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 Hitler's Legacy: Islamic Anti-semitism in the Middle East, had been cancelled because of supposed security fears.

In a statement yesterday, two academics in the Leeds German department, which had organised the event, claimed the university had bowed "to Muslim protests". Dr Küntzel said he had given similar addresses around the world and there had been no problems: 'I know this is sometimes a controversial topic but I am accustomed to that and I have the ability to calm people down. It's not a problem for me at all. My impression was that they wanted to avoid the issue in order to keep the situation calm. My feeling is that this is a kind of censorship.'

He has given the talk at Yale and in universities in Jerusalem and Vienna. Dr Küntzel said the contents of emails described to him did not overtly threaten violence but they were very, very strongly worded'.

Judge orders return of DVDs seized on basis of no rating symbol

From AVN

After a recent court victory, Florida authorities were forced to return thousands of adult DVDs confiscated from a Sumter County X-Mart Supercenter.

Sumter County sheriffs raided the adult store about a year ago, confiscating almost the entire inventory of movies, 22,500 titles in all.

Authorities confiscated the material on the claim that all movies must display an official rating by the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) on the packaging. However, a Sumter County judge ordered the DVDs be returned to X-Mart owner Evgueni Souliaguine, ruling that the statute had "many 'vagueness' problems."

The judge added: The title of such movies, as well as the pictures on the DVD’s cover, probably do more to put the public on notice of the DVDs content than does any rating system. Moreover, this Court speculates that any patron of X-Mart or similar stores would be fully aware of the content of the DVD or videos sold in such stores and that a labeling of Not Rated or NR would be meaningless.

Sheriff's investigators told reporters while it is unlikely they will use that statute again, they will still monitor X-Mart to make sure the store is not violating any other state obscenity laws.

Israel to require faxed ID to receive adult services

From Haaretz

Phone users wanting to receive erotic services on their cellular devices face a potential roadblock in the Communications Ministry. Anyone seeking such services will first have to fax or e-mail a copy of his identity card, including picture, according to a ministry plan. The ministry will hold a hearing on amending licenses of cellular operators in accordance with this regulation.

The ministry, however, faces harsh criticism for limiting only one area, while these services will still be available with relatively easy access on cable or satellite TV and with no restrictions on the Internet.

The ministry also withdrew from its earlier demand that cellular firms install systems for filtering pornographic content. Company heads railed against efforts to limit freedom of cellular surfing.

As long as we're cleaning up pornography, everything else will fall into place

From AVN see full article

The United States has been rocked for the past couple of weeks over the firing of seven U.S. Attorneys (USAs) from their districts around the country, but according to the New York Times, at least two of those firings were apparently due to the USAs' failure to get on board the administration's anti-pornography train.

In rating the prosecutors, Mr. Sampson [Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' chief of staff] factored in whether they 'exhibited loyalty to the president and attorney general'.

Paul K. Charlton in Arizona and Daniel K. Bogden in Nevada, were faulted as being 'unwilling to take good cases we have presented to them, according to another e-mail message to Mr. Sampson, referring to pornography prosecutions.

It is therefore not far-fetched to think that the federal indictments obtained in Arizona last May against 5-Star Distribution and JM Productions, for materials sent by 5-Star to federal agents in Virginia, were yet another attempt to pander to the administration theocon supporters.

I think it certainly plays to their religious base, opined prominent First Amendment attorney Luke Lirot: because unfortunately, people of that ilk, as long as the government's fighting pornography, everything else in the world is rosy, which is just an indication of how truly misguided those people actually are. 'As long as we're cleaning up pornography, everything else will fall into place', and that's just insane. It's a waste of resources and it has absolutely no beneficial impact on any aspect of our society.

Some have voiced doubt about the Bush administration's dedication to prosecuting adult business owners; the firing of two U.S. Attorneys because they would not go along with the government's anti-porn agenda should put an end to such doubts.

Pakistan police smash up TV station

From The Independent see full article

President Pervez Musharraf's regime in Pakistan is resorting to increasingly heavy-handed methods to quell protests against him that are growing by the day.

In Islamabad yesterday hundreds of police fought protesters outside the Supreme Court. And as the protests continued, riot police stormed the Geo private television station, which was broadcasting pictures of the protests, tear-gassed the staff and smashed up the studio.

Several high-profile figures were arrested for taking part in demonstrations around the country, including a former president and the leader of one of the main opposition parties. An MP claimed he had been beaten by police at the demonstrations.

Inside the Supreme Court, Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhary was attending his second closed hearing before a special tribunal. At the centre of the row is President Musharraf's attempt to sack Chaudhary.

The authorities had already ordered one of Geo's most popular news programmes off the air for its critical coverage of the President's move against Chaudhary. As the channel defied pressure not to broadcast images of the protests, riot police burst into its Islamabad studio to shut it down by force.

But the tactic appeared to misfire badly when Geo was able to broadcast live images of the helmeted policemen forcing their way into the building.

Alarming Polish moves to criminalise possession of all porn

From Poland Master Page

There is growing support for a bill in the Polish Parliament that would give you one year in jail for possession of pornographic material in Poland. And jail times would be a lot longer if you sell it.

The current Polish Government came to power with the promise to create a moral revolution. They have been pursuing that goal on many fronts.

They have not always been successful. A quest by the Polish President Lech Kaczynski, when he was the President of Warsaw, to shut down the brothels in Warsaw failed. They are open, visible and advertise freely.

But the Government is undeterred. The new law proposed will cover every form of pornography. Even pornography on the internet would be outlawed and subject both the viewer and provider to the penalties of the law.

No one will be excepted. Adults with their own, self made home movies or pictures would even be subject to jail time.

   
New draft of Television Without Frontiers

From ZDNet see full article

The European Commission has released a new draft of the Audio-Visual Media Services Directive (previously known as Television Without Frontiers)

The amendments have not pleased the UK government who say that European plans to regulate online audiovisual content remain a threat despite modifications.

Warning that continental Europe had a "stronger predilection for state intervention" than the UK, Shaun Woodward, the minister for creative industries and tourism, told a conference on Tuesday that the UK had nearly lost its battle to change the Television Without Frontiers (TVWF) directive, now renamed the Audiovisual Media Services (AVMS) directive.

Woodward went on to plead with the media industry to help him in the continuing fight against the directive, saying that it had not done enough to combat what he said was a measure which would have damaged [the creative] industry beyond belief.

The original purpose of the directive was to create a "level playing-field" across Europe for audiovisual services, whether on television or online. In effect, however, this meant that each country would have had to regulate all audiovisual online content put up in that country, with little distinction being made between, for example, what a television station put on normal TV screens and what it put online.

In November a European Council vote was held that forced a rephrasing of the directive, itself soon to be renamed. The latest draft of what is now the AVMS directive, published last week, makes a much clearer distinction between "linear" (ie scheduled, as on television) and "non-linear" (ie on-demand) content — a modification designed to exempt services such as YouTube from the regulation.

Critics are still unhappy with the wording of the directive, however, which some say remains open to interpretation.

Woodward maintained that a self-regulatory approach, with occasional requests that inappropriate or illegal content be removed, was the way to go: The industry in the UK has been achieving spectacular growth in new media… without the need for state controls, Woodward added, while repeating his claim that imposing regulation on the new media industry would only drive production outside EU jurisdiction while failing to protect consumers from accessing "bad" content.

Tim Suter, the Ofcom partner responsible for content and standards, agreed that self-regulation was desirable, and suggested that an organisation for online media, along the lines of the Press Complaints Commission, might be the best option. Describing the AVMS directive as "wrongheaded", he said the best way to protect audiences from inappropriate content was to educate them.

New Zealand censor questioned by MPs

From New Zealand Herald

Some films released in New Zealand after being given M ratings by Australian censors are too violent and should probably have R16 ratings, says the chief censor, Bill Hastings.

He said his office did not consider films rated G (general release), PG (parental guidance recommended) or M (for mature audiences). These were released using their Australian classifications, he told Parliament's government administration committee.

It strikes me - we have not done a study on it - at the M level we are seeing more violence from Australia than we would allow at the New Zealand level - it's almost R16 level.

Any change to the way these films were rated would require a change to the legislation, he said.

List MP Dover Samuels said: Going through this classification process is really window dressing. The whole issue of censorship has become ineffective when you see the material that is now available.

Hastings agreed that tackling objectionable material on the internet was difficult, and said one of the office's primary roles was educating parents, schools and people responsible for renting videos, DVDs and computer games of their obligations to keep restricted material from young people: You can't be there at the end of every phone line, in every bedroom in the nation."

