boys are said to be angry, but will probably get revenge with the manner in which they deal with Scientologist Isaac Hayes' departure from the show.

John Beyer is continuing to advocate prison sentences for those privately viewing vanilla hardcore. I don't know what nutter belief inspires him to wish prison on his fellow man for private, harmless sexual entertainment, but in my own personal morality system, Beyer is amongst the dregs.

Anyway see www.mediawatchuk.org/publications/The%20Flag.htm for his interview with The Flag, where he trots out his usual brand of nastiness.

From WCPO

A bill seeking to outlaw lap dancing at Kentucky strip clubs won easy approval today in the Senate.

If the bill becomes law, someone appearing nude in an adult establishment or offering semi-nude lap dances would be guilty of sexual misconduct. The penalty would be up to a year in jail.

The measure now goes to the House.

The bill would allow semi-nudity among employees of sexually-oriented businesses if they remain at least six feet away from patrons on a stage at least 18 inches above the floor.

From Gamespot

The Federal Communications Commission today reached decisions in many of the backlogged indecency complaints it has received over the past three years. In two noteworthy cases, the Commission levied fines against CBS for the infamous "wardrobe malfunction" in the 2004 Super Bowl, and for a scene depicting a teen orgy in the series Without A Trace. They also cite Nicole Richie and The Surreal Life 2 as being "indecent and profane."

CBS was walloped with the most fines, totaling $3.6 million. The Commission upheld a $550,000 fine against the network for the February 2004 Super Bowl halftime incident involving Justin Timberlake exposing Janet Jackson's pierced breast. An episode of the crime drama Without A Trace depicting teenagers engaged in sexual activities was also found to be indecent. The fines for Trace totaled $2 million, with 72 affiliates being fined $32,500 each.

In its statement, the Commission said, [We] hold that CBS consciously and willfully failed to take actions to prevent the broadcast of the material, and that CBS is responsible for the halftime show. The Commission also finds episodes of Without A Trace and The Surreal Life 2, which contained numerous graphic, sexual images, to be impermissible under the Commission's indecency standard.

VH1 was fined for an episode of The Surreal Life 2 where Ron Jeremy and Andy Dick attend a nude pool party. Although the nudity was "pixelated," the Commission concluded that despite the obscured nature of the nudity, it is unmistakable that partygoers are exposing and discussing sexual organs.

The Commission also singled out Fox Broadcasting for the network's 2002 and 2003 Billboard Music Awards shows, wherein the "F" word was used by Cher and Nicole Richie, respectively. The FCC isn't fining Fox due to a previously established precedent that isolated use of expletives doesn't warrant a fine.

The number of complaints received by the commission has risen year after year, said FCC chairman Kevin Martin, a Republican. I share the concerns of the public--and of parents, in particular--that are voiced in these complaints.

NBC, which is being nailed for several shows on the Spanish-language networks it owns, will take on the FCC in court, saying, The FCC has no authority to censor a program based on its own taste.

From Simon (Dark Angel) to his MP, Mark Simmons: judging by the reply it seems he is either sitting on the fence, or is actually concerned!

Dear Mr Simmons.

I’m sure you are well aware of the above consultation paper that was published recently by the Home Office and Scottish Executive, which seeks to outlaw certain types of adult pornography (i.e. material that appears violent, abusive or non-consensual) by punishing the viewer as opposed to the publisher.

Whilst I have already given a response to that paper, I am also writing to you as I am extremely alarmed by what the Government is proposing and feel that any efforts to implement such a draconian law should be opposed.

I will admit that the material listed in the document would undoubtedly be considered offensive or distasteful by many, myself included (no I’m not into this stuff before you ask), but the vast majority of this material is in fact staged (i.e. fake) and is by consenting adults. Therefore no offence is being committed in its production.

As however the document seeks to outlaw realistic depictions, should any such legislation go through we will then have the ridiculous situation whereby acts that are perfectly legal to perform or stage will suddenly become illegal in image form. Also, many other types of film and images could potentially be affected by this (e.g. horror movies that feature sex scenes).

There are already existing laws in place that are able to deal with sites hosting non-consensual or genuinely abusive material, though it should be noted such instances are very few and far between. It would therefore appear that the government is merely trying to criminalise matters of taste.

Legislation should be based on “evidence of harm” and there is no evidence to suggest that such material is harmful to the viewer, the document even admits this a number of times. No other so-called free country has any qualms about allowing their citizens free access to this stuff. Indeed, in many European countries videos and magazines featuring this material can be freely purchased at high street outlets.

As their societies have not crumbled and fallen as a result, this would indicate it is the UK that is clearly out of step with the rest of the civilised world with this approach, which would almost certainly fall foul of European human rights laws which allow freedom of expression and the right to a private life.

Whilst the home office has yet to announce the results of its consultation, I feel I should point out that however many people ‘may’ be in favour of this law (if any), it is certainly not the majority view held by persons who actually use the internet on a regular basis.

If you follow the many discussions that have taken place around the internet, such as on the BBC news website at news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/talking_point/4196864.stm and at www.bbc.co.uk/dna/actionnetwork/A5394125 most people on there are appalled the government are even considering these proposals and believe it to be the wrong approach.

I hope you will give the issues I have raised due consideration as I am fearful the government will attempt to push these proposals though regardless. But at the end of the day, freedom of speech means giving people the right the say things others may not wish to hear and I believe the police and legal system is stretched enough without worrying about what people may be viewing in their own homes.

There are other issues, but I believe this covers the majority of my objections!

Thankyou for taking the time to read this.

Mark Simmons replied as follows:

I write further to your recent email regarding your concerns over the Home Office consultation on extreme pornographic material.

Thank you for writing to me on this important issue. I have read your email with much interest and I was concerned to learn of the situation you believe may arise should the law be introduced that punishes the viewer, rather than the publisher, of extreme pornographic material.

With this in mind I have today written to the Rt Hon Charles Clarke MP, Home Secretary, to ask him to address your concerns and to see what can be done to ameliorate the present situation. Once I receive a reply I will, of course, write to you again.

In the Meantime, if I may be of further assistance to you as your constituency MP then I hope you will contact me again.

Yours Sincerely

Mark Simmons

Let it be known that the Melon Farmers support equality of ridicule for all nutters. Prejudice against one particular religion will simply not be tolerated.

Hayes surely qualifies for an entry in the Hall of Shame but I feel I would simply need too many staff to expand the list to include Americans

From The Telegraph

Isaac Hayes, the deep-voiced soul singer, has quit his role as Chef in South Park, saying that the satirical cartoon television show has overstepped the mark with its ridiculing of religion. There is a place in this world for satire, but there is a time when satire ends and intolerance and bigotry towards religious beliefs of others begins," said Hayes, an outspoken Scientologist who has voiced the character of the school cook in the series since 1997. Religious beliefs are sacred to people, and at all times should be respected and honoured. As a civil rights activist of the past 40 years, I cannot support a show that disrespects those beliefs and practices.

Last autumn, South Park targeted the Church of Scientology and its celebrity followers, including the actors Tom Cruise and John Travolta, in a top-rated episode called Trapped in the Closet.

Matt Stone, co-creator of South Park, said: This is 100 per cent having to do with his faith of Scientology. He has no problem - and he's cashed plenty of cheques - with our show making fun of Christians. We never heard a peep out of Isaac in any way until we did Scientology. He wants a different standard for religions other than his own and, to me, that is where intolerance and bigotry begin.

From ABC News

The Australian advertising campaign that asks prospective tourists "Where the bloody hell are you?" could now get the thumbs-up in Britain by the end of the week.

Last week the Broadcast Advertising Clearance Centre (BACC) banned the advertisement from airing on British television.

The Tourism Minister, Fran Bailey, flew to London to convince the authorities to change their decision.

She has met with the British Secretary and the head of the regulator and they have agreed to review the ban.

"This is a first - this has never been achieved before so this a tremendous coup for Australia," she said.

Ms Bailey says she has put forward a very strong case and she expects the regulator to make a decision by the end of the week.

From Backlash

From Scottish Executive:

I am currently working on the final draft of the analysis which we hope to upload to the Scottish Executive website alongside the consultation responses in the next few weeks.

From a supporter on bondage.com who  rang the Home Office today to ask when the consultation document would be published:

I was told the file had been sent to the minister with an expectation to publish before the end of March as long as it passed inspection.

It'll be posted on the Home Office website but due to the less than user friendly filing system I was told to go to the search page and type in Pornography then look through the results.

ie wars, bombs, persecution, intolerance and intimidation...

From Christian Today

The deputy leader of the Scottish Tories has called on his party to embrace ideals founded on the “Judeo-Christian tradition”.

Murdo Fraser, the Conservative MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife said he could not support proposals for same-sex adoption currently being pushed by the Scottish Executive.

Aware that liberal colleagues may feel alienated by his attack on the Scottish Executive proposals to legalise adoption by same-sex couples, Fraser affirmed that the Tories should not “impose” a religious agenda.

Speaking to the Scottish Sunday Herald about the Blue Book, a series of essays he had published recently on the future of conservatism, Fraser expressed the belief, however, that his party should base its philosophy on the “Judeo-Christian tradition”.

Osama Saeed, Scottish spokesman for the Muslim Association of Britain, urged Fraser to pause before using the “Judeo-Christian” reference again. It would be good if public figures like Murdo Fraser extended the hand of friendship to Islam.

Meanwhile a senior cathedral cleric has suggested that unless Christians begin to take their faith seriously, Britain could soon become a Muslim nation.

Canon Alan Nugent, the Subdean of Lincoln Cathedral last week distributed a Chapter Letter to members of the congregation in which he commented on the demonstrations by Muslims following the cartoon caricatures of their Prophet Muhammad published in some European newspapers.

Nugent pointed out the extreme “brutal and violent” posters carried by a number of the protestors in London protests, but also highlighted that many other posters were not commented on by the media, and that they were “significant”.

He revealed that the banners showed Islam’s goal in the UK: They warned that Britain would before long become Islamic. There is no doubt that Islam is a missionary faith and the conversion of unbelievers is a major factor in its spread. It is not surprising that many Muslims may well harbour the hope that this country could be converted to the faith of the Prophet — especially when so often they encounter a Christian faith which could well be characterised as uncertain and in decline.

He added, What is needed for Britain to remain a Christian nation is for Christian people to take their faith seriously and never assume that a Christian Britain is a given which will never change.”

From the Jakarta Post

The pornography bill will focus on pornographic materials and their distribution, and do away with the vague definitions on content and personal conduct, the chairman of the House committee deliberating the bill said Monday.

Balkan Kaplale told The Jakarta Post that while there were disagreements among the committee members, they agreed that the bill should target curbing the distribution of pornographic materials: Pornographic products could be in the form of films, video cassettes, pictures printed and broadcast by mass media.

However, his deputy, Agung Sasongko of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), said he walked out of an earlier committee meeting because it was not possible to begin redrafting the bill with input from the public still pouring in.

The PDI-P, the party which has expressed the most vocal opposition to the bill and controls 109 of 550 House seats, has requested a delay of at least six months from the committee's deadline for passage in April.

The executive director of the Center for Indonesian Law and Policy Studies, Bivitri Susanti, also urged legislators to focus on strict regulation of the distribution of pornography and the porn industry, instead of dealing with clamping down on obscene acts.

