I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.	If you disagree...  I will kill you

UN Human Rights Council passes motion against defamation of religion

From MediawatchWatch
From IFEX

European countries are arguing forcefully that free speech is the basis for the enjoyment of all other cultural and political rights, and Islamic countries are taking the line that protecting religious sentiments is the most pressing task of our time.

The choice would almost seem to be a moot one, given the daily acts of torture, extrajudicial killing, imprisonment and denial of basic rights going on around the world every day, but certain countries not usually considered the greatest defenders of liberty have made the problem of 'defamation of religion' a central issue of debate in the UN Human Rights Council.

Thanks to Algeria, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Jordan, Morocco, Pakistan and Tunisia, among others, resolutions urging a worldwide ban on 'defamation of religion' have become a regular fixture in the one-year old council.

Unfortunately the United Nations Human Rights Council has now passed a resolution urging a global prohibition on the defamation of religion. For “religion” read “Islam”, because the main thrust of the resolution focussed on that particular belief system. This is unsurprising, as the resolution was pushed through by the Organisation of the Islamic Conference countries, and opposed only by European countries plus Canada, Japan, and South Korea.

The resolution is said to: expresse deep concern at attempts to identify Islam with terrorism, violence and human rights violations.

It makes no mention of Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Judaism or any other religion besides Islam, but urges countries to take resolute action to prohibit the dissemination of racist and xenophobic ideas and material aimed at any religion or its followers that constitute incitement and religious hatred, hostility, or violence.

It was passed by a 24-14 vote.

Needless to say, the Islamic countries and their allies (China, Cuba, Russia) don’t exactly have the greatest human rights records, especially when it comes to freedom of expression, which, according to the resolution: may … be subject to limitations as provided by law and necessary for respect of the rights or reputations of others … or morals and respect for religions and beliefs.

Chocolate Jesus exhibition is cancelled

Based on an adrticle from Christian Today see full article

Catholics have been predictably outraged by a New York art gallery, which was to have exhibited a sculpture of Jesus Christ – made entirely of chocolate.

The sculpture was to have been part of the galleries Easter exhibition. The chocolate figure stands at 6ft tall (1.8m) and shows Jesus naked hanging on the cross. Unlike usual images of Jesus hanging on the cross, the chocolate sculpture depicts Jesus without a loincloth.

In the US, the Catholic League has been left outraged by the plans. The organisation’s head has described the sculpture as one of the worst assaults on Christian sensibilities ever. Catholic League head Bill Donohue said: The fact that they chose Holy Week shows this is calculated, and the timing is deliberate.

Donohue called for the public to boycott the gallery as well as the hotel which hosts it.

The sculpture, My Sweet Lord, created by artist Cosimo Cavallaro, was to have gone display from Monday in Manhattan’s Lab Gallery.

The creative director of the gallery, Matt Semler, told the BBC that the organisers were considering all their options following a wave of complaints via email and telephone to the gallery.

Unfortunately the director of the hotel housing the gallery was not so resistant and decided to cancel the exhibition. Matt Semeler resigned in protest of a 'catholic fatwa'

By lack of law against offending Turkishness on the Internet

From The New Anatolian see full article

Main opposition deputies walked out of a parliamentary commission yesterday over its failure to include certain offenses, such as crimes against Ataturk, in a new anti-cyber crime bill.

Republican People's Party (CHP) deputies quit the Justice Commission after it also left attacking Turkey's fundamental principles and the unitary state out of the measure.

Under the bill, all collective utilization providers, such as Internet cafes, have to get required permits from local authorities. The providers are also responsible for taking necessary measures against sites with criminal content defined in the bill's access blocking section. Those who don't block the access would be subject to fines of YTL 50,000.

The commission decided not to make changes to the access blocking crimes section. With this decision, a motion that asked the commission to add a clause on "praising crimes and criminals" within the section was rejected. But when their motion to include"attacking fundamental principles, crimes against Ataturk and attacking Turkey's unitary state didn't make the bill, CHP deputies left the commission en masse.

The "access blocking crimes" section currently includes child abuse, drug trade, pornography, prostitution, supporting suicide and gambling. The commission also decided to threaten service providers who do not properly block illicit sites with two years in prison.

Punished by the MPAA

From UPI

The MPAA suspended for one month the rating on the film, Captivity, because of its graphic publicity campaign.

The MPAA's action was in response to the ad display of a woman's torture and death in Los Angeles and New York, which the MPAA disapproved as inappropriate for general public viewing.

The production company and its distributors will be required to clear promotional materials, as well as locations and venues of ad buys, for the film, the MPAA said. This is the first time this sanction has been imposed.

The sanctions in this case are severe because this was an unacceptable and flagrant violation of MPAA rules and procedures, said Marilyn Gordon, Senior Vice President of Advertising.

Once Captivity becomes eligible for rating consideration May 1, it will not be given priority scheduling.

   
Singapore censors look to extend into Internet TV

From The Sydney Morning Herald

Singapore's media regulator said it is looking to expand its jurisdiction from the traditional print and broadcast sector to include the emergence of new media markets.

The Media Development Authority of Singapore (MDA) said it was seeking public feedback to its Media Market Conduct Code, which is under review to better address competition issues that may arise under the new landscape.

It said the code was first implemented in 2003 to regulate the market for print and broadcast media, mainly newspapers and television. But the situation was more complex since the emergence of Internet broadband services and the convergence of telecommunications and television services, it said.