The office was trying to arm parents with the right information, making them aware that much of this material was damaging - getting them to realise when we give a game an R18 rating, it means exactly the same as when we make a film R18.

Samuels asked if banning something or rating it 18 simply made it more attractive to people who would make an extra effort to get hold of it.

Hastings said there was a small group who would always want the unobtainable, but the office had to balance that with the need to give the public information that would help people make informed choices.

He said a survey done by the office had shown that more than 90% of parents did find the classifications useful when choosing films and games for their children.

Iran attacks Hollywood over movie portrayal of Persians

From the BBC

The Historical war epic 300 has been criticised as an attack on Iranian culture by government figures.

The Hollywood film is an effects-laden retelling of a battle in which a small Greek army resisted a Persian invasion.

Javad Shamqadri, a cultural advisor to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, said it was plundering Iran's historic past and insulting this civilization. He branded the film "psychological warfare" against Tehran and its people. But said that Iranian culture was strong enough to withstand the assault: American cultural officials thought they could get mental satisfaction by plundering Iran's historic past and insulting this civilization.

Daily newspaper Ayandeh-No carried the headline "Hollywood declares war on Iranians". The paper said: It seeks to tell people that Iran, which is in the Axis of Evil now, has for long been the source of evil and modern Iranians' ancestors are the ugly murderous dumb savages you see in 300.

Index on Censorship Freedom of Expression Awards

From the BBC see full article
See also IFEX

Five "defenders of free speech" have been honoured at a London awards ceremony.

The annual Index on Censorship Freedom of Expression Awards salute people who have contributed to the defence of freedom of expression. They are given to those who use film, the law, books, journalism, campaigning or whistleblowing to achieve this. The awards' organisers said each winner was symbolic of under-reported stories.

The whistleblower award went to Chen Guangcheng, a self-taught lawyer in the Shandong province of China. Known as the "barefoot lawyer", he is a blind activist who publicised reports of forced abortions, as late as eight months pregnant, and sterilisations in the city of Linyi to enforce China's one-child policy. Chen was sentenced in August 2006 to over four years in prison for property damage and organising a crowd to disturb traffic.

The 2007 award for journalism went to 22-year old blogger Abdel Kareem Soliman, who wrote under the name Kareem Amer. He was recently sentenced to four years in prison after using his web log to criticise the country's top Islamic institution, al-Azhar university, and President Hosni Mubarak, whom he called a dictator.

The literature award went to assassinated Lebanese journalist Samir Qasir, well known for his criticism of the former pro-Syrian Lebanese authorities, for his book Being Arab. Qasir died in a Beirut car bomb attack in 2005.

The campaigning award went to Siphiwe Hlophe, from Swaziland, for her work with women who have HIV/Aids. Having suffered discrimination first hand when she was diagnosed with HIV, Ms Hlophe co-founded an organisation called Swazis for Positive Living which aims to fight gender discrimination related to HIV/Aids and help other victims.

This year's film award went to Israeli director Yoav Shamir for his film Five Days, a documentary about the Israeli Defence Force and the planned evacuation of Jewish settlers from Gaza.

Stronger warning about kids viewing R rated movies

Based on an article from Cinema Blend see full article

The MPAA are adding a new advisory on to the R-rating which says, Generally, it is not appropriate for parents to bring their young children with them to R-rated motion pictures.

A poster headed Attention Parents: Exercise Responsibility suggests for R rated films that parents should: Think before taking your kids.

 Though the R-rating restricts anyone from under 17 from entering alone, it allows any child of any age in as long as they have a parent with them.

   
Ofcom on the whinge

From Mediawatch-UK

Ofcom has upheld complaints about strong language in the BBC programme Who Do You Think You Are? 'Fuck' was used during the programme which was shown at 7.00pm. It was a repeat showing on BBC1 of a programme first shown at 9.00pm on BBC2. The BBC said that there had been “human error” in that the post-watershed version of the show was shown instead of the pre-watershed version. Ofcom said that there had been a breach of Rule 1.16.

Another example occurred when the Biography Channel showed a factual documentary The Beatles Biggest Secrets at 4.00pm. This, too had included 'fuck' and after investigation it had been found that the channel’s scheduler had accidentally overridden the various warnings triggered by the channel’s existing procedures.

Malaysian appeal reduces ban to cuts

From eCentral

In a change of heart, the National Film Censorship Board has approved Tsai Ming-liang’s film, I Don’t Want to Sleep Alone for limited screening.

Producer Leonard Tee said he received a letter from the board's appeals committee. He said the film was passed for limited screenings in art house cinemas in Kuala Lumpur, Penang and Johor. The committee also asked for five cuts to be made.

A source told The Star that the cuts included scenes showing the bare buttocks of lead actor Lee Kang-sheng and local actor Norman Atun washing his underwear. Other snips involved a kissing scene between Lee and actress Chen Shiang-chyi, Norman helping to clean a badly injured Lee who is clad only in his underwear and a radio broadcast reporting open burning in Putrajaya.

Tsai said he was happy that the ban had been reversed. However, he has not decided whether or not to accept the conditions: I think I’ll be making another appeal. And I hope the committee will invite me back so that we can sit down face-to-face and discuss things.

   
Politicians whinge about download of banned game

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

A major local computer software distributor is selling downloads of a game that was banned in Australia last year.

And Australian authorities might be powerless to prevent the ban from being circumvented.

The game, Marc Ecko’s Getting Up: Contents Under Pressure, has popped up on Mindscape's quicky.com.au website in apparent defiance of a decision in February 2006 by the Classification Review Board to deny the game an official rating. The decision meant that Getting Up could not be sold, demonstrated, hired or imported.

Despite that, the game appears on the site with a United States M rating and can be bought as a download for $26.99, with the price set in Australian dollars.

The reappearance of the game is particularly galling to Gold Coast nutter Mayor Ron Clarke, who fought a six month-long campaign to have Getting Up banned.

I'm absolutely appalled, astonished and disappointed, Clarke said: To be able to get it from an Australian dotcom site is upsetting. I would have thought the Government had some measure [of control] over that.

Mindscape's sales and marketing manager, Tonia Belasco, said she had not noticed that the banned title was available until Hill notified her. She said she would consider whether or not to remove the game after speaking to the Office of Film and Literature Classification (OFLC), but added that, because the online store was being hosted on a US server, it might fall beyond the jurisdiction of Australian law.

The game was initially given an MA15+ rating, but was subjected to a classification review after intervention from the federal Attorney-General, Philip Ruddock.

A spokesman for Ruddock said the Attorney-General was investigating the issue of online stores getting around Australian classification laws by hosting their servers overseas.

OFLC spokesman Brinsley Marlay said that, while the OFLC was in charge of classifying content, the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) was in charge of enforcing those ratings when it came to online material.

Cinemas whinge about unrated DVDs

From Delaware Online

The The National Association of Theatre Owners called on studios to stop releasing uncensored and unrated DVDs.

The comments, made by association president John Fithian marked the latest split between the people who make movies and the people who show them.

The association, which represents operators of more than 29,000 screens, has criticized studios before for releasing too few family films, too many R-rated movies and for allowing the window between when a movie is released in theaters and when it hits video shelves to get too small.

Some popular DVD titles, particularly R-rated films such as American Pie and The 40-Year-Old Virgin, offer unrated discs that include scenes not seen in theaters.

The marketing campaigns say 'unrated' and 'uncensored,' Fithian says. But what the studio is really saying, Fithian maintains, is: 'Kids, don't go see the rated movie in cinemas. Come get the real stuff here.' It's bad for the ratings system and it's bad for the cinema business.

   
Italian cinemas pull out of showing assassination movie

From azcentral.com

Nearly one in three cinemas due to show Death of a President, which centers on the fictionalized assassination of George W. Bush, has pulled bookings of the controversial British TV movie.

Out of the 100 theaters originally scheduled to show it, about 30 have pulled out, said distributor Andrea Occhipinti: Many theaters have pulled out, saying they didn't want to have problems.

The Posters advertising the movie show a headstone with Bush's name, date of birth and the fictional date of his death, Oct. 19, 2007. Occhipinti said that in Rome, about 600 of a total 2,000 posters have been taken down, apparently in a sign of protest.

Kadhal Arangam banned in India

From The Hindu

Director Velu Prabhakaran is not apologetic about his film Kadhal Arangam having run into problems with the Indian Censor Board.

Rejecting criticism of too much of exposure by the heroine, Shirly Das, Prabhakaran says the story itself is about how society views a woman's body. I have approached the Central Board of Film Certification, which has refused a certificate for the film. Both the examining and the revising committee were apparently not able to see the true message of my film. I do not know why...