From Asia Media

Contentious clauses in the pornography bill, which has been assailed for encroaching on personal rights, will be dismantled as deliberations enter a critical stage, a House leader said.

Balkan Kaplele, the legislator and chairman of the special committee finalizing the bill, refused to specify which articles would be rewritten, but said the law would focus on general definitions of pornography and obscenity: We've taken quite a number of controversial clauses off the bill, particularly those which criminalize particular conduct. However, legislators are set to redefine the term pornography, considered vague and subject to varied interpretations under the bill.

The bill, initially proposed in 1999 and officially titled the Anti-Pornography and Pornographic Acts Bill, has gained its strongest support from orthodox Muslim groups. Thousands gathered Sunday at Al-Azhar mosque in South Jakarta to urge the government to quickly pass the bill into law.

Balkan's promise of major changes followed an announcement Friday by the Golkar Party and Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), the two largest factions in the House, that they would strive to ensure it respected pluralism.

Another expected change is the removal of a clause on the establishment of an agency to oversee the implementation of standards of decency. Balkan said the task would be entrusted to the police: All breaches of the law on pornography and obscenity will be dealt with using the Criminal Code and relevant laws, while the police will have the authority to oversee the enforcement.

Muhammadiyah chairman Din Syamsuddin, who hosted the discussion, said the country needed a pornography law to "reverse the situation" of an increasingly liberal society: We are concerned by the moral liberalization that will lead the nation to the brink of collapse, unless it is stopped as soon as possible.

From SBS, See also www.wherethebloodyhellareyou.com

What was initially a campaign to lure tourists to Australia has literally become a war of words with the UK after the British censor banned a television advertisement that used the great Australian adjective "bloody".

However now the offending phrase, Where the bloody hell are you?  has been emblazoned across full-page advertisements in the British press with full approval of the regulators.

The cheeky slogan has also been cleared for the print, online and cinema arms of the campaign.

So Australian Minister for Tourism Fran Bailey has gone to confront British officials over why it was banned from television. Bailey launched her bid to have the television ban overturned from the Tourism Australia offices next to the Australian High Commission on The Strand in London.

She will meet officials from the British Advertising Clearance Centre (BACC) but she acknowledged it would be a "big ask" to have them reverse the ban.

She cited a 1983 Paul Hogan ad for Fosters and a 1998 Toyota advertisement which used "bloody" both of which were allowed on British television. We're proud of this campaign, we know it's a cheeky campaign but it's designed to cut through, the minister said. You have to look at the context in which the word is used and it fits in with the overall theme. It's allowed in cinemas, online and in print, which is such an anomaly.

The dedicated website for this campaign had received more than 30,000 hits from the UK even before the launch, with Tourism Australia officials no doubt keen to fan the flames of the BACC controversy that has brought it to the attention of the British public.

The A$180 million television campaign features natural Australian icons such as beaches, the Great Barrier Reef, the outback, Sydney Harbour and Uluru.

The ads end with a girl in a bikini saying "we've saved you a spot on the beach", before she poses the colourful question, "Where the bloody hell are you?"

However Tourism Australia was apparently warned months ago that the ads would breach a list of words that can not be used in ads in Britain.

From the BBFC (To film distributors)

It has been brought to the BBFC's attention that some UMD features are being re-formatted and released in a different ratio to the previously classified version. Unless the re-formatted work has itself been submitted to the BBFC for classification, the UMD is unclassified and its sale or hire is therefore in breach of the Video Recordings Act 1984.

We remind customers that any change, whether in content or ratio, to a classified work requires the new version to be submitted for classification. Should you wish to submit re-formatted versions of works intended for UMD release, please supply them to the BBFC in either DVD or VHS form to enable us to technically compare the re-formatted version against the classified version, and examine if necessary.

I am sure that if programmes have to reflect British values then the new ones will be just as entertaining:

• Morse may have to go as Judge Dredd reflects British policing better
• Yes Minister will be well replaced by Alan B'Stard
• Rumpole will have to give way for the return of Monty Python's Spanish Inquisition

From The Times

The BBC is to be forced to promote British citizenship and a sense of community under a new royal charter to be unveiled this week. It will redefine the purpose of the BBC, entrusting it with a far wider brief than its established mission to “inform, educate and entertain”.

The BBC’s leading dramatists reacted with dismay to the demand — to sustain citizenship and civil society — which they fear will force the corporation to do the government’s bidding.

Tony Blair, the prime minister, and Gordon Brown, the chancellor, have placed renewal of national identity, citizenship and “respect” at the centre of their political agenda.

Andrew Davies, the BBC’s most prolific and successful drama writer responsible for hits such as Pride and Prejudice, said: It sounds Stalinist. It looks like the BBC will be doing the government’s propaganda. Part of the BBC’s function should be to challenge the prevailing orthodoxy.

John Fortune, the satirist, said: It’s an extraordinary demand. Part of the role of broadcasters is be able to laugh at government and institutions. Producers will now be worried about not rocking the boat.

Activists gave notice that they will seek to exploit the measure to force the BBC to “clean up” its programming. John Beyer, director of Mediawatch-UK, said: This means much more than the BBC thinks. It’s not just things like impartial news. It is about reflecting good behaviour on the BBC and using good language. The BBC has a moral role. As a lobby group we will now use this phrase as a way to make the BBC act responsibly.

The white paper, due to be published on Tuesday, also confirms that the BBC will be funded by the licence fee until 2016 and that the board of governors will be replaced by a trust and an executive board.

From Green Left

At the forefront of the parties in parliament supporting the Burkha Beachwear bill is the Justice and Welfare Party (PKS), which has strong Islamic fundamentalist perspectives.

Other parties have vacillated or refused to take a clear stand on the law during the past year, but are being increasingly pressured to either reject or revise the bill. Politicians from the more mainstream political parties have come out in opposition to the bill. Both members of parliament from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), as well as its chairperson Megawati Sukarnoputri, have now stated their opposition to the law.

What appears to have tipped the balance in the world of elite politics is increasing fear of a threat to cultural pluralism in a society that has no single dominant cultural perspective.

Now former Golkar chairperson Akbar Tanjung has weighed in against the bill, arguing that there can be no national law that cannot be implemented in specific provinces. However it is not clear whether these mainstream parties will reject the bill or simply soften it. Vivi Widyawati, from Women’s Freedom in Jakarta, told Green Left Weekly that the campaign against the bill has created quite a polemic and is forcing pressure for revision. But it is not looking good for getting the bill stopped given the ambivalent stand of most of the parties.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has remained silent, emboldening the PKS and other supporters of the bill. Yudhoyono’s party, the Democrat Party, has so far supported the UUAPP.

There are strong fears that the passing of the bill will open the way for greater oppression of women. Even before it has passed, said Widyawati, there have been repressive actions. In some areas, raids and arrests have already started ... This is hitting poor women particular hard. For example, in Tangerang, on the outskirts of Jakarta, they have instituted a curfew for women. Three women were arrested and fined. In other areas, the sense that the law will be passed has emboldened local governments to decree the wearing of Muslim dress for women. Local governments have issued regulations against prostitution, under which women have been detained and sentenced simply because they were out alone at night.

In the island of Batam, just 20 minutes from Singapore by ferry, there have been increasing raids on shopping malls where women have been warned about wearing “provocative” clothes, such as sleeveless tops. In Aceh, there have been arrests of women walking with men who were not their husbands or relatives.

Not all Islamic groupings are supporting the bill. Various Islamic figures from the Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), the organisation that former President Abdurrahman Wahid headed for 20 years, have called on the bill to be revised and have criticised the stand taken by other Muslim organisations. One such cleric, Mustofa Bisri, was quoted in the Jakarta Post on March 6 as saying that some Muslim groups were attempting to push the law through parliament without proper consultation.

Islamic student organisations, such as the Indonesian Islamic Student Union (PMII) and the Association of NU Young Men and Women (IPPNU) have also outright rejected the bill.

From the Jakarta Post

Meanwhile lawmakers actually drafting the controversial pornography bill plan to do it in secret away from the critical eye of the media at an undisclosed hotel in Puncak, some 60 kilometers south of Jakarta.

Members of the special committee are tasked with listing contentious issues before the bill is submitted to a joint House of Representatives-ministerial committee for further scrutiny.

Legislator Balkan Kaplale of the Democratic Party, who chairs the committee, said "biased" reporting on the legislation only added fuel to the controversy: The media tends to run stories favoring those opposing the bill. This is unfair, he said at a meeting with Muslim activists who support the draft law.

Legislator Chairunnisa of the Golkar Party said the special team would hear opinions from 10 major political factions about the draft law. It will be the first time the House factions present their formal stances on the bill. So far, the only party that openly supports the bill is the Muslim-based Prosperous Justice Party (PKS):Each faction is expected to submit a list of articles they deem contentious, Chairunnisa said.

Next week, they are expected to produce a list of the contentious articles and submit it along with the bill to the government. President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono will then read the bill and appoint several Cabinet ministers to work with the legislators on redrafting it before it is submitted to the House for debate. The President can reject the bill at this stage, sending it back to the initial House drafting team, although his approval is normally a formality.

The Cook Islands have a population of 21,000. Hardly sounds like a sustainable or economic environment to employ a film censor. 

From The Nation

“Come and get it!” – Chief Censor Alfred Morris throws out a
challenge to the unknown video hire outlet that rented out this
DVD which is a copy of the hardcore pornographic film, Virgins of Sherwood Forest
 

Chief Censor Alfred Morris may soon get the long awaited powers he needs to do his job effectively.
Morris, who is based in the Ministry of Internal Affairs, told the Herald that the Crown Law Office is in the process of drafting up new legislation which will allow him to carry out his functions more effectively.

Under the current Film and Censorship Act 1985, the Chief Censor does not have the power to enter premises and seize material. That power rests with the police.

Morris says police do not regard this work as high priority and consequently, some video and DVD hire outlets, importers and sellers are flouting the law. Under the current law, all material prior to display for sale or hire must be examined by the Chief Censor and a censor’s rating allotted.

Morris says the level of non compliance is reflected in the amount of fees collected so far this financial year. When he first took up the position, he collected about $40,000 in fees. So far this year he has collected about $6,000.

Morris says Crown Law began work on the draft legislation two months ago and copies will go out to interested industry parties for comment in due course.

Morris said he visited one major DVD outlet last week (not Piho Rua’s shop) and issued a warning to the proprietor. The Secretary of Internal Affairs also visited the same premises. A spokesman for the Minister in charge says the Secretary claimed to have made a visit and confiscated two boxes of DVDs which are now in the Secretary's office. However, the proprietor claims no such visit was made and no DVDs were taken away.

Shamelessy lifted from one of my favourite sites: MediawatchWatch. The observation surely deserves wide distribution.

Has the BNP taken over the anti-Jerry Springer: The Opera protests? Above left is a photo from the Leicester Mercury showing a group of protestors outside the de Montfort Hall. On the right is a group of BNP supporters outside Leeds Crown Court in January, during the trial of Nick Griffin and Mark Collett.

The “Defend Christian Values” banners they are holding are from the self-styled Christian Council of Britain, one of several new BNP offshoots.

From Lancaster Unite Against Fascism blog:

The Christian Council of Britain, replete with one or two hundred rabid members of the BNP (who also happen to be Christians), was set up by the BNP as a so-called balance to the Muslim Council of Britain. They claim to represent the Christians of Britain, which of course, they don’t. They actually represent a racist though supposedly Christian offshoot of the BNP formed solely so that the party could almost-legitimately jump on the back of the anti-’Jerry Springer - The Opera’ campaign. The real Christian group who actually are organising the campaign have stated clearly that the BNP is unwelcome.