Ling Pek Ling, director for media policy at MDA said: With the emergence of new media markets and the introduction of HDTV and IPTV services, it is timely for us to look at how we can update our code to meet the needs of the media industry.

   
Jack Valenti suffers a stroke

From Press Telegram

Jack Valenti has been hospitalized after suffering a stroke.

Valenti, 85, had the stroke last week and remains at Johns Hopkins University Medical Center in Baltimore. He is said to be making good progress.

Valenti is the former president of the Motion Picture Association of America, where he devised the ratings system for films. In 1968, in the wake of cries for movie censorship, he abolished the outdated Hays Code and instituted the voluntary ratings system.

Extreme pornography debated on Woman's Hour

Thanks to Sergio on The Melon Farmers Forum
Listen to the Woman's Hour debate

Woman's Hour on Radio 4 on 27th March featured a debate about extreme pornography.

A Professor in Law, Clare McGlynn, and Jim Gamble, Chief Executive of the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre spouted the usual government line.

They both agreed that there is no evidence (no definitive causal link), so one can only conclude that this is a moral crusade by the government.

Mobile phone porn banned in China

I would have thought that anything to do with porn would have been banned already

From China Daily

Beijingers who send pornographic text messages or pictures on their cell phones may face fines up to 3,000 yuan (US$385) and two weeks in administrative detention, the local public security department has warned.

Those who sell such content can face jail terms between six months and three years, according to China's criminal law and the law on public security administration.

Over the past three weeks, Beijing police have arrested 19 second-hand cell phone dealers who were found selling mass storage devices containing pornographic pictures or films. The mass storage chips, which can hold a 60 minute-long film, were being sold for five or six yuan (US$0.64 to 0.77) each, a spokesman with the Beijing Public Security Bureau told Xinhua.

It's also illegal for the public to download pornographic content from the Internet or to forward it to friends, he said, adding that the severest penalty in such cases would be 10 to 15 days in detention plus a fine up to 3,000 yuan.

Calls for Internet cafe filters in Peru

We don't get to hear much from Peru, but predictably they are suffering from the same problems of mean minded nutters as the rest of the world.

Based on an article from Living Peru

Civil representatives from the southern Peruvian province of Arequipa have increased operations that call for the immediate placement of pornography control filters in all internet cafes located throughout southern Peru's largest city.

Sonia Sanchez, Manager of Arequipa's Gestion Social, a public advocacy group, indicated that the operations, which began last February, will cease when: all internet cafe operators become responsible and place the filter in their establishments.

Sanchez informed that the operations are unpredictable in nature, since they occur at all hours of the day and target every internet cafe in Arequipa.

Additionally, the public advocate called for separate designated areas in cafes where under-age children can surf the internet worry free.

The campaign's 'success' has brought much satisfaction to Gestion Social and its ultimate goal is to spread the initiative throughout the entire department.

Arequipa city officials are also contemplating making the measure a city wide requirement. According to Sanchez, making the measure a city ordinance stands a good chance of becoming official at the end of April.

   
About mild language in a Sunday afternoon sitcom

From Chortle see full article

BBC One has apologised after the Nicholas Lyndhurst sitcom After You’ve Gone broadcast the words ‘shag’, ‘crap’, ‘bollocks’ and ‘tits’ in a Sunday afternoon slot.

Five viewers complained to the broadcasting watchdog Ofcom about the swearing when the show was originally aired at 8.30pm on a Friday. But two days later, the show was broadcast at 5.10pm with the same language – attracting another 32 complaints.

The BBC admitted that language that had the potential to offend was used several times in this programme, but said did not believe it was inappropriate for 8.30pm. However, it confessed that it such language was not suitable for broadcast on a Sunday afternoon when many children would be watching.

It said that the volume of complaints, both to Ofcom and directly to the BBC, proved it had mad a misjudgement and said sorry for any offence caused, posting the apology on its website.

Ofcom said that it considers that this level of language is generally acknowledged as mild by the majority of adult viewers and was justified by the editorial context of the programme, a light-hearted comedy. But it added that the language was too strong for 5.10pm on Sunday.

   
Contributing to the hype for Wristcutters

From CNN see full article

Suicide prevention groups are dead set against the proposed ad campaign for the comedy Wristcutters: A Love Story, which plans to bill itself with posters showing people killing themselves.

The images will depict people jumping off a bridge, electrocuting and hanging themselves. The acclaimed film follows a group of people that have committed suicide as they take a road trip through purgatory.

You don't see people making fun of other causes of death, but you see it with suicide and mental illness, said Robert Gebbia, executive director of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP)

But Courtney Solomon, co-owner of After Dark Films, said the posters will be displayed as traffic-style stop or yield signs with a bar and circle over the illustrations, along with hearts to reference the film's romantic story line. He said the campaign may change before its mid-July rollout.

The movie takes place in purgatory, and its message is that love is better than suicide, Solomon said, adding that the film may even help prevent suicide.

   
Billy Madison uncut on TV

Thinking about it, any BBFC cut that is noted as "for [age related] category" can immediately be shown on TV. The BBFC have implicitly acknowledged that it would be uncut at a higher category and hence can be shown on TV at the appropriate time without further ado.

Thanks to Andrew

Both the BBC (1 and 2) and Sky have both shown complete versions of Billy madison. Not a cut in sight, totalling somewhere in the region of 30 seconds of footage. Oh dear.

Beyer Recommends... Wedding Belles Thursday 29th March 10pm Channel 4

John Beyer recommends Wedding Belles

Thanks to Dan
From News of the World see full article

Spanking nuns, pervy priests, OAPs on Viagra, and necrophilia...