The message of the film is to spread sex education: My film conveys this in a unique manner.

   
Blame potential following murder case

An extract from the Daily Mail

A cannabis-smoking teenager obsessed with violent horror films butchered two friends with a knife before calmly calling the police, a court has heard.

Thomas Palmer repeatedly watched a DVD about a serial killer who filmed himself stabbing his victims to death just days before carrying out his own horrific double killing.

His girlfriend at the time of the killings Ruth Cunningham, 17, said she had regularly visited him at his mother's home, where they would have sex on the bed - often involving him tying her up and blindfolding her - before watching DVDs. His DVDs of choice were usually horror films or involved martial arts.

Cunningham said in a videoed interview that just a week before the killings he had over a four day period repeatedly watched a "gory" British DVD entitled The Last Horror Film, which features graphic depictions of people's throats being cut. Among other DVDs Palmer was interested in was a film called House of a Thousand Corpses, Cunningham added.

Cunningham's mother, who was present in the video interview shown to the jury, then commented: It makes you wonder why they produce these films.

The trial continues.

   
Muslim mob predictably call for killing of playboy editor

From X Biz

Prosecutors have demanded a judge impose a harsh two-year prison sentence for the editor-in-chief of the Indonesian version of Playboy. Erwin Arnada was charged in June with distributing indecent pictures and profiting from their sale.

More than 100 muslim protesters attending the hearing thought the prosecution’s demands were too lax. The raucous group chanted “Hang him, hang him” in the courtroom.

Playboy’s offices have moved to Bali where there is considerably less Islamic influence. The magazine is still available at newsstands throughout the country, and the government has made no move to ban the publication.

The judge, according to Indonesian laws, heavily weighs the prosecution’s sentencing demands.

   
Dolce & Gabbana pull all advertising in Spain

From eitb24

Dolce & Gabbana will pull all advertising from Spain to "protect their creative liberty", the Italian designers said after authorities there called for a ban on their latest campaign for humiliating women.

Spain, with its climate of censure, shows that it wants to read negative messages even where they don't exist, the designers said in a statement.

One advert, which Dolce & Gabbana have also withdrawn in Italy, shows a bare-chested man holding down a woman by her wrists while other men look casually on. It garnered criticism from human rights group Amnesty International and a union in Italy.

Dolce & Gabbana said they would organise "alternative initiatives" for promotions in Spain. [controversial news coverage perhaps?]

Nutters harangue US video rental chain

From AVN

The American Family Association is pushing a nationwide boycott of Movie Gallery in an effort to stop the video rental chain from offering hardcore porn.

The nutters claim in a press release: Behind the public image, Movie Gallery makes millions of dollars from videos of despicable sex acts… AFA has documented the atrocities endured by employees and managers, plus stories by parents of children who have been exposed to hard-core porn in Movie Gallery stores.

Led by family-values nutter Donald Wildmon, AFA has been attacking the video store chain for several years. When Movie Gallery announced its acquisition of Hollywood Video, Wildmon's group took out a full-page ad in USA Today alerting readers that your family's next trip for a video could become an introduction to the world of hardcore pornography. AFA also organized a protest rally at Movie Gallery's headquarters in Dothan, Alabama.

Porn makes up about 5% of Movie Gallery's business, a company rep told AVN.com.

Journalist in jail for refusing to hand over protest video

From CPJ

The Committee to Protect Journalists is disappointed that a freelance video blogger will remain in jail after a court-appointed arbitrator was unable to mediate a settlement that could have led to the journalist’s release. Joshua Wolf has spent 198 days in jail, the longest incarceration of a journalist in U.S. history, for refusing to provide the court with a videotape of a 2005 protest.

Wolf’s tape documents clashes between demonstrators and San Francisco police during a June 2005 protest by anarchists over a Group of 8 economic conference. One police officer was injured, and some protestors allegedly tried to set a police cruiser on fire. A federal grand jury is investigating the alleged crimes. U.S. District Court Judge William Alsup held Wolf in contempt of court and ordered him jailed on August 1. Wolf was briefly released on bail pending appeal but was ordered back to jail in September.

Last month, a federal judge appointed U.S. Magistrate Joseph Spero to arbitrate the dispute. Wolf’s attorney, Martin Garbus, had asked the judge to consider privately viewing the videotape to determine whether the contempt charges against Wolf could be dismissed.

Spero said in a court filing that four hours of negotiations had failed to reach a settlement. Wolf could remain in jail until July when the grand jury’s term expires.

Turk punished for genocide denial

It seems a bit nasty to persecute someone for a belief they learnt in school and supported by their own government.

From the BBC see full article

A Swiss court has convicted a Turkish politician of racial discrimination for denying that mass killings of Armenians in Turkey in 1915 amounted to genocide. He was given a suspended sentence and fined $2,450 (£1,270).

The Swiss parliament has labelled the killings as genocide. Turkey firmly rejects the genocide allegation.

Nationalist leader Dogu Perincek was on trial for remarks he made in a public speech in Lausanne in 2005. Perincek, the head of the Turkish Workers' Party, had denied the charges: I have not denied genocide because there was no genocide, he told the court earlier this week.

A law criminalising the denial of genocide was adopted in 2003 by the parliament in the Swiss canton of Vaud, where Perincek made his remarks.

Twelve Turks prosecuted in Switzerland on similar charges in 2001 were acquitted.

   
Complaints against Coronation Street not Upheld

From the BBC

Scenes of bullying and torture in ITV soap Coronation Street have been cleared by  Ofcom after more than 30 viewers complained.

An episode shown last October featured womanising builder Charlie Stubbs tying up teenager David Platt and forcing his head under water.

Ofcom received 31 complaints saying such scenes were unacceptable before the watershed and might be imitated.

ITV1 insisted the audience knew that Charlie was a womanising bully and were prepared for the confrontation. The broadcaster said the words "Charlie has a nasty surprise for David" before the programme hinted at what was to come.

The episode had Charlie luring David into a flat to exact revenge for weeks of taunting over an affair.

Ofcom said: Even if there were some risk of imitation, we believe that the scenes were editorially justified by the plot development, the characters involved and the manner in which it was edited. But it added that the broadcaster could have given more warning about the violent content before the episode was aired.

And people are expected to listen to these nutters for moral advice!

From The Telegraph see full article

The Church of England is facing an embarrassing test case over whether mobile phone masts on steeples are illegal because they can relay pornography.

The church's highest court is to hear an appeal after a diocesan judge ruled that churches were "wrong in law" to facilitate the transmission of pornography, even in a slight or modest way.

Many parishes have cashed in on the mobile phone boom by charging telecom companies thousands of pounds a year to put antennae on their towers or steeples. Even Guildford cathedral has a mast under its golden angel weather vane.

They were encouraged by official Church guidance, which acknowledged that immoral material can be transmitted by the new technology but argued that any "ill" was outweighed by the benefits.

However, critics said mobile phones can now transmit dangerously obscene internet images and the church should dissociate itself from such technology, especially after the General Synod condemned media exploitation last month.

The contentious issue has now reached the Archbishop of Canterbury's 800-year-old Court of Arches, which is due to hear an appeal against the ruling by the diocese of Chelmsford's consistory court within weeks.

Serious Indian TV to be limited to after 11pm

From RxPG news

The Indian government has drawn up the first formal content code for TV channels.

The code will prescribe a watershed time band for TV viewing. The source said films with ‘A’ and ‘U/A’ censor certification, and other programmes for adult viewing, would be permitted across channels from 11pm to 5am. Only those films and programmes certified as ‘U’ will be allowed outside that time band.

The content code is believed to envisage the creation of a panel to monitor self-regulation. Indian Broadcasting Foundation, the association for TV channels, may act as the monitoring panel.

The Broadcasting Bill is expected to be introduced in the next session of Parliament.

Re-education for those addicted to the Internet

Based on an article from The Scotsman see full article

A military-style boot camp near Beijing is at the front-line of China's battle against Internet addiction.

The Internet Addiction Treatment Centre (IATC) in Daxing county uses a blend of therapy and military drills to treat the children of China's nouveau riche addicted to online games, Internet pornography, cybersex and chats.

Supposedly concerned by a number of high-profile Internet-related deaths and juvenile crime, the government is now taking steps to stem Internet addictions by banning new Internet cafes and mulling restrictions on violent computer games.

The government-funded Daxing centre, run by an army colonel under the Beijing Military Hospital, is one of a handful of clinics treating patients with Internet addictions in China.