Stephen Green did indeed come out and speak against the BNP involvement in the anti-Springer campaign, eventually. But if the Leicester Mercury photo is representative, the very least we can deduce is that they are good at distributing their banners.

...and it pandemic in the US

Based on an article from WKYT

A proposal banning full nudity and seminude lap dancing at strip clubs is headed for the Kentucky State Senate.

The measure, which would make nudity and seminude lap dancing in an adult establishment as sexual misconduct, a Class A misdemeanor, cleared the Senate Judiciary Committee Friday by a 9-1 vote.

The proposal, Senate Bill 250, would allow employees of adult businesses to be "seminude" if they remain 6 feet away from patrons and stay on a stage at least 18 inches above the ground.

This is designed to protect women, claimed the bill's sponsor, Senator Julie Denton, Republican

Louisville, Lexington and other cities already have ordinances imposing similar restrictions on adult businesses. The state law would prohibit cities from enacting weaker ordinances.

This is, if you will, a bare minimum, said Kent Ostrander, executive-director of the nutter Family Foundation of Kentucky.

The proposal defines seminude as the showing of the female breast below a horizontal line across the top of the areola and extending across the width of the breast at that point, or the showing of the male or female buttocks.

State Sen. Ernesto Scorsone, Democrat, said a statewide law may not be necessary. Scorsone, the lone legislator to vote against the bill in committee, also took issue with Ostrander's contention that patrons are catching sexually transmitted diseases by placing a tip in the waistband of a stripper's attire.

State Sen. Perry Clark, Democrat, said adult businesses wouldn't thrive if so many people didn't patronize them. I was told recently by the minister of a large church that if his members would stop going to these places, we wouldn't have to deal with this issue.

The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information has expressed concern over recent censorship by Arab governments in North Africa and the Middle East.

According to a Press Statement, the Egyptian website www.masreyat.org has been blocked for a the past week and various other sites, including the famous website "Modern Discussion" (www.rezgar.com), which defends secularism and women's rights, campaigns against capital punishment, and defends other journalists and writers, have been banned in many countries including Tunisia. The websites have also been threatened with a lawsuit by a Saudi business man who alleges that they carry unacceptable writings about Muslims.

In Egypt, security authorities have recently been blocking websites calling for reform, such as the "Save Egypt Front" and "Masreyat" sites, in addition to continuously blocking the sites of the "Al-Shaab" newspaper and the Al-Amal (labour) party.

Religious scholars and businessmen affiliated to the Saudi government are launching campaigns against the freedom of Internet use and of information exchange. Religious scholars have issued a "fatwa" prohibiting women from using the Internet unless in the presence of a "mahram" (a close relative they are prohibited to marry). The announced fatwa was followed by a call from Saudi businessmen to sue websites that call for freedom of thought and secularism.

From Aftenposten

A unified Storting (Norway's parliament) wants the government to implement measures that will allow children to be protected from exposure to society's increasing obsession with sexuality.

On the day before Women's Day, the Storting's justice committee announced one of the first cross-party stances against the pornography industry in several years.

A proposal from the Christian Democrat Party said that a broad majority from the Progress Party, Conservatives, Labor, and Socialist Left parties have asked the government to act on the matter of sexual focus in everyday life, and keeping pornography in particular away from children.

Politicians have asked that what children find offensive be included in an eventual expansion and redefinition of pornography, and also want the government to consider a ban on the production of pornography in Norway.

The group also wants laws and guidelines that protect the individual's rights to be free from seeing publicly displayed images of nudity or sexual acts, for example pornographic magazines on display in shops.

The Shameful Scottish Executive should rethink their decision to exclude these responses or else they should resign/be sacked for gross incompetence in their responsibility to maintain democracy in Scotland.

Thanks to Teddy:

Dear Mr _________

Thank you for your e-mail regarding your response to the consultation on possession of extreme pornographic material. I have been asked to reply.

Your response which you sent by e-mail was blocked by the firewall under the terms of the Scottish Executive IT Security Policy because the response contains profane or possibly inappropriate words (see attached e-mail). If you would like to send your response either by e-mail or post we will add it to the list of published responses. Unfortunately it is too late to include your response in the analysis of responses because the analysis has been completed and will be published shortly.

I can also confirm that we did not receive a copy of your response from the Home Office.

<<A message containing profane or inappropriate words has been intercepted.>>

Ronnie Fraser Criminal Law Branch Scottish Executive Justice Department GW-15 St Andrews House Edinburgh EH1 3DG

---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: <postmaster@scotland.gsi.gov.uk> To: <extremepornography@scotland.gsi.gov.uk> Date: Fri, 2 Dec 2005 06:36:02 -0000 Subject: A message containing profane or inappropriate words has been intercepted.

An email sent by __________________
to extremepornography@scotland.gsi.gov.uk

on Fri, 2 Dec 2005 06:35:53 +0000 with subject Consultation on Extreme Pornography

has been blocked under the terms of the Scottish Executive IT Security Policy. The reason is that it contains profane or possibly inappropriate words.

PLEASE NOTE that the sender of this email has NOT been notified of this interception. The reason is that messages blocked under this category are usually junk mail. If you believe this to be a legitimate business email, please contact itsecurity@scotland.gsi.gov.uk.

Such a shame, there would have been many opportunities for satire. How about a Mohammed figure wearing a "Buy Danish" t-shirt?

From The Telegraph

An annual festival of satire in Valencia has fallen foul of censorship after more than four centuries following the furore over Danish cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed.

In the Fallas festival, giant sculptures of the high and mighty are placed in the streets for the public to mock before being destroyed in an orgy of gunpowder and flames. It has survived attacks by the Roman Catholic church, various puritanical rulers and the Franco dictatorship.

This year's figures will include President George W Bush, several of the Spanish prime minister, José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, and the Prince of Wales dancing, in Highland dress, with the Duchess of Cornwall. But self-censorship has seen Muslim and Arab figures modified to avoid offence.

The Fallas season is now underway until March 19 but as it approached, Valencians watched global protests against newspaper cartoons of Mohammed with growing alarm. Last month, the mayor, Rita Barberá, urged artists to "temper freedom with a sense of responsibility" when referring to religious subjects.

At least one well known local Fallas artist admitted to removing elements from his display of comic sculptures. He had sculpted three life-size figures of illegal Arab immigrants storming the Spanish border, in a reference to last year's crisis in Ceuta and Melilla, Spain's enclaves in North Africa, involving thousands of migrants. The artist has now removed details that identified them as Arabs.

The artist asked not to be named, partly for fear of reprisals, partly because he did not feel proud of such "self-censorship". But this year was "different", he said. Radical Muslim leaders appeared to be looking for excuses to cause trouble.

Félix Crespo, the senior official in charge of the Central Fallas Council that runs the festival, urged the neighbourhood committees that raise funds to build the sculptures to avoid mixing humour with religion, "because that can be misunderstood". Everyone assumed these warnings referred to Islam because sculptures of Roman Catholic priests, nuns, even of God, are a central part of the Fallas.

There have been subtle changes this year, which no locals would discuss, the Spanish newspaper ABC recently reported. In Bocairent, villagers refrained from burning life-size mannequins of the "Mahoma", a traditional figure presumed to be based on Mohammed.

From The Sydney Morning Herald

The issue of whether or not the world needs a virtual red-light district will be on the agenda when ICANN's meets again this month in Wellington, New Zealand.

ICANN stands for the Internet Corporation For Assigned Names and Numbers, and is a US non-profit organisation that oversees top level domain names like .com on behalf of the US government.

The creation of an .xxx domain was proposed in recent years to take the place of .com in move strongly promoted by the adult entertainment industry in the hope of improving traffic flow to legitimate adult sites and dramatically easing filtering requirements for other domains.

However the online red-light district has suffered a number of setbacks under growing opposition. Those contesting it have concerns over the legitimisation of pornographic material, especially in countries where standards might substantially differ from norms in the western world.

Although ICANN's board originally voted in favour of creating the .xxx domain in August last year, a final decision was put on hold after the reciept of a letter from Michael Gallagher, Assistant Secretary at the US Commerce Department, saying he had received nearly 6000 letters and emails expressing concern about the impact of pornography on families and children and urging further debate.

Approval for the domain was then deferred to a board meeting of ICANN last December, however it was again delayed to allow more time for consultation.

Some have declared this evidence that ICANN is bowing to pressure from the US government, a topic that was loomed large at the recent World Summit on Information Society in Tunis late last year where governance of the Internet was the subject of strong debate.

The .xxx issue will be firmly back on the agenda in Wellington with a Government Advisory Committee expected to present its findings at the conference and "further discussions" among international delegates to follow.

Based on an article from the New Zealand Herald

A party pill company has withdrawn posters featuring two Mr Potato Head characters because of supposed concerns it could mislead children.

The posters, which had an R18 rating, carried the heading "Sit on the couch and get mashed!". One of the potato characters had lost its eyes and nose to the bottom of the picture and the other's eyes had slipped below its nose and mouth.

The concerns were taken to the Advertising Standards Complaints Board, which has backed the complaint. In a decision just released, the board noted that while the company, Energy Products Ltd, had voluntarily withdrawn the posters, the incident raised some serious matters.

The complainant, J Dean, said that while the posters were inside a shop for people over 18, they were visible from the street in shops in Dunedin and Oamaru. The complainant felt the use of the Mr Potato Head character "to promote mind-altering substances is entirely inappropriate".

Energy Products said its use of the potato figures was "simply a play on words" for the product, called Mash: We would not have thought there would in any way be a belief we are targeting [under-3 year olds] with a product that is clearly R18 and sold in R18 premises."

But the Advertising Standards Complaint Board said posters ran the risk of being visible to a wide range of age groups.  It considered the ad in the light of advertising codes for children and therapeutic products and found it did not live up to high standards required for therapeutic products.

It also noted that the current ban on advertising party pills in some media did not extend to posters.

From AVN

The Michigan Supreme Court have refused to review lower court decision against Timothy Bruce Huffman, who was arrested after a three minute segment aired on a public access channel showing a joke-telling penis with a face painted on it. The lower court had ruled that nudity on a public access cable program was illegal.

Huffman’s lawyer Steven Savickas said a Washington D.C. law firm may to take the case to the U.S. Supreme Court pro-bono.

But Steve Shapiro, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union, said he was unsure whether the high court would hear the case, saying that there needs to be evidence that a television indecency problem is widespread and not just in Michigan.

Last May, a Michigan court of appeals found that Michigan’s indecency statute also applies to television, and is thus applicable to Huffman’s talking penis on cable access. That court concluded that such nudity on television “can be more offensive than more traditional public exposure.”

From IOL

A Cuban dissident who has been on a hunger strike for 36 days to demand unfettered Internet access is refusing medication and his health is deteriorating rapidly, fellow dissidents said on Wednesday.

Guillermo Farinas, a 41-year-old psychologist, went on a hunger strike on January 31 to press Cuba's Communist authorities to respect his right to freedom of information and allow him Internet access, which is controlled by the government.

The hunger strike continues. He has been isolated in intensive care since Thursday, said Niurbis Diaz, who worked with Farinas as an independent reporter: We call on authorities to respect his rights, agree to his petition immediately.