This is why Mediawatch-UK are calling for Channel 4's controversial Wedding Belles to be pulled.

However, the broadcaster WILL cause outrage this week by screening the two-hour film, penned by Trainspotting author Irvine Welsh.

It includes plenty of weird sex, graphic drug use and mindless violence. There's an old man on Viagra having sex with a dead woman before being pleasured by a nun. She then gives a priest oral sex at the pulpit, a spanking with a ping-pong bat and then murders him in cold blood.

Media Watch director John Beyer slammed Wedding Belles as "absolutely appalling".

Operation Ore class action clear to begin

From Inquistion21 see full article

At last, the money required to commence the Operation Ore class action has been raised. It has been a long and arduous process and at times lonely and dangerous, but the British courts will now decide if the lives of thousands of citizens can be somewhat restored and if justice can prevail.

This is a simple announcement to mark the point where the Operation Ore class action can begin. It will be enacted mainly in Great Britain where Operation Ore ruined so many lives, but should have a knock-on affect in Ireland, Canada and Australia, and back in the US where it all began.

The process of raising the money to begin has been very difficult as most of the class action Orees were ruined and bankrupted by police and prosecution actions carried out in the name of Operation Ore. Many of those ruined were cleared by the police or courts but ruined nonetheless, not that police, courts or media cared.

Foreign porn sites to be blocked

Based on an article from Korea Times

The South Korean government plans to block foreign pornographic Internet sites to supposedly protect teenagers from obscene video files.

The Ministry of Information and Communication called on the country's major fixed-line operators Friday to check the technical viability of the scheme.

We are set to deny access to porn sites based overseas, with details being unveiled early next week, said Suh Byung-jo, director general at the ministry: We feel obliged to come up with measures to counter the recent woes caused by adult video clips available on the internet. It may cost some investment for the Internet service providers to block overseas porn sites and the overall Internet connection speed may slightly slow down due to such steps.

Suh's remarks came in the wake of a set of mishaps early this week.

On March 18, two porn videos were posted on Yahoo Korea, the nation's second-string Web portal. More than 20,000 users downloaded the files. Unaware of this, Yahoo Korea left the clips on their site for roughly six hours.

Daum, the second-largest portal site, also carried an audio-visual file of foreign fashion models exposing their breasts for approximately seven hours last Tuesday.

On the same day, a Web surfer posted a nude photo of a woman at the top portal Naver but the company did not remove the picture for about four hours.

Catholics want the right not to be ridiculed

From Catholic Online see full article

Anti-religious fanaticism threatens religion and believers with insult, discrimination, persecution and injury that stands in contradiction to the promise of freedom hailed by democratic societies, said a Vatican representative to a United Nations body here.

In a March 22 address to the fourth special session of the U.N. Human Rights Council, Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, head of the Vatican permanent observer mission of the Holy See to the UN, called the international body to protect the freedom of religion, of expression, of conscience, of worship in private and in public and respect of religious convictions for believers of all faiths and for non-believers alike within the context of other human rights.

Abuse of rights of believers, even outright violence against them, state restrictions, undue impositions and persecution, public insult to religious feelings, unfortunately persist and call for remedy, he said.

Democracies must beware of the drive to set aside the respect of concrete religions in the interest of granting the rights of religious freedom and freedom of expression, he said.

One cannot consider the ridicule of the sacred as a right of freedom, the archbishop said.

He urged that the council, which reviews human rights of all 191 U.N. member states, take up the issue of developing mechanisms or instruments that would defend the message of religious communities from manipulation and would avoid a disrespectful presentation of their members.

The Vatican, he said, sees evidence of anti-religious fanaticism that denigrates religion or, generally, the faithful of a religion by attributing them responsibility of violent actions done today or in the past by some members of that religion.

The nuncio said that “legitimate criticism” of actions by some religious followers must not become license to insult or unjust defamation nor into offensive mockery of its revered persons, practices, rites or symbols.

Religious offense, especially when directed to a minority within a society, is a form of coercion against believers that makes the profession and public practice of religion more difficult, he added.

Flemming Rose wins the inaugural Sappho prize

Based on article from Herald Sun see full article

The Danish newspaper editor who published controversial cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed in 2005 was awarded a free press prize for his "determination and courage."

The Danish-based Free Press Society awarded Flemming Rose the inaugural international Sappho Prize, worth $3,568.

Lars Hedegaard of the Free Press Society said the prize honoured a journalist who combines excellence in his work with courage and a refusal to compromise. Hedegaard compared the pressure placed on Rose and his newspaper to apologise for publishing the cartoons to those voices calling for the appeasement of Nazi Germany at the dawn of World War II: Decisive to our decision was Rose's courage to print the cartoons and to stand his ground under the worst storm any journalist has ever endured.

Norwegian human rights activist Hege Storhaug will present Rose with the award on behalf of the Freedom of the Press Association at a public ceremony on March 27.

China blocks more blogs

From Shanghaiist
see Great Firewall of China to check on blocked sites

The Chinese government is once again tightening the screws of internet censorship. Specifically, the new changes are targeted against China's bloggers and their 34 million blogs. LiveJournal was an early casualty of the new enforcement, as well as Xanga, and now, it seems that BlogSpot has been blocked again.

If you wish to check for blocked sites, you could test for them here, if that site were not also blocked. Naturally, we here at Shanghaiist are absolutely thrilled with these developments, and we feel that the emperor's clothes are perfectly exquisite.