   
Surely a hot topic to discuss in the pub tonight

If anything, these figures underestimate the percentage of my community life involving alcohol. Where else is there to go to meet people outside of home or work?

Based on an article from Blackpool Today

Popular soaps broadcast before the watershed are "awash" with scenes featuring alcohol, a survey has found.

Teen drama Hollyoaks was the most fun, with booze making an appearance in 18% of scenes monitored.

Soap shows' alcohol content could be "conditioning" British teenagers to think high consumption is the norm, according to campaign group The Food Commission, which features the survey in its Food Magazine.

More than 17% of Coronation Street screen time showed alcohol compared with 16% in both EastEnders and Emmerdale. Australian soap Home and Away featured booze in 6.7% of its screen time during the survey, which was carried out over a fortnight during July 2006.

Report author, nutritionist Cally Matthews, said: Soap shows are awash with scenes showing alcohol being consumed as part of a seemingly healthy lifestyle and appearing as a normal part of everyday life. There is a real danger that this naturalisation of alcohol consumption may desensitise teenagers to the dangers of excessive alcohol consumption.

Comment: Miserable Prohibitionists

From Dan

Dunno why they cite Eastenders in this. The characters in that are always in the pub miserable, shouting at each other and drowning their sorrows. Surely that's the image the booze police want to be shown.

I think for of these groups would like to see prohibition and these calls for censorship are just a front.

So just rename adult films as R rated and let the kids watch them

From Variety see full article

MPAA chairman-CEO Dan Glickman has been working to fine-tune the movie-ratings system. But this week at ShoWest, he will face his biggest hurdle yet: trying to make NC-17 respectable.

The awkwardly named rating, which originated in 1990, has become synonymous with tainted goods.

Parents have been pressuring Glickman to find a solution to the dilemma that the R rating is too broad, encompassing everything from a few swear words or brief flashes of nudity to repeated scenes of stomach-churning mutilation and disembowelments.

The biggest complaint is that, with parental permission, children and teens are allowed to see R's, and parents think the definition of R is too wide-ranging to guide them. The goal is to find a category for some films that are now informally called "hard R's" -- i.e., content so graphic that no one under the age of 17 should be allowed to see it at all in theaters. The new generation of horror pics, eg, Saw and Hostel are pushing the limits of the "hard R" category.

Because of the realities of the marketplace, one idea that has been floated is to create a disclaimer for R-rated pics, saying it isn't appropriate for children, period. And there's been talk in the past of creating a rating between PG-13 and R.

The major studios have released only 19 films rated NC-17. The highest grossing was MGM's 1995 Showgirls. Studios say some exhibitors won't book NC-17 films, and some daily newspapers refuse to carry ads for such pics. (An unrated film, in contrast, is considered on a case-by-case basis.) Blockbuster, too, refuses to carry DVDs rated NC-17.

   
Politically motivated censorship

Further details in a press release from Eros

In a four to three decision, the Classification Board has banned the grainy five minute mobile phone footage of Saddam Hussein’s execution. The Eros association submitted the film for classification with the expectation of an MA+15 or R18+ rating based on thousands of previous classifications for depictions of executions, both real and simulated.

Eros CEO Fiona Patten said that the decision was clearly made on political grounds and that the Classification Board had ‘seen Eros coming’. We submitted the film with the unashamedly political agenda of using the MA or R rating it would get to draw attention to the fact that violence is treated more easily than sex in the censorship game. I think they saw our recent campaign in this area and decided to head it off by giving the film an RC (Refused Classification) rating.

However the decision now raises major inconsistencies in the classification of high level violence and means that every newsroom director in the country who has authorised a broadcast of the footage or who has electronically acquired or stored a copy of the film, is liable to severe penalties including two years jail. I would imagine that there would be dozens of copies of this banned film in the Parliamentary Press Gallery only 100 metres from the Attorney General’s office, This constitutes a serious offence under the federal Classification Act.

The film, entitled The Hanging, was subject to three minority opinions out of the seven who judged it. One thought it should have received an R18+ classification; one an MA15+ rating and one though an unrestricted M rating was appropriate. Ms Patten said that this showed the Board was far from unified on the decision and supported her contention that the film was only banned for political reasons. While I personally and philosophically believe that this film should have been banned, generally films which show a similar level of violence are submitted by a commercial agency are not. In order for this decision to be seen as credible by the wider community, the OFLC should ‘call in’ hundreds of films for re classification which have been classified in the past with levels of violence that are 20 and 30 times higher than this one.

Patten said that up to half a dozen films like Executions, which shows a series of real life executions, had been given R ratings in the past and made The Hanging look tame by comparison. She said that there were hundreds of ‘Chainsaw Massacre’ films with extremely high levels of violence available from family video libraries and on line entertainment outlets hosted from Australia, because they had been given R18+ ratings or even MA15+ ratings in the past.

China 'needs' more censorship

From RxPG news

China needs a law to restrict a 'violent culture' in films and Internet to protect the youth from being corrupted, a Chinese lawmaker said.

Only legislation can limit the violence-dominated content in media, said Peng Fuchun, a member of the National People's Congress. He said a violent culture was rapidly spreading in China, impacting the society negatively.

The lack of a film rating system and an effective TV censorship had left teenagers exposed to violent scenes, Peng said. He also blamed film and TV producers for promoting their products with violence, horror and crime as selling points.

Fu said that many online games and about 70% of non-education Internet information contain violence: Online war games make young people to fight and kill in the cyber space, while heroes in films, TV dramas and cartoons, promoting violence, become their idols.

China has witnessed 68% rise in juvenile crimes in the past five years said a survey by the China Youth and Children Studies research group this year.

   
TV show about personal euthanasia dilemma killed

From The Bolton News

A TV show featuring a man talking about his grief at being unable to help his dying father end his life was withdrawn.

Bosses at ITV1 withdrew a planned edition of the Jeremy Kyle Show after a campaign group questioned whether it would present a balanced reflection of the euthanasia debate.

Mark Tolmie had been due to appear on the show to describe his anguish at seeing his father suffer with spinal cancer for three years until his death.

Edward Tolmie had asked his son to take him abroad to an assisted suicide clinic, but Mark's family convinced him that it was not the right thing to do. If he had carried out his father's wishes, Tolmie would have faced being arrest when he arrived back in the UK.

He decided to appear on the TV show to highlight the dilemma faced by families in his situation.

However, the ProLife Alliance intervened after reading in The Bolton News about Mr Tolmie's scheduled appearance.

Julia Millington, Prolife's political director, said: It concerned me because it was very much about one man telling his story and it was very clear he had strong opinions on the law. We were concerned there wouldn't be any representation from the other side.

Millington emailed the show's producers to ensure they had followed broadcast regulator Ofcom's guidelines on impartiality on matters of political controversy: We know the show isn't political but the topic is highly political, controversial and current.

Tolmie said he found out via a telephone message that the show had been withdrawn and that it would be shown at a later date: It's disappointing and I don't really know what the complaints were about but we'll just have to wait until it is shown..

Lucy Garbutt, the show's executive producer, insisted the show is not political and that it concentrated on Tolmie's personal story rather than the issue at large.

Beyer Recommends.. Me!

Beyer disappointed

From This Is London

Tory grandee Chris Patten has emerged as a surprise candidate to be chairman of the BBC. Lord Patten is the only heavyweight public figure among the five names that are expected to form the shortlist for the Corporation's new head.

There have been suggestions that big-name candidates have been hard to find, partly because some have considered that the job is not as attractive as in the past, and partly because of the comparatively low salary.

Four other names in the hat are thought to include:

• Chitra Bharucha, currently acting chairman of the BBC Trust.
• Richard Hooper, former deputy head of the regulator OFCOM
• Sir John Tusa, currently manager of the Barbican arts complex and former BBC World Service chief
• Sir Stuart Hampson who is stepping down from chairmanship of the John Lewis retail chain.

Umm, no mention of John Beyer

From Shaun on The Melon Farmers Forum

I notice Mr. Beyer`s petition has now closed with 4081 signatures... Hardly the "hundreds of thousands" he was hoping for... It goes to show that most people don't seem to care one way or another about this issue. Except that privately they would tell me that censorship of consenting adult material, of the kind Beyer wants to see imposed, on ADULTS is plain wrong.

From the Beyer`s mediawatch site:

Mr Beyer concluded Almost 600 people have already signed (the petition) but it is vital that it attracts hundreds of thousands of signatures so that the Prime Minister is not left in any doubt about the strength of public feeling against offensive and harmful pornography.