Cuba, like China, controls access to the Internet. Direct access to the World Wide Web is generally only available to government-approved individuals, but passwords can be purchased on the black market.

The postal service offers an email service, but users can only surf Cuban websites. International websites run by exile groups are routinely blocked by Cuba's state-run servers.

The US state department, in its 2005 human rights report published on Wednesday, said Cuba was a "totalitarian state" that represses dissents, has jailed 333 people for political reasons and severely curbs freedom of speech and information: The government controlled all access to the Internet and took steps to censor all electronic mail, disallowing any attachments.

From Bloomberg

A newspaper editor in Yemen who republished Danish cartoons depicting prophet Muhammad said Yemeni prosecutors are calling for his execution.

I am afraid but I am also hopeful, Muhammad al-Asadi of the Yemen Observer said in a telephone interview today from the capital, Sana'a: We were against the cartoons and we wanted only to explain about Islam. I hope the judge will see that.

Al-Asadi was arrested in February and charged under a press law that bans publication of anything that prejudices the Islamic faith and its lofty principles, or belittles monotheistic religions or humanitarian creeds.

The editor spent 12 days in a prison run by the Prosecutor for the Press, before being released on bail. Three other Yemeni journalists also have been jailed for reprinting the cartoons, which angered Muslims worldwide and led to violent demonstrations in countries including Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nigeria.

As many as 21 Yemeni prosecution lawyers asked for the death penalty in yesterday's proceedings, arguing a precedent was set during Muhammad's lifetime, according to al-Asadi. He said the lawyers recounted a story in which the prophet praised one of his companions for killing a woman who had insulted him.

The prosecution, commissioned by the head of a legislative committee, also called for the confiscation of the newspaper's property and assets, and for compensation, al-Asadi said. The case opened on Feb. 15 and was adjourned until March 22, he said.

The Yemenis are among 11 journalists in five countries being prosecuted for printing the cartoons. Six journalists have been jailed and 13 publications have been closed in Algeria, Morocco, Jordan, Yemen, Malaysia and Indonesia, according to Reporters Without Borders, a Paris-based organization that promotes freedom of the press and works to end censorship.

The Yemen Observer's license to print newspapers was revoked in a temporary action that the government is trying to make permanent. The staff has continued to publish on the Internet.

The Washington-based Committee to Protect Journalists on Jan. 26 said it was alarmed by the deterioration of press freedom in Yemen over the last several months, according to a statement in its Web site. Journalists who have covered protests, reported on official corruption, or criticized the president or government policies, have all been targeted, the group said.

Al-Asadi said he was very careful in the way he chose to reprint the cartoons, and didn't think he would cause offense: We selected three of the 12 images, reduced them to all fit in a 7-by-9 centimeter (2.75-by-3.5 inch) box, and printed a thick black X over them to show we disproved of them. Accompanying articles denounced the cartoons, called for calm and explained that the prophet should be honored: We wrote in an editorial that the cartoons were terrible but we should accept the apologies of the newspaper that published them and move on, al-Asadi said. That's what angered really the hard-liners.

Based on an article from New Ind Press

The next time you cosy up to your partner at a public place in Thane, India, ensure you stay ‘within limits’. Or you might just end up paying Rs 1,200 to the newly-formed Eagle Squad, a five-nutter Thane police team swooping down on “people acting against social norms”.

The brainchild of nutter Madhukar Pandey, the squad comprises two male and two female constables and is headed by Inspector Mamta D’Souza. It was formed on March 1 after the Thane police received frequent complaints about commercial sex workers soliciting customers at the railway station and near Talaopali Lake.

The basic idea behind this social policing is to check quasi-sexuality in public places and hidden prostitution, explains Pandey. It’s not merely about couples cosying up, it’s when there is demonstration of overt sexual behavior that we come in.

The squad has already begun its crackdown. It’s just four days since the squad has come into place, and we have caught at least three-four sex workers every day, says D’Souza, whose squad scouts the city in civvies.

D’Souza is quick to clarify that couples holding hands or holding each other — “or at times even kissing” — are not caught. Neither are married couples and those who can prove they are engaged — we call their houses and check.

But college students “having fun” will not be spared. “At Upvan Lake after 7 pm,” she explains, there are no lights and couples are found in compromising positions. This is not acceptable. D’Souza says they have already started getting responses from citizens.

This is just the beginning, says Pandey. Once public involvement increases, we will be able to help more people and try our best to make Thane a socially healthy society.

The Scottish responses to the Government Consultation on Extreme Pornography have now been posted.  There were 92 responses of which 66 have been made public. Hopefully those preferring to remain anonymous are anti censorship because the balance of responses is in favour of the Government's nasty stance.

In fact many of the responses posted are very depressing. There are so many people that support 3 or 5 years in prison for merely viewing images. No consideration of the devastation that they are wishing on people. Hardly a properly reasoned comment amongst them.

The lynch mob is alive and well in Scotland and they are calling for your bollox!

See www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Justice/criminal/17543/ExtremePornograhicMateria/Response (missing 'l' in Material is deliberate)

From The Telegraph

Police have ordered a shopkeeper to remove a toddlers' T-shirt from his window display because its slogan "Winner of the Egg and Sperm Race" was deemed offensive.

Tim Price, who has run the Ju-Ju clothes shop in Brighton said that he was stunned when officers began telling him what T-shirts he could and could not display: Apparently, someone had found the word 'sperm' offensive. Is sperm a swear word? he asked.

Price initially left the T-shirts in the window but covered up the offending words and replaced them with less offensive ones. The move, however, only brought another visit - and another warning - from the police: Our customers are bewildered. We do not set out to offend - the T-shirts are supposed to be funny. It's odd that we can't display them but people can wear them in the street. Are they breaking the law?"

A Sussex police spokesman said: An officer has spoken to the staff at Ju-Ju and advised them to display some of the more controversial items within the store or cover offending words to prevent further complaints.

As spotted by MediawatchWatch

The March issue of the UK’s secular-humanist monthly, The Freethinker, is a “religious cartoons special edition”, featuring several Mo-toon fever inspired cartoons, a couple of Jesus-on-the-cross funnies, Jesus and Mo, one of the original “Danish twelve” (the “ran out of virgins” one - “turban bomb” and “horn head” were reprinted in the November 2005 issue, to a noticeable absence of outrage), and articles by Irshad Manji and Ibn Warraq, among other things.

From Movie City News

The MPAA Appeals Board overturned the "R" rating for Sony Pictures Classics Film, Joyeux Noël (Merry Christmas). The film, inspired by true events, takes place in the trenches of the World War I battlefield on Christmas Eve in 1914. The Classification and Ratings Administration originally rated the film R for some war violence and brief nudity. Sony Pictures Classics, along with director Christian Carion, appealed the Rating Board¹s decision and prevailed with a 2/3 majority, obtaining a PG-13 rating (for war violence and a brief scene of sexuality/nudity).

From the  World Socialist Web Site

In a letter circulated to journalists in mid-February, a group of former senior Chinese officials called on the Beijing government to ease its rigid media censorship, particularly of political news and commentary. The appeal is another sign of a broader debate in Chinese ruling circles on how to deal with the extreme tensions being generated by the country’s deepening social inequality.

Written on February 2, the letter criticised the decision of the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) Propaganda Department on January 24 to shut down Freezing Point, a popular supplement to the official China Youth Daily. The journal was widely regarded as a thought-provoking publication that featured articles challenging the official line on controversial topics, including historical issues, policy on Taiwan and rural unrest.

The letter declared: At the turning point in our history from a totalitarian to a constitutional system, depriving the public of freedom of speech will bring disaster for our social and political transition and give rise to group confrontation and social unrest. Experience has proved that allowing a free flow of ideas can improve stability and alleviate social problems. The regime could no longer keep the public locked in ignorance, it stated.

When he came to power in 2002, President Hu expressed interest in limited reforms. Faced with growing unrest, however, he soon shelved the idea and opposed any significant easing of restrictions, including of media censorship. Taboo topics include discussion of the growing social inequality produced by market reforms and criticism of Beijing’s falsification of China’s modern history. The Chinese leadership is particularly sensitive to any ideological tendencies with the potential to transform the widespread, but localised, protests into a broader anti-government movement.

The attempt to shut down Freezing Point highlights the dilemmas confronting Chinese authorities, even in relation to conventional print media. As part of the policies of market reform, funding to state-controlled publications has been cut, forcing editors to rely more heavily on revenue from circulation and advertising. However, if newspapers simply repeated the official line, no one would buy them and the publications would soon go out of business.

As former Freezing Point editor Li Datong told the New York Times on February 15: Every serious publication in China faces tough choices. You can publish stories people want to read and risk offending the censors. Or you can publish stories that the party wants published and risk going out of business.

... I will defend the right to put you to death for saying it.

Based on an article from Daily India

Muslims in France apparently weren't ready to defend the right for Voltaire's play on religious intolerance to be staged.

At a time when many Muslims are irate over the cartoon depictions of the Prophet Mohammed they deemed offensive, some in France sought to stop the staged reading in December of Voltaire's Fanaticism or Mahomet the Prophet. The play uses Mohammed to satirize religious intolerance.

Voltaire, an 18th-century philosopher, famously said, I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it. But, in a letter to the mayor of Saint-Genis-Pouilly, four Islamic activists demanded the play not be read, saying it was an "insult to the entire Muslim community."

The reading went on, and a "small riot" ensued.

Voltaire was always able to touch a nerve. When the play was first staged in 1741, Roman Catholic clergy forced it to be closed after three Paris performances because they deemed it anti-Christian.

From Asia Media

The Indonesian House of Representatives should exercise extra caution before passing the pornography bill into law because many of its contentious articles have not been resolved, a respected Muslim cleric says.

Cleric Mustofa Bisri of the 40-million-strong Nahdlatul Ulama said legislators should listen to the opinions of many people from a variety of backgrounds and faiths before passing the bill into law: The House should accommodate as many people's aspirations as possible.

Mustofa said the bill contained no clear-cut definition of pornography. The existing vague definition could allow multiple interpretations and cause confusion and conflict, he said.

The content of the draft bill is currently being disseminated in selected provinces before it is passed. Particularly controversial articles in the law involve regulations on public dress and restrictions on nudity in the media and art. If the bill became law, women who bare their shoulders or legs or artists who include nudity in their work could be prosecuted for indecency and could be jailed or fined up to Rp 2 billion (US$217,503).

Strongest opposition to the bill has come from predominantly Hindu Bali, where nudity in certain contexts is an accepted part of the island's art and culture. Balinese also worry that tourism could be affected by the law -- with holidaymakers forbidden from wearing revealing swimming outfits.

Balinese protesters have threatened to seek independence from Indonesia if the bill is passed as is. Opposition has also been voiced in Papua, another place where there are few cultural prohibitions on nudity, and in Batam, where tourism plays an important part in the island's economy.

Women's groups and artists throughout the country are also against the bill, which they say intrudes on personal privacy, curtails creativity and criminalizes women for their sexuality.

Mustofa criticized some Muslim groups that were trying to push the law through the House without proper consultation. The pressure was: a manifestation of panic from Muslims who have no self-confidence. It seems that certain Muslims are so worried about globalization and are unable to deal with it that they are resorting to speedily passing this law.

First drawn up in 1999, the bill had been shelved until last year when it was revived after pressure from Muslim-based parties concerned about what they perceived was the moral degradation of the nation.