Nonsense fine for nonsense satire about nonsense religion

Based on article from Herald Sun see full article

Lithuania's  television watchdog has fined the director of MTV Networks Baltic for airing Popetown, a cartoon series that pokes fun at the Roman Catholic Church.

The Radio and Television Commission voted unanimously to fine Marius Veselis 3000 litas ($1435).

The cartoons, which depict the Pope as a rotund 77-year-old obsessed with his pogo-stick and surrounded by toys, provoked a storm of nutter criticism in Lithuania, where 80% of the population is Roman Catholic.

The commission made its decision after the Inspector of Journalists' Ethics, Romas Gudaitis, said Popetown should be banned because it portrayed the clergy as destructive and incited religious discrimination.

MTV Lietuva spokeswoman Ema Segal said Veselis would appeal: We have aired the series in all the three Baltic states, but it caused such a reaction only in Lithuania. MTV said Gudaitis's stand was an attempt to limit freedom of expression and thought, and rejected suggestions that Popetown insulted Catholics: This is just an artistic satire and nothing more. We neither attempted to mock religion nor God himself.

Veselis said in a statement last month that the reaction to Popetown had unmasked Lithuania as a sort of half-medieval, half-communist, sick culture.

   
US Government to Take a Hard Look at Horror

From the New York Times see full article

To drive almost anywhere here this week is to run a gantlet of advertising for movies about killing. All rated R for violence, among other traits, the films belong to what has become an annual winter-spring crop of horror and suspense. But the harvest is trickier than usual this year, as Hollywood braces for a new government review of the marketing of violent entertainment to the young.

The Federal Trade Commission is putting the final touches on a follow-up to its September 2000 report on the marketing to children of violent movies, music and video games. The first such assessment in three years, it will examine the selling practices of a mainstream entertainment industry that in the interim has become increasingly dependent on abductions, maimings, decapitations and other mayhem once kept away from studio slates.

Seven years ago the film industry narrowly avoided federal regulation of its advertising practices, as politicians, in the wake of the Columbine High School killings, called executives before a Congressional committee but eventually agreed to let Hollywood police itself.

The effectiveness of the resulting marketing guidelines is now being tested by rougher movies, competitors not bound by strictures that apply to the trade association’s major studio members, and a flourishing Web culture that has driven big openings in the last three years for harshly violent films like “Saw” or “Hostel” without much concern about the age of viewers.

If the new study were to find that the industry has violated or has outgrown its voluntary standards, it might kick the issue back into the political arena ahead of a presidential election. There it could trigger fresh calls for regulation, or even kill a gory source of relatively easy money.

Yet things become murkier when studios, which often attempt to block the underage from visiting their official sites for R-rated fare, deal with Bloody-disgusting.com, Arrow in the Head (joblo.com/arrow), Fangoria.com, or any of another dozen such Web sites. Hollywood companies commonly buy advertising on such sites. Perhaps more effectively, they also open the doors for set visits, early viewings, promotional contests and anything that will attract fans.

The operators of several such sites said they had no way of knowing how many of their visitors were under 17, but believed the numbers were substantial.

In its 2004 report, the Federal Trade Commission said that in 36% of their attempts, its underage “mystery shoppers” were able to buy a movie ticket without an age check in theaters, down somewhat from about half in 2000. Meanwhile 81% of the young buyers obtained R-rated DVDs without a check.

Bracing for the next report, the National Association of Theater Owners last fall provided the commission with a detailed description of its efforts to keep the unaccompanied young out of violent fare. But at the same time, the theater owners strongly criticized the studios’ home entertainment divisions for promoting versions of some of the same movies on DVD as being unrated and uncensored.

Beyer Recommends... Hard Target, New Jack City and Raw Deal on BBC1, Cliffhanger on ITV1, Natural Born Killers on Channel 4, Bad Boys, Dirty Harry, Heat and Young Guns on Channel 5

Ban porn, ban TV violence, ban fun, ban life

Thanks to Shaun

I wonder if this will be as popular as the road pricing petition. Ban-Pornography

We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to Ban ALL Pornography: We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to make possession, production, & the sale of ALL pornographic material, illegal.

It has been running for 2 months, even got publicised by the BBC,

...and still only has 43 votes... 43 nutters methinks...

Thanks to Dan who spotted that the Birmingham post had wasted space on a longish article from John Beyer. See full article

Screen violence and its effect on kids

Is there too much violence on television? Is there a connection between the violence shown on television and the increasing violence and aggression in our society? I think there is....

   
No punishment for uncut festival showing

From China Post see full article

A Chinese producer and director who screened an uncensored movie at the Berlin Film Festival last month have so far escaped punishment.

The fate of the filmmakers behind Lost in Beijing has drawn attention because two of their Chinese counterparts were banned from making movies for five years after showing a film at the Cannes Film Festival last year without government approval.

Producer Fang Li and director Li Yu went through a protracted censorship process in China that saw them editing Lost in Beijing five times before it was cleared to screen in Berlin.

Fang, however, ended up screening the uncensored version of the movie in Berlin in mid-February, saying he didn't have time to finish post-production and adding subtitles to the censored cut.

Fang said in a telephone interview Tuesday both he and director Li haven't been punished by China's Film Bureau. He speculated it was because the Chinese government doesn't want to draw attention to the case: If they punish me ... everyone's going to hear about this. The press is going cover this. It just makes them look bad.