Nutters object to the brush off

From christian Post

Comedy Central repeated an episode of the Sarah Silverman Program in which the female comedian has sex with “God.”

The installment, titled Batteries, features a “one-night-stand” with a “Black God,” whom Sarah Silverman tries to brush-off the morning after.

Many Christians disagree strongly with the rebroadcast, noting that the content is extremely insensitive and degrading toward their religion.

One such group, the Timothy Plan, has urged Christians to boycott the network’s parent company, Viacom, and pull out from all investments with them. The Timothy Plan is a mutual fund that avoids investing in companies that profit from or support things like pornography, abortion, non-married lifestyles, anti-family entertainment, as well as companies involved in promoting issues contrary the teachings of the Bible.

To air and rebroadcast a program, comedy or not, that depicts the main character having sex with God brings Viacom’s anti-Christian vitriol to an all time low, said Arthur Ally, president of the Timothy Plan, in a statement. Christians and culturally conservative Americans alike should be appalled by the sheer blatancy of this heresy. Anyone with any semblance of basic Judeo-Christian values should find this type of programming offensive, added Ally in his statement.

Silverman is best known for her stand-up comedy. She typically deals with topical humor and satire, mild or serious societal taboos, and controversial topics such as racism, sexism, and religion.

Turkey restores YouTube after offending video was removed

From The Sydney Morning Herald

Internet users in Turkey regained access to the popular video-sharing website YouTube on Friday when a court revoked a ban imposed because a clip was judged to have insulted the country's founder.

Once we received the court decision revoking the ban, we allowed access to YouTube, according to Turk Telekom, Turkey's biggest ISP.

The company had blocked access to YouTube on Wednesday on a court order following press reports over a video, submitted by a Greek user, that allegedly insulted the country's founding father Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.

Later that day, the same court ruled, after a petition from Turk Telekom, that it would cancel the ban if the offending video was removed from the website.

The ban was strongly criticized as censorship in the press and by the general public. The Turkish press reported that YouTube had removed the video after being bombarded by thousands of e-mails from protesting Turks.

Home Office Questions
26th Feb 2007

   
Government plan to increase regulation

From Hansard

Mrs. Riordan: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether the Government plan to increase the regulation of websites based in the UK.

Margaret Hodge: I have been asked to reply.

I refer to the answer of 2 February 2006, Official Report, column 599W, given by the Minister for State for Immigration, Citizenship and Nationality. At the national level, there are no plans to increase regulation in this area. Creation and use of websites is not a regulated activity. However, arrangements are in place under the Electronic Commerce Regulations to enable internet service providers in the UK to take down inappropriate content when they are notified of its existence. Activities conducted through websites are subject to the general law in the same way as any other offline activity.

All published material including violent pornography, is subject to the Obscene Publication Act 1959, which makes illegal the publication of an article whose effect, taken as a whole, is to tend to deprave and corrupt those likely to read, see or hear it. Responsibility for the prevention of the physical importation of obscene material lies with HM Revenue and Customs under the terms of the Customs Consolidation Act 1876 and section 170(2) of the Customs and Excise Management Act 1979.

The Obscene Publication Act applies equally to material published over the internet, though the overwhelming majority of obscene material published on the internet originates abroad and beyond our jurisdiction. This raises a challenge to our controls on obscene material. The Government are therefore proposing to make illegal the possession of a limited category of extreme pornographic material in measures to be introduced in the forthcoming Criminal Justice Bill.

The Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) supported by the UK industry and the European Union works to minimise the availability of illegal internet content particularly child abuse images by means of a telephone hotline to report incidences of potentially illegal content on websites. Reports are passed on to the relevant authorities for action. Since 1996 the amount of potentially illegal content hosted in the UK has declined from 18 per cent. to less than 1 per cent. The work of the IWF is an example of responsible self-regulation by the UK internet industry.

   
Phone download censorship being reworked

From Crikey

The Government has backed down in its attempt to censor media content online and on mobile phones, despite claiming in public, that there never was a problem.

Crikey has seen a recently authored departmental position paper that lays out major changes being made to the draft Bill, which was leaked to and published by Crikey earlier this week.

The position paper states that the Minister, Senator Helen Coonan, has decided to amend the approach taken in the original exposure draft. In particular, the Government has junked the extraordinary plan to make it a criminal offence to provide "prohibited" or "potentially prohibited" content online.

Instead, the Australian Communications and Media Authority will be given powers to issue "take down" notices to those who have posted or streamed problematic material. This is consistent with the present system of regulation for Internet content.

Nevertheless big, unresolved issues remain. The position paper states that the Government still wishes to restrict, on the basis of age, content rated M15+ delivered over mobile phones, but acknowledges that this "would significantly extend" the scope of present legislation and would have a very significant effect on the Internet content hosts and on ACMA. It could render the…regime unworkable.

So how will it be done? There is talk of a "two layer" approach, in which mobile phone content would be more tightly regulated than the internet, due to the fact that it is more likely to be accessed by unsupervised children. Yet modern mobile phones can be used to access the internet – so it is not entirely clear how the new scheme would operate.

Meanwhile, Minister Helen Coonan’s advisers have been reassuring content providers that there is no intention to make content, including books and magazines, illegal online that would be legal if sold in other forms, although this would have resulted had the original draft Bill been passed.

There is little doubt that the original flawed and draconian draft Bill was the result of a stuff up, and extra pressure following the Big Brother turkey-slapping incident, rather than a conspiracy. But if content providers had been consulted early, then the Bill would have been better and, more importantly from the Department’s point of view, nobody would be leaking and I wouldn’t have a story.

   
Burning of Anne Frank's Diary is ruled sedition in Germany

From IBN Live

A court in Magdeburg, Germany, convicted five men of sedition on Thursday for throwing a copy of Anne Frank's "Diary" into a bonfire last year at a community party organised by neo-Nazis.

The men were each handed a suspended sentence of nine months' imprisonment. The court in Magdeburg also convicted the men of insulting the memory of the dead. Their lawyer said they would appeal.

The Summer Solstice Party last summer in the small town of Pretzien caused uproar in Germany after it was revealed that the town mayor and police were also present and saw nothing wrong in the burning of the book and a US flag amid applause by torch-waving neo-Nazis.

Frank, a Jewish girl who died of typhus fever in 1945 at the age of 15 in Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, is a figure of hatred to Holocaust deniers because of her compelling story of life in hiding in Amsterdam before her capture by the Nazis.

Denying the Holocaust is punishable in Germany with up to five years' jail as sedition.

Judge Eicke told the accused that burning Frank's book and calling it "alien" was the same thing as publicly approving the Holocaust.

Turkey cancel TV series

From Christian Science Monitor see full article

The most talked about television show in Turkey these days is one that's not even on the air.

The wildly popular Kurtlar Vadisi (Valley of the Wolves), a series that chronicles life in Turkey's criminal underworld, was set to return for a triumphant second season in early February after a one-year hiatus. But, only one episode into its new run on the private Show TV network, the series was unceremoniously yanked off the airwaves, following a large number of complaints and pressure from the government body that oversees Turkish television.

Kurtlar Vadisi has been accused of glorifying violence and extreme nationalism. A spin-off movie, which saw the show's hero going to Iraq and doing battle with the US military, is Turkey's highest-grossing movie ever but was accused of being crassly anti-American and anti-Semitic. The new season was supposed to deal with the problem of Kurdish terrorism, but many feared that the show's take on this volatile topic would only fan sectarian tensions in Turkey.

The cancellation of the hit show is raising a debate in Turkey about whether limiting free speech in the name of curbing violence and nationalism is censorship or simply good government, and whether the show is a product of surging nationalism or a contributor to it.

Analysts say, though, that recent events, most notably the January murder of ethnic Armenian journalist Hrant Dink by an extreme nationalist 17-year-old, has made many realize that the nationalist fervor whipped up by Kurtlar Vadisi may be pushing Turkey in a dangerous direction.

[Canceling the series] was obviously censorship, but if an industry decides to produce dangerous junk, then society has the right to have some control over this, Irfan Erdogan, a professor of communications at Gazi University in Ankara, says.

Turkey bans YouTube as they take offence at video taunts

From the BBC see full article

Access to the popular video-sharing website YouTube has been suspended in Turkey following a court order.

The ban was imposed after prosecutors told the court that clips insulting former Turkish leader Mustafa Kemal Ataturk had appeared on the site.

According to Turkish media, there has been a "virtual war" between Greek and Turkish users of the site, with both sides posting insulting videos.

The clip prompting the ban reportedly dubbed Ataturk and Turks homosexuals. The offending videos sparked a storm of complaints to YouTube and the clips were removed, but the court order goes further, blocking all access to the site.