A House legislator said the bill showed tolerance for pluralism was waning in this multi-religious and multicultural society. Sidharto Danusubroto of the Indonesia Democratic Party of Struggle said pluralism was under threat as long the pornography bill existed in its present form: There are certain groups who are forcing their ideology on others.

Entertainment and tourism businesspeople in Batam have also now expressed their concerns over the controversial pornography bill following a meeting with a House special committee, but received little assurance their worries would be addressed.

At the meeting with the committee from the House of Representatives on Saturday, the businesspeople raised fears the bill, if passed into law, would have a negative impact on the island's tourism and entertainment sectors, as well as restrict people's freedom of expression.

Deputy head of investment and promotion at the Batam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin), Jadi Rajagukguk, said: The draft bill is like the seed of a disease, and will make foreign tourists afraid to come to Indonesia.

Jadi said that even before the bill had been passed into law, Barelang Police had started warning shops against selling revealing clothing and women not to wear such clothing in public, causing concern among the community. We heard that one shop opted to close after being warned by the police, and there are many shoppers at the malls who fear that the way they dress might cause the police to target them.

From Online Casinos

A New Jersey Assemblyman has launched a Bill to control anonymity of posts

Late last year there was news of a federal US attempt to control discourtesy and abuse on the Internet and this year we have seen Rep. Bob Goodlatte launch his latest attempt to ban online gambling that includes proposals to censor at ISP level.

Readers might be forgiven for assuming that American politicians seem to have developed an (unhealthy) interest in reducing the freedom of the Internet, and the latest attack is not reassuring.

New Jersey Assemblyman Peter J. Biondi has submitted a Bill that would make certain operators of interactive computer services and Internet Service Providers liable to persons injured by false or defamatory messages posted on public forum websites, and have an adverse effect on the choice of anonymity by posters.

In what could become a privacy and database nightmare for internet operators, the bill proposes to force websites to police their users and real time messages.

Here's an example from the New Jersey politician's proposal: The operator of any interactive computer service or an Internet service provider shall establish, maintain and enforce a policy to require any information content provider who posts written messages on a public forum website either to be identified by a legal name and address, or to register a legal name and address with the operator of the interactive computer service or the Internet service provider through which the information content provider gains access to the interactive computer service or Internet, as appropriate.

An operator of an interactive computer service or an Internet service provider shall establish and maintain reasonable procedures to enable any person to request and obtain disclosure of the legal name and address of an information content provider who posts false or defamatory information about the person on a public forum website.

Readers can find full details on this further attempt to tamper with the Internet at www.njleg.state.nj.us/2006/Bills/A1500/1327_I1.HTM

From Starpulse News Blog
From eitb24

The Chinese media heavily censored Ang Lee's Oscar acceptance speech during the broadcast of the Academy Awards, omitting any references to his native Taiwan or homosexuality.

The Asian nation has hailed Lee as a national hero following his triumph at the Sunday ceremony, where he was named Best Director for Brokeback Mountain.

In his speech, Lee said, They taught all of us who made Brokeback Mountain so much about not just all the gay men and women whose love is denied by society, but just as important, the greatness of love itself.

Chinese state television decided to edit the gay references from his address, because homosexuality is still frowned upon in society and was considered a mental disorder as recently as 2001.

Chinese TV also removed Lee's closing sentence, in which he thanked, everybody in Taiwan, Hong Kong and China.

The Beijing government sees Lee's self-ruled Taiwan as sovereign territory and the director was described as Chinese or Chinese-American by many national press.

The China Daily enthused, Ang Lee is the pride of the Chinese people all over the world, and he is the glory of Chinese cinematic talent.

The Chinese government, while glorying in the director's achievement, has prohibited the film from general release in the country because of its controversial content. Government censorship of the media prohibits the display or reference to homosexuality as: going against the healthy way of life in China.

People on the streets of Beijing  questioned the decision to ban the movie. It's the 21st century now. It's not appropriate for the government to prohibit this movie. Everybody wants to watch it, said one .

Yet the cinema ban is symbolic as consumers can already buy copies of Brokeback Mountain on DVD. The DVDs, many of which are pirated, can be bought for one US dollar or less, often in the back of legitimate shops or on street corners.

It has only been in the last decade that the Chinese government announced that it would no longer treat homosexual relations between consenting adults in private a crime, and as recently as 2000 the government stated that homosexuality was to be considered a mental illness.

Based on an article from Islam Online

The Indonesian government has introduced a new regulation to scrutinize the content of TV programs to coincide with the  much derided pornography bill.

Before this, all TV stations ignored our warnings on their inappropriate broadcast content, saying there were no grounds for legal action, said Ade Armando of the Indonesian Broadcasting Commission (KPI). But it is different now, we can report them to the police if they are proved to have broadcast violence and sexual (content).

The new regulation empowers the KPI to report TV stations airing programs containing violence, sexual content and occult themes to police. It also gives the information and communication minister the right to revoke a TV station's broadcasting license if the station violates program standards and guidelines issued by the KPI.

Local television programming is notorious for horror and occult shows, violence-packed movies and supposedly sexually suggestive content in soaps and music shows.

The KPI will work together with the Film Censorship Institute to identify programs with graphic sexuality and violence. Stations submit 10 to 20% of their programs for approval, Titie Said, the institute's head, said.

Ade said handling violators will be done on stages: We will send three warning letters, with the first letter asking for clarification. If they do not clarify and pay no attention to the other two letters, then we will go to the police. By reporting the matter to police, Ade added, legal procedures for revoking the license could begin. To be valid, the revocation process requires a court ruling.

From The Nation

The Culture Ministry has banned 40 VCDs it considers too violent or sexually explicit since it became the country's video censor.

The ban is necessary as more than 80% of their content features violence or sex, Ladda Tangsupachai, director of the Culture Watch Centre, said yesterday. The job of checking videos, computer games and online games was transferred from police to the ministry in Sept.

More than 2,000 games and films have been submitted for review. We have also censored parts of these games and films, Ladda said.

From Dan

For starters I am surprised so much time has been wasted in Parliament talking about video games. Surely this issue is one of such little public concern!

But Keith Vaz has opened the can of worm about video game violence and despite little media attention it should be the focus of anti-censorship campaigners. Vaz proposes more labeling but games are labled enough. It isn't the lack of labeling which is the problem it's stores selling adult rated games to children and parents buying adult rated games for their children.

But hold on, I am left confused by the likes of Vaz. One minute they are calling for games like Manhunt and Bully to be banned, and the next they are calling for tougher labeling. Well, you can't label games that are banned can you? What do the anti-game lobby want? I agree with labels and age ratings, which I believe should be enforced by stores and adhered to by parents. But I do not agree that games should be banned outright just because they do not fit in with the approval of a minority of lobbyists seeking to make newspaper headlines.

And I again repeat my view that whilst I have sympathy for people like the mother of Stephen Pakeerah I do not believe it gives them the right to tell me what games should and should not be available to me and other adult game fans.

I think a brave MP would be one that stood up to Vaz and told him that if we hold the video games industry responsible for murder murderers could go free on the defence that it "wasen't me Yer honour it was the Playstation!"

From Prison Planet

Singer Morrisey was quizzed by the FBI and British intelligence after speaking out against the American and British governments.

The Brit is a famous critic of the US-led war in Iraq and has dubbed President Bush a "terrorist" - but he was baffled to be hauled in by authorities.

Morrissey explains, The FBI and the Special Branch have investigated me and I've been interviewed and taped and so forth. They were trying to determine if I was a threat to the government, and similarly in England. But it didn't take them very long to realise that I'm not.

I don't belong to any political groups, I don't really say anything unless I'm asked directly and I don't even demonstrate in public. I always assume that so-called authoritarian figures just assume that pop/rock music is slightly insane and an untouchable platform for the working classes to stand up and say something noticeable.

My view is that neither England or America are democratic societies. You can't really speak your mind and if you do you're investigated.

From Info Wars

One of Morrissey's recent songs was a proudly patriotic composition that relayed the message that to him being British was not about being coerced to think in whatever way the state wishes, but to enjoy hard earned freedom of expression. The lyrics to Irish Blood, English Heart are as follows:

Irish blood, English heart, this I'm made of
There is no-one on earth I'm afraid of
And no regime can buy or sell me

I've been dreaming of a time when
To be English is not to be baneful
To be standing by the flag not feeling
Shameful, racist or partial

Irish blood, English heart, this I'm made of
There is no-one on earth I'm afraid of
And I will die with both my hands untied

I've been dreaming of a time when
The English are sick to death of Labour
And Tories, and spit upon the name of Oliver Cromwell
And denounce this royal line that still salute him
And will salute him forever

Is it now traitorous to hold these views? The FBI and British special branch certainly seem to think so.

Based on an article from the Jakarta Post

Following a visit by legislators to Bali, Batam and Papua to gauge public opinion on the pornography bill, it's still a guessing game whether there will be major changes to the controversial bill.

While House of Representatives special committee chairman Balkan Kaplale promised people in Batam there would be major changes to the draft of the bill, legislator Rustam E. Tamburaka said in Bali that there may be some exceptions in the bill for Bali and Papua.

Members of the House committee returned Sunday from their visit to the provinces from where people had raised objections to the bill. A group of Balinese earlier told legislators how eroticism and sensuality were part of their culture.

In a meeting with several groups in Batam, Nutter Balkan had previously asked the participants to contemplate the timeliness of the bill, saying that a series of recent natural disasters and tragedies that hit Indonesia were "a warning from God". This bill is a part of our efforts to strengthen the moral fiber of the nation, some of which has been damaged, the nutter of the Democrat Party said, referring to prostitution, human trafficking and the representation of women in adult magazines and tabloids.

Balkan added that of 167 groups and individuals invited by the committee to discuss the bill, only 22 rejected it, including well-known figures from the art world. However, he was at a loss for words when a number of participants bombarded him with questions.

One participant raised concerns that he would be arrested when going online to view a painting of a nude woman by Italian artist Michelangelo. Others questioned the possible arrest of athletes, who wear shorts or miniskirts, and models sporting revealing clothing in fashion shows.

Balkan only replied that the draft of the bill, containing 11 chapters and 93 articles, would see major changes during an upcoming deliberation on the bill next week.

However Balkan's colleague, Rustam, said in Denpasar there would be possible exceptions in the implementation of the bill in Bali and Papua due to their unique cultural traditions. Both regions deserve consideration, he said amid a colorful protest against the bill.

The Golkar Party legislator said that the bill would respect the Papuan tradition of wearing the koteka (penis sheath) as well as foreign tourists who sunbathe in bikinis, because it is the tradition they bring from their countries. Balinese artists are also allowed to make nude sculptures or paintings, he added. Rustam added that legislators may scrap articles on penalties, which reach billions of rupiah, but did not elaborate.

Balinese legislator of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle said that she was opposed to the bill despite the fact that she was a member of the committee. It is useless for the government to discuss such a bill which displeases so many people, because it would waste time and money, she said.

It seems that the 3 months to read the responses has now passed and the Home Office should now at least provide a status update.

Of course saying, that I haven't even finished posting the responses that I have received and that's only a small fraction of the total.

From the BBC

Salman Rushdie is among a dozen writers to have put their names to a statement in a French weekly paper warning against Islamic "totalitarianism". The writers say the violence sparked by the publication of cartoons satirising the Prophet Muhammad shows the need to fight for secular values and freedom.