Liberian newspaper unbanned

Based on an article from VOA News

The Supreme Court of Liberia has temporarily lifted the ban on The Independent newspaper that had published the sex photo of former minister of state for presidential affairs Willis Knuckles.

The government had banned the paper supposedly on the grounds that the paper exposed Liberian youths to pornography. But in its ruling, the court urged a return to the status quo and asked the government to show cause why the ban should not be lifted.

The government revoked The Independent newspaper’s license for one year for publishing the photograph of Knuckles in a sex act with two women. Even some in the media criticized The Independent for publishing the photo. But editor Sam Dean says his paper was only printing the truth: There is no news without truth because when there is no truth, then of course, we are being blasted at by the same public. But again, we have an obligation to the public that indeed we should provide proof, and we put that photograph on the basis of truth.

Dean alleges that his life and the lives of his editors have been under constant threat from Liberian security agents since their paper published the photograph: My life has been threatened, and I have complained to the Ministry of Justice and to the Press Union of Liberia. I see no reason why we should be threatened by state security and family of Mr. Knuckles. I think that was harassment, intimidation, and the threat on my life and my reporters and other staff I think that was not good for our young democracy in Liberia.

   
Armenian Literary magazine suffers bookstore censorship

From Armenia Now see full article

Three bookstores in Yerevan, Armenia have refused to sell the second issue of the Inknagir literary magazine and returned it to the distributor in objection to text seen by some as obscene.

Inknagir was founded by poet Violet Grigoryan, who edited Bnagir magazine before it shut down. That journal, too, had run afoul of traditional standards, for allowing sexually-explicit language.

The second issue of Inknagir, published in 250 copies and sold for 1,000 drams (about $3) came out three weeks ago, more than one year since its maiden issue in November 2005.

According to the distributor, bookstores are refusing to accept Inknagir because of lyrics to songs that appear on page 38 of the 160-page magazine. The lyrics, meant to voice a “punk” attitude, use language common to American “alternative” poetry.

The songs are written by Areg Arakelyan and Arman Martirosyan. Arman said he feels bad his lyrics caused problems for Inknagir, while the second author says he’s glad for the attention.

Yerevan’s largest bookstore, Bukinist, known for its diversity of books on sale and where texts by Russian and western authors with explicit sexual descriptions and arguably racier language can be found, also refused to sell Inknagir. Bookstore director Khachik Vardanyan says that he returned the magazine after reading the song lyrics, reasoning: How can I put it on sale?

The magazine is on sale at Artbridge and Akumb bookstore cafés, which the Inknagir editor calls “islands” where: we don’t yet feel like foreigners in this country.

Muslims lose their case against French satirical magazine

From The Times see full article

A Paris court has acquitted the editor of a satirical French weekly sued by two Muslim groups for publishing cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad, in a case seen as a test for freedom of expression.

Applause broke out in the courtroom at the announcement of the verdict, which ruled that three cartoons published by the weekly Charlie Hebdo in February 2006 were not insulting to Muslims.

The Paris Grand Mosque and the Union of Islamic Organisations of France took Philippe Val, the Charlie Hebdo editor, to court for reprinting cartoons that sparked angry protests by Muslims worldwide.

They argued that the images drew an offensive link between Islam and terrorism and asked for 30,000 euros in damages.

Val welcomed the ruling and said it would open a much-needed debate among Muslims in France. If you believe as we do that Islam is perfectly compatible with French democracy, such a debate is a blessing, he said.

The court ruled that two of the cartoons were absolutely not offensive to Muslims. One, reprinted from Denmark’s Jyllands-Posten, showed the prophet standing on a cloud, turning away suicide bombers from paradise with the caption 'Stop, stop, we ran out of virgins'.

The second, by the French cartoonist Cabu, showed Muhammad sobbing, holding his head in his hands and saying: It is hard to be loved by fools, under the caption Muhammad overwhelmed by fundamentalists.

On the third cartoon, showing Muhammad wearing a turban shaped as a bomb, the court’s ruling was more nuanced. The court decided that the caricature could potentially be insulting to Muslims but that the context of its publication in Charlie Hebdo made clear there was no intention to offend.

The president of the Union of Islamic Organisations of France, Lhaj Thami Breze, said following the hearing that he intended to appeal because we are unhappy with the verdict.

But Christophe Bigot, a lawyer for the Paris Mosque, said that his client would not challenge the court's decision.

The trial was seen as an important test for freedom of expression in France and large crowds crammed into the Paris courtroom during hearings last month to hear the arguments put by both sides.

   
Internet world protected from unconstitutional law

From the BBC see full article
See also BBC Forum Who should police the internet?

A US federal judge has overturned a law designed to protect children from viewing internet pornography, saying it violated the right of free speech.

The law made it illegal for websites to provide children access to "harmful" material, but it was never enforced.

Judge Lowell Reed of Philadelphia said other means of protection, such as software filters, were more effective.

Judge Reed said that while he sympathised with the need to protect minors, the 1998 Child Online Protection Act was problematic. It is not reasonable for the government to expect all parents to shoulder the burden to cut off every possible source of adult content for their children: I may not turn a blind eye to the law... to protect this nation's youth by upholding a flawed statute, especially when a more effective and less restrictive alternative is readily available.

Conceptually, age verification is a very good thing, but no one has come up with a good way to do it yet—and that's where everyone's focus should be: trying to come with a good, viable method for that type of system, said First Amendment attorney Robert S. Apgood. Unfortunately, age verification seems to get all of its focus on the adult industry, and that only accounts for 1 percent of the Internet. Cooperation of government agencies will give us a vehicle to accomplish these goals together, but unfortunately, that just is not happening right now.