Insulting Ataturk, the founding father of modern Turkey, or "Turkishness" is an offence which can result in a prison sentence.

Turkish visitors to the site are now greeted with a message in English and Turkish reading "Access to www.youtube.com site has been suspended in accordance with decision no: 2007/384 dated 06.03.2007 of Istanbul First Criminal Peace Court".

Paul Doany, the head of Turk Telecom, the country's largest telecoms company, said that they had blocked access to the site as soon as the court order came through. Doany said that for its part Turk Telecom will continue to enforce the ban as long as the order stands.

The European Union, which Turkey is hoping to join, has long called for an easing of Article 301, the law which prevents insults to Turkish culture, arguing that the law places severe restrictions on free speech in Turkey.

   
Some viewers may find some of Gordon Brown's words disturbing

From The Guardian

A "labelling" system for media content is under way to help parents protect their children from unsuitable content in the digital age, Gordon Brown revealed today.

The chancellor said that Ofcom, the industry regulator, has agreed to introduce a media content rating scheme to provide better information about websites, TV programmes, computer games and other media.

Brown also signalled the need for international agreements to block the scourge of inappropriate content available to children on the internet.

Speaking to an audience of mothers and fathers in central London, Brown drew on his own experiences as a father to expose the new challenges faced by parents trying to teach their children right from wrong as sensationalist images of violence, drugs, and sex proliferated on the internet and other new media outlets.

He said: We want to promote a culture which favours responsibility and establishes boundaries: limits of what is acceptable and unacceptable. We can't and shouldn't seek to turn the clock back on technology and change. Rather we need to harness new technology and use it to enable parents to exercise the control they want over the new influences on their children.

As part of its responsibilities for content regulation and media literacy Ofcom will introduce common labelling standards providing information on the type of content, regardless of the medium concerned: cinema, TV, radio, computer games, or the internet, Brown told the parents.

An Ofcom spokesman said the labeling system will cover all media content in a "text-based" form. This will spell out the level of nudity involved in the content, for example: We have not set in stone yet is what these labels will look like but it won't be like age related labelling you get in cinema classifications.

The regulator will also conduct an information campaign to let parents know about the software available for computers and TV set-top boxes to control what their children see. Ofcom will also work with the Internet Watch Foundation to ensure internet service providers tell their subscribers about software which blocks access to sites, Brown said.

Other measures will include persuading technology manufacturers to give better information on blocking software and investigating new ways of restricting access to violent and obscene material sent over the internet.

A Treasury spokeswoman was unable to confirm when the scheme will be introduced, but said: The labelling is going to affect all visual media - DVDs, videos, films and games. It is still currently under discussion and will involve various organisations.

TV channels pulled in Kashmir after threats

From CTV

There will be no more Desperate Housewives for residents of Indian Kashmir. They will have to do without Friends reruns, too.

Four foreign television channels have been pulled from the air in Indian-controlled Kashmir after Islamic militant groups demanded cable companies stop airing "obscene" shows, cable operators said.

As militants have asked us to stop airing obscene channels, we've suspended broadcasting English channels like HBO, Star Movies, Star World and Sony Pix, said Muzaffar Ahmed, a TV cable operator in Srinagar, the summer capital of India's Jammu-Kashmir state.

Two militant groups in a telephone call to a local news agency, Current News Service, advised TV cable operators to drop channels that the groups say spread obscenity. The groups, Al-Badr Mujahedeen and Al-Madina, did not specify which channels they were referring to.

The content of the channel's broadcasts in India is already pretty tame compared to other countries in order to comply with India's stringent censorship laws. Obscenities are bleeped out and hints of nudity blurred. Other scenes are cut entirely.

Cable operators were taking no chances. Last year, a bomb blast rocked the office of a cable TV provider in the town of Sopore, 30 miles north of Srinagar. One person died in the explosion and the company's third-floor office was badly damaged by the blast. The lone cable operator in the town later halted telecasts.

Book Store to continue fight against Canadian Customs

From Xtra

The Little Sister's book store may continue its legal fight against censorship at the border, despite being denied advance costs by the Supreme Court Of Canada.

We've been encouraged by other people not to let up, says Little Sister's manager Janine Fuller. We're taking a deep breath and looking at where we stand.

The bookstore, which has been fighting the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) formerly known as Canada Customs, was denied funding by the high court on Jan 19, seemingly making it impossible for the store to continue its current fight.

But now Fuller says the bookstore is considering fighting on based on private donations and smaller-scale legal tactics.

Even if the store can't afford to fight another large-scale case, Fuller says she'd hate to see all the work that's gone into the current case go to waste: This case has piled up an incredible amount of evidence and witnesses and I'd hate to see that end up on the cutting-room floor. We're talking to our lawyers about other smaller cases, even if it's not the huge case.

CBSA hasn't seized any material since the current case began, but she doesn't think it's a sign that they've eased up: I think, as usual, they're just holding off. During a court case, they don't usually seize material.

In 2000, the Supreme Court Of Canada ruled that CBSA was unfairly targeting queer bookstores and materials and ordered the agency to stop. But Fuller says the agency didn't follow the court's orders, and that CBSA has actually added definitions to their obscenity regulations that disproportionately target queer material: After 2000, they added bootlicking and fisting to the regulations. It was quite appalling to think our community might face the brunt of those seizures.

Cheques can be sent to the Little Sister's Defence Fund c/o BC Civil Liberties Association, 425-815 West Hastings, Vancouver, BC, V6C 1B4. Receipts will be issued for donations of $10 or more.

China blocks 1.8 million blogs

From Daily Tech

According to an announcement made by LiveJournal, China has officially blocked the popular online blogging site from its citizens. China's censor locked out about 1.8 million blogs, of which 8,692 are self-reported Chinese bloggers.

This isn't the first time that China has blocked LiveJournal. This block is just in time for China's National People's Congress meeting in Beijing. According to Xiao Qiang, founder of the China Digital Times, the move is historical to the meeting: The security is tight and the control is upgraded because they don't want [political voices].

Chinese officials did not release a statement as to why LiveJournal was blocked, but according to Xiao, the government likely put up a blanket-restriction to target a few, or possibly one blogger. Xiao claims it is possible that Chinese officials simply wanted to block out a single blogger or a specific post, but blocked out all of LiveJournal anyway.

   
Well who'd a thought it

From Digital Spy

The BBC has apologised for Jeremy Clarkson's description of crash-victim Richard Hammond as "a mental".

Mental health groups complained about the Top Gear episode when co-presenter Hammond returned following his life-threatening smash. "Are you a mental?" Clarkson enquired, while third host James May offered a tissue in case of dribble.

Peter McCabe, chief executive of brain injury charity Headway, received complaints from viewers and passed his concerns to the corporation: We made a formal complaint to the BBC and Ofcom following the programme after hearing from scores of deeply offended brain injury survivors, carers and the people who work with them.

The BBC's reply read: The Top Gear team accept that by using the term 'a mental' we caused offence to some members of our audience and would like to apologise for doing so.

The BBC had previously defended the show: Viewers are aware of the playful nature of the programme and the boyish rapport that exists between the programme's presenters. It's something viewers really enjoy."

Prosecuted for showing implied respect with the word 'Mr'

From the BBC see full article

A Kurdish politician in Turkey has been sentenced to six months in prison for referring to jailed Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan as "Mr Ocalan".

A court in Diyarbakir said the use of "Mr" by Ahmet Turk implied respect for Ocalan, seen as a criminal in Turkey. Ocalan is serving a life sentence after he was found guilty of treason for leading the Kurdish armed campaign in which more than 30,000 people died.

Ahmet Turk was sentenced by the court in south-eastern Turkey on a charge of supporting a criminal in a speech he made in January 2006.

It was the second conviction for the leader of the pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party (DTP) in seven days. Last week, Ahmet Turk, alongside a DTP deputy leader, was sentenced to 18 months in prison for distributing party materials in the Kurdish language. Turkish law allows distribution of political literature only in Turkish.

According to one tally, more than 50 DTP members of the pro-Kurdish DTP have been arrested and at least seven senior officials charged in less than a fortnight, our correspondent says.

Party officials argue they are victims of a sustained campaign of harassment, saying the authorities are trying to close the party down before a general election later this year.

   
France to prohibit amateur journalism

From PC World

The French Constitutional Council has approved a law that criminalizes the filming or broadcasting of acts of violence by people other than professional journalists. The law could lead to the imprisonment of eyewitnesses who film acts of police violence, or operators of websites publishing the images, one French civil liberties group warned..