The statement is published in Charlie Hebdo, one of several European papers to reprint the caricatures.

Almost all of those who have signed the statement have experienced difficulties with Islamic militancy first-hand, says the BBC's Caroline Wyatt in Paris. They include Dutch MP and filmmaker Ayaan Hirsi Ali and exiled Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen.

After having overcome fascism, Nazism, and Stalinism, the world now faces a new global threat: Islamism, the manifesto says. We, writers, journalists, intellectuals, call for resistance to religious totalitarianism and for the promotion of freedom, equal opportunity and secular values for all.

The clashes over the cartoons revealed the necessity of the struggle for these universal values, the statement continues: It is not a clash of civilisations nor an antagonism of West and East that we are witnessing, but a global struggle that confronts democrats and theocrats.

They also said they would not give up their critical spirit out of fear of being accused of Islamophobia. Islamism is a reactionary ideology which kills equality, freedom and secularism wherever it is present, the writers added, saying it is nurtured by fears and frustrations

Signatories:

Salman Rushdie - Indian-born British writer with fatwa issued ordering his execution for The Satanic Verses
Ayaan Hirsi Ali - Somali-born Dutch MP
Taslima Nasreen - exiled Bangladeshi writer, with fatwa issued ordering her execution
Bernard-Henri Levy - French philosopher
Chahla Chafiq - Iranian writer exiled in France
Caroline Fourest - French writer
Irshad Manji - Ugandan refugee and writer living in Canada
Mehdi Mozaffari - Iranian academic exiled in Denmark
Maryam Namazie - Iranian writer living in Britain
Antoine Sfeir - director of French review examining Middle East
Ibn Warraq - US academic of Indian/Pakistani origin
Philippe Val - director of Charlie Hebdo

From the Sydney Morning Herald

A New York theatre company has put off plans to stage a play about an American activist killed by an Israeli bulldozer in Gaza because of the current "political climate" - a decision the play's British director, Alan Rickman, denounced as "censorship".

James Nicola, the artistic director of the New York Theatre Workshop, said it had never formally said it would be staging the play, My Name is Rachel Corrie, but it had been considering putting it on in March: In our pre-production planning and our talking around and listening in our communities in New York, what we heard was that after Ariel Sharon's illness and the election of Hamas, we had a very edgy situation. We found that our plan to present a work of art would be seen as us taking a stand in a political conflict, that we didn't want to take. He said he had suggested a postponement until next year.

Rickman, best known for his acting roles in Love, Actually and the Harry Potter series and who directed the play at London's Royal Court Theatre, denounced the decision: I can only guess at the pressures of funding an independent theatre company in New York, but calling this production 'postponed' does not disguise the fact that it has been cancelled.

Corrie was a 23-year-old activist from Washington state. She was crushed in March 2003 when she put herself between an Israeli Army bulldozer and a Palestinian home it was about to demolish in Rafah, on the Egyptian border.

From China View

Foreigners in China may be ordered to leave the country if they violate a new set of regulations coming into force today.

Compared with the version that has been in place for 19 years, the new law stipulates a total of 238 illegal practices an addition of 165 offences and raises the maximum fine from 200 yuan (US$25) to 5,000 yuan (US$617).

The Law on Public Security Administrative Penalties, which takes effect today, applies to all Chinese citizens and foreigners in the country, including those with diplomatic immunity, the Ministry of Public Security told a press conference yesterday in Beijing.

Cases involving diplomatic immunity would be handled through diplomatic channels and the rest dealt with directly by Chinese police, said Ke Liangdong, director of the ministry's legislative bureau. Ke said the law targets new illegal practices in society.

Instances of new illegal practices include:

• Repeatedly sending pornographic mobile-phone messages
• Disturbing public order at sports or cultural events
• Raising pets that harass neighbours
• Causing disturbance by making too much noise.

Punishment ranges from warnings, fines, and revoking licences to detention of up to 15 days. For foreign violators, the law adds the deportation clause.

Ke would not say what kind of illegal behaviour would attract the severe penalty of deportation: It depends on the circumstances. But no matter which article foreigners violate, there will be risks of being deported.

He said local police stations have to seek approval from the ministry or authorized provincial police authorities for deporting foreigners. But if the penalty is detention, county-level police authorities would have the final say.

Wu Mingshan, deputy director of the ministry's public security management bureau, said a large number of violations involving foreigners relate to prostitution, frequenting brothels, theft and assault.

He added that the ministry would soon issue an English copy of the law.

From GamesIndustry.biz

Roger Bennett, director general of UK videogames publisher trade body ELSPA, has labelled as "complete and utter nonsense" a speech made in parliament by Labour MP Keith Vaz proposing new laws relating to videogame ratings.

The fact of the matter is that it was complete and utter nonsense, Bennett told GamesIndustry.biz: His whole thrust with this proposed bill was about labelling, which he got utterly and completely wrong, in that he hasn't got up to speed with what has happened over the last three or four years.

Vaz was proposing an amendment to the Video Recordings Act 1984, which would make it mandatory for videogames to receive content ratings in the same way that films do - a role currently fulfilled by the voluntary PEGI ratings system. He argued in Parliament that the current system, which sees the PEGI ratings being complemented by a rating from the BBFC for the small number of titles which are rated 18, is "very confusing", and used a quote from Bennett in his speech to back up this point.

However, the quote in question was from an article in Readers Digest magazine in 2002 - four years ago - and pre-dates the introduction of the PEGI ratings system across Europe in 2003, which brought a standardised system with large, clear ratings on game boxes and advertising to the industry.

There's a perfectly well-established and robust system of ratings which appear on both the front and the back of the boxes, which he was totally confused about, clearly, Bennett commented. Not only that, but they appear in all advertising.

He lashed out at Vaz' motivation for introducing the proposed amendment, describing the Labour MP's speech as the absolute epitome of the promotion of the Nanny State. The fact of the matter is that we're one of only two countries in the whole of the 27 states of the European Union who have mandatory ratings, Bennett explained. Everywhere else in Europe , the ratings are on the boxes - the PEGI ratings - and they make informed decisions for their kids. The more you take the responsibility away from parents, the less responsibility they'll take. As soon as you take responsibility away from people, then they rely on others to do it for them.

The whole process is mindless, in my view. At the end of the day, as long as the information is there, we should leave it to parents and guardians, to those responsible for young people, to make informed decisions about what they should or shouldn't watch. The blame culture in which we seem to live these days is as a result of the promotion of the nanny state, no question about it. It's always somebody else's fault, and they have to have somebody else to blame.

ELSPA now plans to speak to the relevant government departments to ensure that they are aware of the industry's content rating initiatives, but Bennett is adamant that the proposed amendment represents little threat to the industry: There's very little chance of it going any further anyway. Given that the whole thrust of the content of his proposal is already established and has been for the last three years - so I'm not sure quite what [Vaz] is aiming to achieve

From the BBC

Muslims should have "broader shoulders" when it comes to issues of free speech such as the Danish cartoons, a Lib Dem home affairs spokesman has said.

Kishwer Falkner, who is a Muslim, said her community must be "tolerant" and "learn the art of peaceful dissent". She said freedom of speech was not just a Western concept but it was necessary in any pluralistic society.

Falkner said there was "no doubt" the cartoons had offended Muslims and no doubt their publication in Britain was an error of judgement. But she said self-censorship was always better than state censorship and freedom of speech was a "necessary condition" of living in a pluralistic society.

The Lib Dems last month helped defeat the government over plans to ban incitement to religious hatred, which had been called for by Muslim groups who want the same protection from offence as Christians. Falkner, who speaks for the Lib Dems on home affairs in the Lords, said the blasphemy laws protecting Christians should now be repealed to ensure consistency. But she added: If we demand equality, we cannot demand respect - that has to be earned.

She said laws in Austria and Germany banning denial of the holocaust should also be scrapped, arguing they were now out of place in the "mature and confident democracies" the two countries had become: They should repeal it and let Holocaust deniers express their hateful and warped versions of history.

Her views were echoed by Lib Dem human rights spokesman Evan Harris, who told delegates said that with extremists - and even our own prime minister in a mild way - increasingly hiding behind religious beliefs it had never been more important to stand up for free speech. He urged the party to say no to blasphemy laws, holocaust denial laws and, in a reference to London Mayor Ken Livingstone's suspension over remarks he made to a Jewish reporter, "no to standards board speech police".

He warned that unless people stood up against state censorship people easily offended will be able to get protection for their views but people less easily offended will not be able to get protection for their views. He told delegates: If you don't want to read The Satanic Verses don't buy the book. If you don't want to watch Jerry Springer the Opera on the BBC switch channels. If you don't want to read cartoons in a Danish newspaper, don't go to Denmark and buy those newspapers.

Sajj Karim MEP said Muslims in the European Union had "by and large" responded to the publication of the cartoons democratically, even though they had been offended by them. He said the globalised nature of modern media meant extra care had to be taken - but the final judgement on whether to publish should be left to the press and not the censors. We as a party must defend the editors' right to make that judgement call at all costs, he told delegates.

Lib Dem home affairs spokesman Alistair Carmichael also backed calls for greater freedom of speech, telling delegates: There is no such thing as freedom not be offended.

I am sure that declaring two thirds of films to be 18 rated will achieve nothing except getting censors' age recommendations even more widely ignored.

From Stuff

A New Zealand anti-smoking lobby group, Ash,  wants  a ban on smoking in kid-rated movies. Ash NZ director Becky Freeman claims two-thirds of child-rated Hollywood movies contain smoking or tobacco product placement, endangering the health of young New Zealanders.

The DreamWorks studio was said to be the worst offender, with all its 2002 child-rated movies containing smoking or tobacco placement, followed by MGM on 80%. What really makes me angry is when you see children's cartoons with smoking in them, like Shark Tale, Freeman said.

Ash was calling for all new movies with smoking references to be rated R18, or for movie makers to voluntarily remove smoking from their youth movies, Freeman said.

However, a spokeswoman for the Classifications Office said the Government would have to legislate to allow smoking to be considered in a film's classification. Under existing, law films can only be restricted because of sex, torture, crime, cruelty, violence or dehumanising behaviour.

Sounds like we are on some sort of moral high horse mocking the freedom challenged Chinese and Americans.

I don't think the UK can boast that the Rolling Stones have been granted full freedom of speech though. I seem to remember the BBC refusing to play Starfucker even after it had hastily been renamed Star Star.

From The Guardian

Stones forced to axe sexually explicit songs for China concert. For the second time in a matter of weeks, the Rolling Stones are having to cut back on the brown sugar rather than leave a sour taste in the mouth of morally indignant censors.

First there was the Superbowl, where organisers silenced Mick Jagger's microphone during the sexually explicit song Start Me Up in the half-time concert in Detroit last month. Now China is set to follow suit. When the Stones make their Chinese debut next month, they will succumb to government pressure by dropping Brown Sugar, Let's Spend the Night Together, Honky Tonk Woman and Beast of Burden from their playlist.

Promoters say the Stones will play live in Shanghai on April 8 as part of their A Bigger Bang tour. It has been a long time coming. The British band has been in talks about playing in China since the late 1970s, when a concert was denied by a government concerned about "spiritual pollution" from western culture.

But fears of spiritual pollution have not entirely subsided. According to one insider, promoters must provide lyrics and a video of past performances to the ministry of culture for approval before permission for a concert is given.