The act was challenged by civil liberties groups and sexual health and other websites, including the online magazine salon.com, which claimed it was too restrictive and unconstitutional.

The legislation would have fined commercial websites up to $50,000 and sentenced offenders to up to six months in prison.

This law is not really aimed at commercial pornography, but really reaches far beyond that to a broad range of valuable content, John Morris, of the Center for Democracy and Technology, told reporters.

The law was never enforced because it was immediately challenged when it was passed and subject to a temporary injunction in 2004 on the grounds that it was likely to be struck down.

Both supporters and detractors of the law predicted the ruling will be appealed or that Congress will pass new legislation.

BBC running a forum on the topic

From Pryce on The Melon Farmers Forum
See BBC Forum Who should police the internet?

BBC Have Your Say are having an interesting discussion about internet pornography:

Who should police the internet? Who should prevent children from seeing internet porn?

A federal judge in America has overturned a law designed to protect children from viewing internet pornography. Judge Lowell Reed of Philadelphia said it violated the right of free speech.

The law made it illegal for websites to provide children access to "harmful" material, but it was never enforced.

Opponents criticised the ruling, saying parents should not have to shoulder the burden of restricting adult material.

Who should stop children from accessing internet pornography? Who should be legally liable? Should it be parents or websites? Are software filters effective?

Some interesting comments so far:

"What about shutting down all porn sites on the internet? The USA spends so much money on internet porn in a week to pay off all of Africa`s national debts. I want to know why people need to see this trash. China has it RIGHT on this one, people need to be prevented from accessing this totally useless and ignorant form of entertainment and children will hence be protected." laura macleod

"Internet Pornograpy should have never been allowed on the net in the first place. Surely this can be banned and its up to the parents to put a lock on their computers to stop children accessing these web sites." Welsh Dragon

Most people, however, do believe that it should be the parents` responsibility.

Malaysian media told not to quote bloggers

From Asia Media see full article

Malaysia's traditional media has been ordered not to mention, quote or pursue stories exposed by bloggers and online news sites, which are emerging as a powerful new media force.

A security ministry circular dated March 13 told top editors of a dozen mainstream newspapers and five television stations that they must not "give any consideration whatsoever" to anti-government material posted online.

Ironically the circular, issued by the ministry's secretary general, was first exposed by the independent online magazine Malaysiakini.com.

An academic, who declined to be named, told the website that the circular was a "pathetic" response to numerous exposes on the internet of high-level government corruption.

   
Tennessee porn tax on hold

From WMC TV

A Tennessee senator has withdrawn for now a bill to cut the sales tax on food by imposing a hefty levy on pornography.

Senator Dewayne Bunch said he wants to become more familiar with the measure before working it through Senate committees.

Under the original plan, there would be a 25% tax on adult video stores, escort services, adult movie rental and pay-per-view subscriptions and on magazines, books and other adult materials.

The measure would also charge "adult cabaret" performers an annual $400 occupational privilege tax.

Contributing to the hype for Transformers

From SciFi.com see full article

Shia LaBeouf, who stars in Michael Bay's upcoming Transformers movie, told SCI FI Wire that executive producer Steven Spielberg had to appeal a decision by the Motion Picture Association of America to give the film a dreaded R rating. Spielberg fought back and got the PG-13, LaBeouf said in an interview. It's just because of the intensity. There are not a lot of breathers. It's like whoosh!

It's not clear if Bay, the action director cut anything to get the lower rating. LaBeouf said that an early cut of the film earned an R rating simply because it was so suspenseful.

Satellite channel blocked by the Thai authorities

From CPJ

The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the censorship of a new satellite television station by Thai authorities, part of an ongoing ban against the broadcaster since the military seized power in a coup last September.

Over the weekend, government agencies blocked news programs carried by PTV, or People’s Television, which was established last month in Hong Kong by politicians from ousted Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra’s Thai Rak Thai political party.

A PTV employee told CPJ that access to their station was first blocked on Sunday, approximately 10 hours after its maiden broadcast. PTV was unclear about what footage, if any, may have driven the government to censor its broadcasts.

The station had failed to air on March 1, after the state-run Communications Authority of Thailand and the Telephone Organization of Thailand, which together control the country’s telecommunications infrastructure, had declined to give PTV the Internet access it needed to launch the new channel. To bypass the state agencies, PTV joined with Star Channel MV1, one of 18 satellite broadcasters in the country.

Top military leaders had earlier indicated that they would not interfere with PTV’s news broadcasts if the station abided by rules it has imposed on state-controlled television stations, including a ban on broadcasting any news footage or interviews that feature Thaksin. The government has on several occasions blocked news spots that featured footage of Thaksin, including reports from international news broadcasters CNN and BBC.

   
Blame potential low

An extract from The Telegraph see full article

A "knife-obsessed" cannabis addict was jailed for life today for murdering two teenaged friends in a frenzied attack.

Tom Palmer will serve a minimum of 18 years for slitting the throat of Steven Bayliss and stabbing Nuttawut Nadauld.

Palmer, of Wokingham, admitted manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility, but denied murdering them, claiming he was suffering an "abnormality of mind" at the time. But a jury at Reading Crown Court dismissed this.