The council chose an unfortunate anniversary to publish its decision approving the law, which came exactly 16 years after Los Angeles police officers beating Rodney King were filmed by amateur videographer George Holliday. If Holliday were to film a similar scene of violence in France today, he could end up in prison as a result of the new law, said Pascal Cohet, a spokesman for French online civil liberties group Odebi. And anyone publishing such images could face up to five years in prison and a fine of 75,000 Euros potentially a harsher sentence than that for committing the violent act.

The law, proposed by Minister of the Interior Nicolas Sarkozy, is intended to clamp down on a wide range of public order offences. During parliamentary debate of the law, government representatives said the offence of filming or distributing films of acts of violence targets the practice of "happy slapping", in which a violent attack is filmed by an accomplice, typically with a camera phone, for the amusement of the attacker's friends.

The broad drafting of the law so as to criminalize the activities of citizen journalists unrelated to the perpetrators of violent acts is no accident, but rather a deliberate decision by the authorities, said Cohet. He is concerned that the law will lead to the creation of a parallel judicial system controlling the publication of information on the internet.

The government has also proposed a certification system for websites, blog hosters, mobile-phone operators and internet service providers, identifying them as government-approved sources of information if they adhere to certain rules.

Arkansas to hike their level of fines

Based on an article from X Biz

With little debate and scant opposition, Arkansas lawmakers passed HB 1569, a measure that would increase the maximum fine for obscenity to $250,000.

Under the current law, Arkansas imposes a maximum fine of $15,000 for obscenity. But Rep. Shirley Walters, who introduced the bill, said the current penalty doesn’t go far enough to deter those who seek to profit from the sale of obscene material: There are several places here in Arkansas where these businesses are owned by out-of-state corporations and a $15,000 fine would be just a slap on the wrist. This would allow a judge or jury to access up to $250,000 for a felony obscenity charge.

Adult entertainment attorney Larry Walters told XBIZ a $250,000 fine is beyond what most states and the federal system provide for, adding that it may prove to be unconstitutional: There's this idea that people in adult entertainment make so much money, that the fines need to be huge. That's not always the case. States pass these laws looking to catch the big fish, but often they ensnare the little guy.

The bill does not speak to jail time for those convicted of obscenity in the state. The bill goes to the state Senate for approval.

In support of Clareification and freedom to poke fun at nonsense

From The Guardian see full article, by Sue Blackmore

A Cambridge student is in hiding because he dared to print one of those infamous Danish cartoons and have a laugh at Islam's expense. Yet if offended Muslims want people to stop laughing at them, this latest incident will only have backfired.

OK it's offensive, and funny, and that's what satire is all about. But the magazine apparently provoked anger in Cambridge, with enraged students complaining in droves. A second-year student said these were some of the most offensive things I've ever seen. The president of the university's Islamic society said I found the magazine hugely offensive ... freedom of expression does not constitute a freedom to offend.

I say to him - oh yes it does, and you should be ashamed of yourself. You didn't have to read the magazine. You didn't have to spread the news about it. And you certainly didn't have to encourage other Muslims to believe that claiming to be offended gives them the right to stop the rest of us having a laugh. Yet you did so.

The freedom to laugh and poke fun at things we disagree with is fundamental to freedom of thought.

And freedom of thought is fundamental to education, scholarship, and learning - all the things that Cambridge University should be standing up for. Great thinkers and scientists are always offending people by overthrowing the dogmas and false beliefs of the past. People were offended at the thought that earth was not the centre of the universe; they were offended at the idea that mountains and rivers were created by natural processes; they were offended at the idea that species were not immutable and they were offended at the suggestion that we humans might be descended from apes. Happily, in the end the evidence overwhelmed them.

I hope the same will happen with these claims, and society as a whole will not let religious believers claim a right not to be offended. When I contacted the college the master told me that the student has not been reprimanded and the disciplinary process will determine whether he has infringed any regulations. I sincerely hope he has not and that the college will offer him and his magazine their support. The freedom to think, to argue, and to laugh at silly ideas must be allowed to flourish.

   
Phone download censorship may extend to eBooks

From ABC see full article

Australian publishers are warning that the Federal Government's about to impose an unprecedented crackdown on books, magazines and other writings.

They're worried about something called the Content Services Bill, which the Government says is aimed at material sent over mobile phones and other devices, to make sure children don't have access to explicit material.

But the publishers say the draft bill is too broad. They believe it'll bog down the Office of Film and Literature Classification, with checks on every book and magazine.

The peak body representing mobile phone carriers is also worried that the bill could turn out to be a red tape nightmare for its members.

Maree McCaskill Chief Executive of the Australian Publishers Association said that the Government's proposed laws regulating content on mobile phones and PDAs (personal digital assistants) are seriously flawed. She says the draft bill's so broad, it will mean everything, including books and magazines, will have to be cleared by the country's chief censor before they're published.

SEAPA present catalogue of censorship

From Brandon Sun

The Southeast Asian Press Alliance (SEAPA) is concerned over a series of actions by Malaysian authorities against the broadcast and print media and cyberspace, which point to increasing intolerance for free expression and differing viewpoints.

The National Censorship Board recently banned the film I don't want to sleep alone by award-winning filmmaker Tsai Ming Liang. Among the reasons cited are that it portrayed the unsightly side of the capital city Kuala Lumpur and affected the government's ongoing tourism campaign.

Tsai, a Malaysian filmmaker based in Taiwan, was informed of the ban via a 31 January 20007 letter from the board. He is appealing the decision.

The board recently banned independent documentary Apa Khabar Orang Kampung (Village People Radio Show). In a 26 February appeal against the ban, filmmaker Amir Muhammad argued for a "limited viewing" rating for his film, since it has been ruled "inappropriate for general viewing", among others.

Elsewhere the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) banned Sensasi, a Malay-language entertainment talkshow aired by private broadcaster TV3.

Meanwhile, the ban on K. Arumugam's March 8, a Tamil-language book about the 2001 racial clashes in a slum area near the capital city, was only made known to the author through a 19 January news report which said the ban took effect in December 2006.

Arumugam's book is among the 56 publications banned by the Internal Security Ministry in 2006, which includes the Indonesian translation of Charles Darwin's Origin of Species by F. Susilohardo and Basuki Hernowo. (The full list of banned books is available here)

Arumugam filed an application on 24 February at the Kuala Lumpur High Court for a judicial review against the ban on his book which chronicles the 15 days of racial clashes in Kampung Medan that killed six people and injured more than 40.

Following a deputy minister's statement in December 2006 that Internet laws may be introduced to control bloggers and prevent them from spreading "disharmony, chaos, seditious material and lies", yet another threat against cyberspace was issued recently.

   
Teacher sacked for topless pictures

Who'd be a teacher...being set up to be sacked from your profession for all sorts of minor politically correct nonsense

From Manchester Evening News

A teacher been barred from working at an Oldham school after topless pictures of her appeared in a newspaper. Photographs of Louise Crolla were also claimed to be posted on a modelling agency internet site.

Royton and Crompton School head teacher Des Herlihy banned her after parents complained. Education chiefs confirmed the supply teaching agency which employs Crolla has been asked not to send her back to the school while the issue is investigated.

But Crolla insisted last night that she was not seeking a modelling career and had been `horrified' to see the topless pictures in the newspaper. She said: I have been totally stitched up by a photographer who took personal pictures and has decided to make some money out of it.

Crolla said the pictures had been taken three or four years ago and were not intended for modelling purposes.

Coun Diane Williamson, chairman of the governors, said: As soon as the situation came to light I was fully briefed. I support the head teacher's handling of the situation.

Crolla was employed at the 1,157-pupil mixed comprehensive through an agency and was not a full member of staff. She said she had not been employed as a PE teacher and had only worked there for four days as a volunteer coach.

Oldham council's service director for schools, Nick Hudson, said: Mr Herlihy has the full support of the local authority in the way he is dealing with this. We are fully satisfied that Mr Herlihy has taken the necessary steps to ensure that normal teaching has not been compromised in any way for pupils ... nor has their welfare as a result of the allegations.

Turkey debates a wide range of websites to block

Based on an article from Sunday's Zaman

Members of the Turkish Parliament recently debated banning Web sites that publish materials countering the "indivisible unity
of the Turkish state."

Members of the Parliament's Justice Subcommittee debated banning Web sites that publish materials countering the "indivisible unity of the Turkish state" and agreed to include separatist crimes in a draft prepared to prevent child pornography and Internet crimes. However, the committee left the final decision to the upper-committee.