From CNN

A court has banned the screening of a film inspired by the case of a self-confessed cannibal, less than a week before it was due to open in German movie theaters.

A state court in Kassel upheld a complaint against the film, Rohtenburg, by the man at the center of the case. It found that Armin Meiwes' personal rights were infringed by the movie, and that outweighed the value of artistic freedom.

Rohtenburg, directed by Martin Weisz and starring Thomas Kretschmann in the main role, was due for release in Germany March 9. Anyone defying Friday's court ruling to screen the film anywhere in Germany could face a fine or up to six months in prison.

Meiwes is currently being retried by a Frankfurt court for the March 2001 killing at his home in the central town of Rotenburg of a man who answered his Internet posting seeking a young man for "slaughter and consumption." He has said he would not have killed his victim had the man not asked to die.

The film's makers have argued that the case, which has fascinated and appalled Germans, did no more than provide inspiration for the movie.

From The Guardian

Armed police officers wearing masks shut down a Kenyan television station, disabled a printing press and made a public bonfire out of thousands of copies of a pro-opposition newspaper yesterday after a dispute over a story about the president, Mwai Kibaki.

Police carrying AK-47 rifles seized computers, cut power cables and beat up security guards during midnight raids on the joint headquarters of the Standard, Kenya's oldest newspaper; KTN, a private TV station; and the newspaper's printing press. The raids followed the arrest of three Standard journalists over a story in Saturday's paper which claimed Kibaki had secretly met an opposition leader.

It is the first time a Kenyan government has shut down a major media company and drew a stunned response from journalists used to operating in a relatively liberal environment. We believe this is a direct and blatant attempt to undermine the freedom of the press in this country, that is guaranteed by the constitution, said Tom Mshindi, the chief executive officer of the Standard Group. It is also intended to paralyse our business.

The story which triggered the dispute claimed that Kibaki had held a secret meeting with opposition leader Kalonzo Musyoka to discuss how the former minister could rejoin the government. Both sides have denied this.

Three journalists - the weekend managing editor, Chacha Mwita; the weekend news editor, Dennis Onyango; and reporter Ayub Savula - were detained on Tuesday and questioned in connection with the report. They remain in police custody.

The Kenyan government has admitted responsibility for the raids, which were condemned last night by the British and American embassies. Adam Wood, the British high commissioner, said: Last night's actions mark an unprecedented attack on the freedom of the media in Kenya and are in contradiction to the positive line taken by the government on the issue of freedom of expression since the 2002 elections.

The US embassy in Nairobi called them "acts of thuggery that have no place in an open democratic society". The UN expressed alarm and the European Union called for an investigation.

The international community's relations with Kibaki's three-year-old administration have become strained in recent months over corruption scandals. Three ministers have stepped down under a cloud of corruption allegations in the past month and the president faces growing calls for further resignations. Frustration within Kibaki's inner circle has increased with continued media criticism of his handling of the crisis.

I can't think of anything more anti-social than John 'Concentration Camp' Beyer's wish to imprison all those possessing R18 rated hardcore.

From Mediawatch-UK

The spring newsbrief has been published on the Mediawatch-UK website. John Beyer's idea of an 'ASBO for TV' to expunge anything considered anti social is nothing short of embarrassing. The responses from various regulators are a massive put down to his puerile ideas and he seems too thick skinned to realise that he is being politely patronised.

Still he did extract an interesting reply from David Cameron, the new leader of the opposition who said Exploitative pornography is clearly distasteful.  I believe, however, that adults must be allowed to make decisions for themselves.  Our attention should be focused on ensuring that effective action is taken to prevent child pornography and to reduce the chance of pornography falling into the hands of children.

Beyer must be will disappointed that even the Conservatives don't support concentration camps for R18 porn viewers.

Another item from Mediawatch-UK. Beyer must again be well disappointed by the general lack of shock horror tabloid interest for old hat blame opportunities. He should keep up with the Jones', video horrors are passé and he should now be looking to blame computer games instead.

A schizophrenic who murdered four people to fulfil his ambition of becoming a serial killer was said to be obsessed with horror films and wanted to be Freddy Krueger, a jury was told yesterday. Daniel Gonzalez, 25, told police that he wanted to spend a day in the life of the violent stare of Nightmare on Elm Street films. In the movies the character wears a glove fitted with knives and terrorises people in their dreams. When the unemployed loner’s home in Woking, Surrey, was searched a magazine called Freddy Krueger’s Nightmares was found. Gonzalez late told police that voices were telling him to be the horror movie character. The prosecution said that Gonzalez, who stabbed three pensioners and a pub landlord to death and seriously wounded two other strangers, had written a rambling note to himself after beginning his three day killing spree in September 2004.

From the Jakarta Post
Also see the campaigning website at http://jiwamerdeka.blogspot.com,

About 1,000 protesters here greeted a visiting delegation of legislators deliberating the Indonesian pornography bill by threatening to organize acts of civil disobedience if it becomes law. We designed the rally to underline the open and tolerant nature of Balinese culture. That's the reason why the rally is filled with traditional art performances and music concerts, the rally's chief organizer, I Gusti Ngurah Harta, said.

A regional youth leader, who met with the House group, also warned that Bali would secede from Indonesia if the bill took effect. If this bill is passed, we won't hesitate to leave the Republic of Indonesia, Bali branch head of the Indonesian National Youth Committee, I Putu Gede Indriawan Karna, said to applause as quoted by detik.com.

Protesters came from all walks of life, numbering community activists, academics and ordinary citizens. There has been widespread opposition to the bill, which critics say goes too far in taking a moralistic approach to clamp down on pornographic materials and obscene acts, which would also include public displays of affection. Women's rights activists fear women are particularly vulnerable to its misuse, while some ethnic groups, such as the Balinese and Papuans, have nudity as part of their cultural displays.

Balinese arts and religious beliefs have never considered sensuality and sexuality as an impure, morally reprehensible thing. Instead, sensuality and sexuality are treated as natural, integral parts of our lives as human beings, another rally organizer, Cok Sawitri, said. In the past, Balinese women never wore a bra, yet the custom did not turn the society into a sex-craving, pornographically demented community.

A participant in the meeting with the legislators said they reminded them that Indonesia was not a monolithic state where one group could impose its values on the rest.

The bill has blatantly ignored the fact that Indonesia comprises hundreds of ethnic groups with different cultural values and religious beliefs. The bill, which represents the moral values and belief of one single group, has the potential to cause the disintegration of the state, I Gusti Putu Artha said.

Women's rights activist Luh Anggraeni said the bill discriminated against women. It is as if the woman is the only party responsible for the nation's moral decadence. Most of the prohibitive articles in the bill are directed at women.

Participants also said the passage of the bill would inflict irreparable damage on the local tourism industry, the island's economic backbone, already hobbled by a downturn in visitors from two separate bombings in the last four years.

There is an associated Internet campaign site aptly named Jiwa Merdeka (literally meaning "free soul"). The site, http://jiwamerdeka.blogspot.com, has been in operation since Feb. 22.

On the site, people can read or download various texts, including the controversial bill, the Bali delegation's opposition statement and a list of the notable figures, who support the opposition, in addition to an enlightening paper on pornography by Prof. Dr. I Made Bandem. Most of the texts are still in Indonesian buy they are in the process of translating the key documents to English.

The site has already found an "Internet buddy" and ardent supporter in another blog,  http://electronposts.blogspot.com. This blog has explicitly and openly voiced support for Jiwa Merdeka and the struggle against the bill. Most of its recent graphic posts were dealing with this issue. The latest one portrayed an image of a human torso with an uncovered navel and a question: What's wrong with allowing my belly button to have a peek of reality?

Well, it must be so wrong that the law will impose a hefty fine up to Rp 1 billion (over US$100,000) and a prison sentence up to ten years for navel displays.

I think the Springer protestors must be feeling a little bit overshadowed by the cartoon protests. They simply cannot support their own beliefs with the same level of intimidation that Islam can command.

Perhaps they can achieve some feeling of fairness in knowing that both beliefs are equally absurd and equally unlikely to be the truth. 

From MediawatchWatch

Jerry Springer: The Opera opened at the De Montfort Hall in Leicester recently accompanied not only by the usual gaggle of Springer protestors, but also by a counter-demo by the active Leicester Secular Society in support of free speech. As far as we can gather, this is the first time the anti-Springer brigade have encountered organised opposition.

If the show is coming to a theatre near you, and you want to know what the Christian demonstrators are up to (if anything), Stephen Green of Christian Voice has helpfully set up a web page (Stopspringer.com) with contact details for would-be activists

From Christian Today

Christians are planning to come out to protest against Jerry Springer: The Opera when it opens in Glasgow next week.

The protest will kick off on the opening night of the show next Monday night and will be attended by numerous prominent Christians, including Rev. George Hargreaves, leader of the Scottish Christian Party, reports the Scottish Herald.

The Glasgow campaign will be spearheaded by Bob Handyside, a local Christian, who criticised the play for its biased disregard of the Christian faith: Christianity is a whipping boy, and obscenities like this, which are absolutely shocking, just seem to be expected. You would never get away with this if you were ranting about Islam. Glasgow City Council would be attacked and there would be Muslims complaining to everyone.

A website for the anti-Springer opera campaign, www.stopspringer.com, is calling for Christians to write to Prince Edward, patron of the Glasgow theatre, voicing their concerns for the musical. The website states, “It’s time for Prince Edward to stand up for Jesus Christ.”

The protest organisers are hoping that many local churches will get involved with the campaign by encouraging their congregation to express their concerns over the play.

The tour is due to continue to Aberdeen’s His Majesty’s Theatre after the Glasgow week-long run. The Aberdeen theatre is also facing criticism for going ahead with the run of the show.

From the BBC

Naked Rambler Stephen Gough has been jailed for two months for appearing naked in the dock from custody.
Gough completed his second naked trek from Lands End to John O'Groats last week.

He had been arrested on Wednesday for walking naked into Edinburgh Sheriff Court to face previous charges. On Thursday, he again refused to cover himself and Sheriff Derrick McIntyre found him in [justifiable] contempt of court, telling him he was "offensive".

From joystiq

Utah state representative David Hogue took an interesting approach to his anti-game legislation: his bill, HB257, would have amended the current law regarding the distribution of material harmful to minors. The primary concern of the existing law was pornography--hence, the "games as porn" connection.

The law, despite First Amendment concerns, passed the Utah House of Representatives by an overwhelming majority (56-8). However, the bill never made it to the floor of the Senate in time to meet the midnight deadline, effectively killing the bill.

From the Bangkok Post

The Thai government is trying to disrupt the operations of Manager Group's ASTV satellite TV channel, according to Pramen Pakdiwapee, the station's director. Pramen says ASTV's internet connections are mysteriously degraded every time it reports important news that could be viewed as anti-government.

ASTV has been the only channel to broadcast live the anti-government rallies since they started on Feb 4 at the Royal Plaza. Before that, it broadcast the Muang Thai Rai Sapda (Thailand Weekly) programme hosted by Manager founder Sondhi Limthongkul after the programme was booted off Channel 9 by the Mass Communication Organisation of Thailand.

ASTV currently has two separate 40 megabytes-per-second links, both with its connection provider. One link is used to send the seven ASTV channels to a satellite uplink station in Hong Kong and then to the Dutch NSS-6 satellite for broadcast to 20 countries in the Southeast Asian region. The other goes to Singapore to be uplinked to a satellite for broadcast in the USA and Canada.