A key issue in the case was the role Palmer's drug use and mental illness had played in the killings. Palmer said he first tried cannabis when he was 14 and that, by the time he reached his 15th birthday, he was smoking it every day. He told prison doctors that the drug worsened his anxiety and that in the months before the killings he had started seeing and hearing things.

Medical experts for the defence told the jury that Palmer was in the first stages of schizophrenia but had not yet developed the full-blown disease. But the prosecution this diagnosis as speculation and argued that Palmer could have been making up his symptoms. They said his heavy drug use had "exacerbated", but not caused, the onset of schizophrenia. The 20-year-old has a family history of breakdowns, nervous disorders and schizophrenia.

His friends told police he watched only horror films and one in particular, The Last Horror Movie, became a favourite shortly before the killings, but they expressed shock that Palmer would be involved in any violence himself.

Questions to Secretary of State for Health
14th March 2007

   
Can smoking on TV encourage smoking?

From Hansard

Martin Horwood: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what recent assessment her Department has made of the impact of people smoking on television and in films on young people's decision on whether or not to start smoking?

What steps her Department is taking to ensure that smoking is not encouraged by its depiction in television programmes and films?

Caroline Flint: The Department has not made a recent assessment of the impact of people smoking on television and in films on young people's decision on whether or not to start smoking.

The Office of Communications code covers the portrayal of smoking in television programmes. This code specifically requires that the portrayal of smoking should not be featured in children's programmes, and included only when there is a strong editorial case for inclusion. In other programmes likely to be widely seen by young people, smoking should be included only where context or dramatic veracity requires it. In such programmes, smoking should not be prominently featured as a normal and attractive activity.

In films, the independent British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) undertook a public consultation exercise to update its guidelines on granting classifications for films which can be seen by children. The public expressed some concern at the depiction of smoking in films. The BBFC issued updated guidelines in 2005, which included the following:

No work taken as a whole may promote or encourage the use of illegal drugs. Any detailed portrayal of drug use likely to promote or glamorise the activity may be cut. Works which promote or glamorise smoking, alcohol abuse or substance misuse may also be a concern, particularly at the junior categories.

The BBFC apply these guidelines to cinema films, as well as videos and computer games.

Church court rules against allowing phone masts

From The Times see full article

Churches throughout England could lose thousands of pounds in revenue after a church court ruled against a mobile phone mast because it would facilitate access to pornography.

Churches can make more than £10,000 a year in rent from mobile phone companies which can be a vital aid to offsetting running costs and repairs. But the mobile phone cash cow is now in danger after an ecclesiastical judge in Chelmsford, Essex, ruled against an application to install a mast in the tower of St Peter and St Paul in Chingford, northeast London.

The parish is to appeal to the Church’s highest court, the Court of Arches, which is the provincial court for the Canterbury Province and sits at St Mary le Bow Church in the City of London. If the Court of Arches upholds the Chelmsford ruling by the diocesan chancellor George Pulman, QC, the Church’s entire policy on the masts could be at risk.

Local objectors who oppose the aerials on health grounds are often unsuccessful because of the lack of scientific evidence of harmful radiation. But the Chelmsford case has given them a new moral platform from which to fight the masts because of the new 3G or third-generation phones which can access the internet, enable films to be watched and be used for online gambling.

In his judgment Pulman concluded that some of the material to be transmitted is not consistent with the Christian use of a church. He said the original concept of a mobile phone was to enable two people to talk to each other. But now they could be used to download a vast range of obscene images, pornography, pictures of real or simulated child abuse and other material from the internet.

He said he considered it wrong for the Church to facilitate transmission of pornography, even in a slight or modest way. It is equally wrong for the Church to gain financial advantage, even in a slight or modest way, from the transmission of pornography.

The Church of England is awaiting the decision from the Court of Arches with concern. A spokesman said : Whatever the decision, an awful lot of people are going to study it very carefully. If a clear decision is made one way or the other, it is going to impact on the whole process.

   
Banned game pulled from download site

Based on an article from The Sunday Herald see full article
Game downloadable from Yahoo Games

Downloadable copies of Marc Ecko's Getting Up: Contents Under Pressure have been pulled from sale by the major Australian software distributor Mindscape.

Mindscape's sales and marketing manager, Tonia Velasco, insisted this was done voluntarily because Mindscape was a member of the industry body, Interactive Entertainment Association of Australia (IEAA, rather than because selling the game was illegal: We don't want to be seen as the rebels that are a partner in all of this so we're just gonna regularly check what they [Office of Film and Literature Classification (OFLC)] have prohibited from classification [and ensure those titles are not being sold at our store].

Although the game was refused classification (making it, in effect, banned from sale) by the Classification Review Board in February last year, regulator Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) could not force Mindscape to stop selling the game in Australia. This is because Quicky.com.au is hosted on a server located overseas - in the United States.

ACMA said in a statement it would only investigate prohibited content located on an overseas server if it received a "valid complaint", but even then it would only notify the content to the suppliers of approved filters in accordance with the Internet Industry Association's code of practice.

Velasco was critical of ACMA's ability to do anything to prevent the game from being sold. She said it was unlikely anyone would make a formal complaint to ACMA because it's predominantly gamers going to those kinds of [game download] sites ... you won't get parents on there.

Golly rag dolls seized by police

From This Is London see full article

The Police raided a shop and seized a pair of golly rag dolls.

The alleged crime was that they were designed in the style of a golliwog, and a visitor to the shop where they were on sale had complained to police.

As a result shopkeeper Gavin Alexander faced a £1,000 fine after being accused of a public order offence.