Pramen said that while both links are with the same provider, there are always problems with the Hong Kong link while the Singapore link is much more reliable: I think the government does not know about the Singapore link or maybe does not care.

Asked to comment on allegations that ASTV was little more than an anti-government channel, he said channels 3,5,7,9,11 and ITV are mainly pro-government. What we are doing is giving the 10% of people who think differently a chance to express their views and opinions. That is democracy; that is free speech. Even if we give them 80% of the airtime on ASTV, it is still a tiny fraction of the total.

Meanwhile, Niran Yaowapa, webmaster of the manager.co.th website said authorities have tried various ways to disrupt the website. In January, access to the manager website was blocked from overseas. Such blocking can only happen at the gateway level (run by CAT Telecom), he said. He dismissed the possibility the servers were overloaded, as traffic was well within normal levels that day.

A source at CAT, speaking on condition of anonymity, said CAT had indeed blocked internet addresses belonging to the Manager and ASTV on Jan 27. However, the manager of the internet exchange Aniruth Hiranraks ordered the ban lifted the same day as soon as he found out, the source said.

This led to CAT acting CEO Phisal Jorphochaudom ordering Aniruth's transfer from the network section on Feb 1. A flurry of protests followed from the media and the CAT labour union and he was soon reinstated.

From the Daily Times

About 5,000 Pakistani children chanting “Hang those who insulted the prophet” rallied against caricatures of Prophet Muhammad on Tuesday, with some torching an effigy of the Danish premier and coffins representing Denmark, Israel and the United States.

At least 5,000 demonstrators, mostly aged between five and 12 years and wearing school uniforms, marched through Karachi chanting “God is Great”, police and witnesses said.

The entire nation, from men and women to children, are now on the streets to protest against the caricatures, Jamaat-i-Islami President Merajul Hude, told the protesting children.

Accompanied by their teachers, the children were bussed in from local schools, including madrassas, witnesses and officials said. Some waved placards with the slogans ‘Down with Denmark’ and ‘Boycott Danish products’ as they marched for about half a kilometre from the National Stadium.

One group then set ablaze a cloth figure representing Anders Fogh Rasmussen, the prime minister of Denmark, and burned plywood coffins emblazoned with the US, Danish and Israeli flags, an AFP photographer said.

The police said Tuesday’s rally remained peaceful, like all the other rallies so far held in Karachi.

Meanwhile, opposition leader Liaquat Baloch welcomed the European Union’s first statement on the controversy. EU foreign ministers said Monday they regretted the cartoons were “considered offensive” by Muslims around the world after first appearing in a Danish newspaper in September. But Baloch demanded an apology from Denmark, saying it “has not so far acknowledged its mistake.”

Baloch also said a “line should be drawn” between the freedom of expression - the justification newspapers gave for reproducing the drawings, which Muslims consider blasphemous - and actions that offend cultural sensitivities. A freedom of expression that destroys world peace is against basic human rights.

Based on an article from Gamasutra

Shameful MP, Keith Vaz, has launched a new campaign to curb the sale of violent video games, calling for larger labeling on the covers of games to show age restrictions and the reasons for them.

Vaz is once again championing the case of Giselle Pakeerah, whose 14 year old son was killed in February 2004. Early tabloid reports of the story suggested that the murderer was “obsessed” by Rockstar’s Manhunt, although police later repudiated this, pointing out that only the victim owned a copy of the 18-rated game.

Pakeerah and Vaz have met with Prime Minister Tony Blair concerning the issue, and Vaz is to submit a new bill to Parliament during a ten minute speech, but it is thought to have little chance of becoming law. The Prime Minister’s only comment on the situation has been to indicate that the Government has commissioned research on the issue which it will publish and debate when completed.

Vaz’s demand for larger labeling is peculiar given that age rating symbols have recently been increased for titles (usually violent ones) rated by the BBFC. All games also indicate exactly the content contained within them according to the European PEGI ratings system.

Despite this, Vaz suggests that: This Bill is aimed at restoring public confidence, especially in parents of young people. The current provisions are inadequate and need to be updated. I am looking forward to presenting this Bill to Parliament because its provisions will ensure that we are doing all we can to avoid another tragic loss, such as that of Stefan Pakeerah.

From CTV

Canadian police are suggesting that a new videogame, 25 to Life, should be banned.

Games where the player kills other characters are nothing new. What makes 25 to Life different is that players can choose to be police or criminals. If a gamer chooses to be a crook, killing police becomes a way to score points.

The Toronto Police Association, the organization representing officers, is disturbed by the game's premise. President Dave Wilson discourages parents and game players from buying it, and store from selling the game: Anything we can do to discourage this video from being bought is a good thing. If a ban would discourage it then we should do it.

The game was created by U.K.-based Eidos. In the United States it has come under fire from the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund (NLEOMF). The group started a petition to ban the game from being sold. The NLEOMF hoped to get 17,500 signatures in support of their efforts. According to their website, more than 200,000 signatures have been collected so far.

25 to Life  is rated M for mature gamers. That means only players aged 17 and over can buy the game.

Manhunt Did It

Thanks to  Nick Thomson

I recently completed a short documentary about a year of moral panic that ran from July 2004 to August 2005 (bookended by the Manhunt and Hot Coffee controversies). I made this doc to further my own filmmaking and to express my frustrations with such inanity as the Hot Coffee 'scandal'.

It was never designed to go anywhere 'official', but I thought you might be interested to view it. Manhunt Did It runs for 21 minutes and is split into five WMV files:

http://media.putfile.com/Manhunt-Did-It-1
http://media.putfile.com/Manhunt-Did-It-2
http://media.putfile.com/Manhunt-Did-It-3
http://media.putfile.com/Manhunt-Did-It-4
http://media.putfile.com/Manhunt-Did-It-5

More information about the film can be found here: www.geocities.com/deadshedproductions/manhunt.html

A Backlash contributor points out a few likely reasons for delay

Consultation responses are all filed and analysed. A list of respondees and a summary of responses should be made available once the analysis has got that far. If they haven't made such a list and a summary (about 4 pages is typical) online, then feel free to ask them when it will be done. However, the answer is likely to be: when we can keep a literate admin person long enough to do it!

Given the amount of responses, and there's likely two people working on this entire topic as a small part of their jobs, it's entirely reasonable that so far they've only been sorted into piles and their efforts have been concentrated on writing submissions saying: Er Minister, you know how you wanted this pushed through by Easter, well actually there's some significant opposition so you're going to have to think a lot harder, we'll get back to you once we've analysed it all.

RE FoI hat on, it's arguable that words in a consultation response, ie not a letter that has to be responded to, don't count as a 'legible' request and/or that the authority has not yet 'received' the request [see sections 8 and 10 of FOIA http://www.opsi.gov.uk/acts/acts2000/00036--b.htm]

Write or email them asking the same questions. Mention that you already asked these questions in a consultation response and haven't had any acknowledgement. Bear in mind that if you don't get joy from them, the required next step is for an internal review (under the s45 Code of Practice), and the IC won't consider your complaint if you haven't tried that.

A new town in Florida is being planned by Domino's Pizza founder Thomas S. Monaghan. His intention is that it should be governed by strict Catholic principles, particularly when it comes to sex.

The town will encircle a massive church and what planners call the largest crucifix in the nation, standing nearly 65 feet tall.

I believe all of history is just one big battle between good and evil. I don't want to be on the sidelines, Monaghan said in a recent Newsweek interview.

Civil libertarians say the plan is unconstitutional and promise lawsuits. However, Simon points to a 1946 Supreme Court opinion that "ownership does not always mean absolute dominion."

From AVN & the Sacrameto Bee

A Sacramento Superior Court Judge has ruled that a Folsom, California ordinance restricting the sale of sex toys does not violate a business owner's First Amendment right to freedom of speech.

The challenge to the ordinance was brought by Sam and Misty Dufour, owners of Ms. Teaz, a lingerie shop in Folsom’s Historic District.

A November, 2004, emergency ordinance was passed by the city shortly before Ms. Teaz opened its doors, transparently targeting the store. The ordinance, which prohibited the sale of explicit items such as bondage paraphernalia, as well as requiring blinders on displays of adult magazines, was made permanent in January 2005.

Dufour's attorney, Greg Garrison, argued that the city's ordinance was vague and contradictory. For example, said Garrison, the ordinance prohibits devices with non-sex-related utility being marketed ... in a manner promoting sexual or sadomasochistic uses. Garrison said that language unfairly allows Target or Wal-Mart, for instance, to sell toy handcuffs, while similar handcuffs could not be sold at Ms. Teaz, because, in that context, they would be marketed for their "sexual utility."

However, Judge Connelly rejected that line of reasoning, said the report. A marketing restriction can't be "bootstrapped" into a free-speech issue: If you follow that to its logical conclusion, then every product would fall under the First Amendment.

From the Malay Mail

It's time to give the Malaysian National Censorship Board a pat on the back. After numerous negative comments about our moral police, it’s time to applaud them for a job well done for not butchering locally made movies.

The committee has been very lenient with local movies in the past few months and this is good news to both local filmmakers and moviegoers. Previously, any scene in a local movie that they felt not suitable for Malaysian viewing was snipped off, although similar scenes were allowed in foreign movies.

Several scenes in local horror flicks like Mistik, 7 Perhentian and Pontianak Harum Sundal Malam were snipped because the films’ supernatural elements were deemed not suitable for the Malaysian public. Even action movies like KL MenJerit, GK3 The Movie and Gangster received a cut or too due to some scenes which the committee felt too violent. And of course even Sepet, a love story, became a victim of the Board due to some scenes which the Board felt not suitable for the public. Fortunately enough, the Board now have a more open mind in making their decision.

Pontianak Harum Sundal Malam 2 was the first horror film to be screened without any cut. Even a scene involving a possession – which previously could never be allowed in a local film – left intact. A possession scene was earlier deemed unsuitable as in an Islamic belief, a dead spirit cannot enter the body of a living person.

Then came the action-packed Castello starring Rosyam Nor. Despite a few violent scenes, the film passed without a single cut.

The most recent example of the Board’s leniency is the teen romance Main Main Cinta. The movie has a kissing scene between its two leads, Adam AF2 and Misha Omar that was left alone! Previously, such a scene – even if it was a camera trick – would not make the cut. Although this leniency is good news to local filmmakers, it should not be seen as an opportunity to be abused.

The question is, can local filmmakers be responsible enough not to abuse such leniency? This year will see several films taking on subject matters that will test the Board’s patience. The films are Gubra, Misi 1511, Susuk, Puaka Tebing Biru, Cicakman and Remp-It.

Gubra is a sequel to Yasmin Ahmad’s Sepet and like Sepet, it will have a few controversial scenes including one in which a religious man pats a dog! Gubra has already been submitted to the Board for approval and the result will be known soon.

Misi 1511, despite being an action comedy, touches on the subject of the Bali bombings while Cicakman touches on human cloning. The two subject matters were deemed not suitable for the Malaysian public in the past.

In Susuk, there’s a scene that shows how a woman wears susuk (a magical object inserted under the skin to gain beauty and power) while in Puaka Tebing Biru, there is a scene in where a woman is possessed by a ghost. Then there is Remp-It that has scenes of illegal racing, drug use and provocative bedroom scenes!