Police have since returned the dolls and said charges were not being pressed. But Alexander attacked the decision to take the complaint seriously in the first place: Surely the police have got more important things to do? It's cases like this that cause racism.

His shop, In Touch in the village of Wrightington, Lancashire, sells soft toys, curiosities, furniture and other products. The £4.50 "golly rag dolls" and matching key-rings were on display with African statues and Buddha figures.

The Commission for Racial Equality said the question of whether golliwogs were considered racist depended on the context in which they were displayed.

Last night Lancashire Police said: This incident was reported to us by a member of the public. No offences have been committed and it is no longer a police matter."

The golliwog first appeared in a children's story by American writer Florence Kate Upton in the 19th century and was popularised in Britain when jam manufacturer James Robertson & Sons adopted it as a symbol for its products in 1910. By the 1980s, however, it was increasingly seen as offensive and Robertson's dropped the golly in 2001.

   
Adult rated videos still banned in Singapore

From Channel News Asia See full article

Anyone who missed R21 films like Saw III and Borat in the Singapore cinemas is unlikely to find the DVDs at their neighbourhood video store anytime soon. And that's the official word from the Media Development Authority (MDA).

The regulatory body in charge of film and video classification revealed in a recent email interview with Today that it's taking "a phased approach".

One of the major community concerns noted by Cassandra Tay, the MDA's director of communications, was the issue of videos with explicit content being accessed by the young. The MDA will consult all its stakeholders, including the public, before taking the next course of action.

In other words: Hold your horses. Video classification started in 2004 allowing titles up to M18 to be imported for sale and rental. Two and a half years into implementation, film buffs are still unable to get their hands on R21 movies like Kill Bill Vol 1.

To date, according to Tay, there have been 16 breaches relating to conditions of sale. These include the lack of signage indicating age restrictions, not enforcing the age restrictions or inappropriate display of publicity material for such restricted titles. This small number of errant distributors, however, has not been enough to persuade the MDA to hasten the speed of liberalisation.

We'll consider the possibility of allowing R21 titles in due course, was all Tay would say, declining to disclose a time frame by which this might take place.

Contributing to the hype for Grindhouse

From Monsters & Critics see full article

The MPAA may have issues with the rating of Grindhouse, Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez's cinematic tribute to the graphic, nudity-filled flicks that once screened in the gnarly movie palaces of every major city.

The Weinstein Company is releasing the picture April 6th. But, some of it is so graphic and outrageous for a major Hollywood studio, there's no question it's headed for an NC-17 without big cuts, says a Page Six insider, who got to see an early screening of the film.

Grindhouse is two movies combined, one by Tarantino, the other by Rodriguez - with an intermission between them.

During the break, phoney trailers will be shown with campy titles like Werewolf Women of the SS, directed by Rob Zombie: In one scene, a cute, topless girl is roughly tied down on a table by evil female Nazi experimenters who begin draining her blood and, as she screams in agony, they brand her like livestock with a coal-hot steel swastika. And every girl in the Nazi concentration camp is topless.

Page Six reports: Some cuts definitely will have to be made. There's no question, said their studio insider.

   
China shows sensitivity to criticism of its censorship

From The Times See full article

A wave of online outrage has forced Chinese censors into an unprecedented decision to allow eight banned books to remain on the shelves for a while.

The books, which touch on long-taboo historical and social issues, remained on sale yesterday, even in official bookstores despite an official ban, with penalties and fines imposed on the publishing houses, which have been told not to print more copies.

In an apparent attempt to quell public outrage officials chose to allow existing stocks of the books to sell out.

Demand has been high. At the respected All Sages bookshop in Beijing, Cang Sang, by Xiao Jian, which tells the tale of a man from the 1911 fall of the last emperor to the Great Leap Forward in 1958, sold out this week.

Officials at the General Administration of Press and Publication, effectively China’s office of censorship, were stunned when news of their unannounced ban provoked a furious response from bloggers.

Publication on the internet of a second letter by the renowned author, Zhang Yihe, will only add to the authorities’ woes. Zhang, who spent ten years in jail during the Cultural Revolution, addressed her letter to the current session of parliament, calling for an end to all forms of censorship. She urged the National People’s Congress to look into the prohibition of Performers’ Pasts, an apparently innocuous book on the lives of Peking opera singers, along with the seven other publications.

In a rare interview the reclusive Zhang told The Times: I am a low-key person. But after my first, second and third books were banned it was more than any person could endure. As a citizen I must stand up. I don’t care if I succeed or fail. “ It is unbearable to be put on such a list. They deny that the ban on my book is linked to my family background. In fact, that’s the very reason.

Hu Fayun, who wrote This is how it goes@ SARS.com, a novel about a woman who fell in love with the internet at the cost of her relationship with a vice-mayor during the SARS outbreak, has few doubts about the power of the internet: The traditional ‘no-talk’ style of control by the Government has been broken by the internet. Different voices can be found there, he said. Hu has never been notified of the ban. But then, he said, many policies are implemented in China without ever being announced.

I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.		I defend your right to say it ...BUT...

Leeds University cancels talk about islam

From The Telegraph see full article

Leeds university has been accused of "selling out" academic freedom of speech by scrapping a talk on links between the Nazis and Islamic anti-semitism after allegedly receiving emails from Muslims protesting about the event.

Matthias Küntzel, a German author and political scientist who specialises in the threat of Islamic fundamentalism, was told that a talk and a two-day workshop, on Hitle