The committee consisting of officials from the Justice Ministry, academics and lawmakers noted the supposedly negative effects of separatist propaganda on children and the young, and agreed to block all separatist Web sites, particularly those affiliated with the terror network the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

The draft stipulates a court verdict within 24 hours to shut down or block access to any website that publishes separatist materials.

The draft is expected to be enacted in March. Speaking at a Justice Committee meeting on the draft, the Justice Minister noted the number of Internet cafes was increasing nationwide and warned against the negative effects if they were not reigned in: Turkey is today facing the misuse of technology. We know from recent tragic events that the Internet is misused and materials that encourage drug use, sexual abuse, gambling and other bad habits are widely viewed in Internet cafes.

The draft contains the following regulations:

• Access to Web sites publishing materials that encourage sexual abuse, drug use, pornography, prostitution, suicide and gambling will be blocked.
• If the server or domain name provider is located overseas, the request to block access to such Web sites will be presented to the Telecommunication Board and the board will warn the concerned ISP to tackle the issue.
• If the ISP fails to abide by the regulations, the board will give the concerned party a three day deadline. At the expiry of deadline, the server will be fined YTL 10,000 if it refuses to tackle the problem. The license of ISP could be cancelled if it fails to comply with the decision.
• Owners of ISPs that fail to block access to banned Web sites could be sentenced up to three years imprisonment.
• The Telecommunications Board will be entitled to stipulate in license agreements with Internet cafes the use of filters and content blocking software for Internet services.

   
Belfast Council take their blanket sex shop ban to the House of Lords

From the Belfast Telegraph

The long-running bust-up between sex shops and Belfast City Council is due to be settled by the Law Lords within a matter of weeks.

For five of the country's leading legal authorities are currently considering the saga of Belfast City Council's battle with the city's adult entertainment outlets.

The council took its case to Westminster in a last gasp bid to overturn a Court of Appeal decision, which ruled that BCC had been wrong to reject a licence application from a Belfast sex shop.

Missbehavin', a Smithfield based adult entertainment store, first applied for a licence in 2002. But it was refused in March 2003 when Belfast City Council announced a blanket ban on sex shops in the Gresham Street area.

However, the sex saga took a dramatic twist in 2005 when the Court of Appeal ruled the council's decision had breached the applicant's rights under the European Convention and was ordered to stump up a whopping £396,00 in costs.

But Belfast City Council appealed against that ruling and was granted leave to challenge it in the House of Lords last week.

A House of Lords' judicial office spokeswoman said that five crossbench law lords - Lord Hoffmann, Lord Rodger, Baroness Hale, Lord Mance and Lord Neuberger - had considered Belfast City Council's submission at a hearing last Monday.

She added that a decision by the law lords will be issued within the next six to eight weeks. A Belfast City Council spokesman confirmed that it had made an appeal to the law lords and claimed that its sex shop licensing ban did not contravene the European Convention on Human Rights.

Six other shops are likely to be prosecuted if Belfast Council win their case

   
China proscribes coverage of historical events

From AsiaNews.it

Chinese media authorities have marked out 20 forbidden areas in an attempt to promote a “harmonious” atmosphere for upcoming national and party conferences.

Restrictions have been placed on coverage of historical events including the anti-rightist campaign under Mao Ze Dong, the Cultural Revolution and more recent events such as the ongoing anti-corruption campaign, the media freedom debate, and legal and rights protection campaigns.

The curbs were outlined by the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT) on January 12.

Naturally, there were other banned areas like judicial corruption, activists' campaigns to protect individual rights, sexual crimes, and the aristocratic lifestyle of high-income groups.

Finally, important state-sponsored construction plans cannot be commented on and challenged with a western-oriented stance . . . and private ownership cannot be affirmed.

   
Australian censor interviewed about rating online games

From GameSpot see full article

GameSpot: Apart from an R rating, what other pressing issues are there for games classification?

Des Clark: Online gaming is one of the issues that need to be looked at in the future. I think the level of resolution of graphics and the impact of games will also be a bit of a challenge as time progresses.

GameSpot AU: What is it specifically about online games that is a concern?

Des Clark: We believe it's possible to rate [online games]. Games where you buy a physical device to go online do have to be rated. And so we're proposing a new statement [to add to a rating]; something along the lines of "Gameplay may change when online," so that we're providing further advice. We're currently talking to the industry about this, and they will respond to us shortly. It's a new bit of consumer advice that we're proposing to use to inform Australian consumers.

GameSpot AU: What about downloadable content that is made available after a game's initial release?

Des Clark: That's fine, because that's a choice that people make. I think game manufacturers are pretty realistic and reasonable--if they know something is rating at a particular level, they're not going to start putting in stuff at a higher level, particularly if it's stuff that children play, because consumers will react. Consumers will have their say if the game manufacturers start doing silly things. In my experience with the game industry, they're a very responsible group of people who do the right thing.

   
about selling hardcore DVDs

From Australian IT

It is worth taking a look at Australian IT where they are taking internet comments on the subject of selling hardcore DVDs from Australian shops

   
of a BBC ban on anti-war song

From Muslim News

The BBC was accused of banning an anti-war video song, mocking Prime Minister Tony Blair, because of fears that it will offend the government.

Leader of the anti-war Respect Party, George Galloway, said he would be raising the issue in parliament and would also be writing to the BBC's director general Mark Thompson, according to the Campaign for Broadcasting Freedom (CBF).

This lickspittle BBC has a deplorable record of toadying to the government, said Galloway, who plays a cameo role in the song, a cover version of War (What Is It Good For?) by the Ugly Rumours, named after Blair's band when he was a university student.

CBF reported that the anti-war video had risen to sixth in the UK's pop single charts and was vying to be number one, even though it is only available as a download.

The song has already been publicized by the BBC, but only on a regional news program and as a last item on Independent Television News on Thursday, CBF said.

The BBC's pop station Radio One was due to broadcast a package about the single for its Newsbeat program on Friday, but was pulled at the last minute because it was not newsworthy, according to the campaign group.

Respect claimed that it had been told privately from within the highest sources at the BBC that a banning order had been instituted against the anti-war song.

Malaysian chat show banned after comment about age of Muhammed's wife

From The Star

The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) has banned entertainment programme Sensasi, which is aired live on TV3, with immediate effect following a controversial comment by a local artiste.

Rosnah Mat Aris was said to have uttered words that were deemed by some as an insult to Prophet Muhammad’s wife.

In its investigations, MCMC found that the programme's live show on Jan 30 had failed to abide by the approval conditions and that the television station had failed to control inappropriate content.

With this, TV3 has been asked to stop the live broadcast of the show with immediate effect, the commission said in a statement yesterday.

MCMC corporate communications head Adelina Iskandar said the entire Sensasi programme should have: contributed to the national aspiration and not offend the sensitivity or values of the community.

The statement did not clearly state if Rosnah’s comments had insulted Prophet Muhammad’s wife.

However, public reaction as reported by the media suggested that what she said should not have been connected to the Prophet’s family.

In a programme last month, Rosnah when answering a question, had linked a piece of gossip about her (Rosnah) with the age of Prophet Muhammad’s first wife, Siti Khadijah.

Her short statement had caused a huge controversy. Viewers had also sent in letters expressing their regret over her statement.

   
Egyptian author under threat for offending islam

From Index on Censorship see full article

Al Azhar, one of the leading religious centres in the Muslim world, is threatening legal action against the celebrated Egyptian writer and activist Nawal El Saadawi.

At a meeting this week, the Islamic Research Council agreed to present a petition against El Saadawi to the prosecutor general for her attacks on God, the prophets and the heavenly religions, according to the Egyptian newspaper Al Misry al Yom.

The head of Al Azhar, Sheikh Mohammed Sayyid Tantawi has condemned El Saadawi’s play God Resigns at the Summit Meeting for allegedly offending Islam. Five of El Saadawi’s books – including the play - were banned at the Cairo bookfair in January. All copies of the play have been destroyed.

Political groups want to threaten writers and freethinkers, El Saadawi told Index on Censorship. It’s a backlash. The whole of Egyptian society is going backwards.

Nawal El Saadawi told Index that she was summoned to the prosecutor general’s office in January, with her daughter, the writer Mona Helmi, following a case lodged against her in 2006 - also on the grounds that she had insulted Islam.

El Saadawi believes that religious groups were particularly incensed by interviews she had given to the Egyptian press, in which she said that God was a spirit and therefore neither male nor female.

In the wake of the accusations, El Saadawi has decided to leave the country for the next six months.

Cuba ejects critical journalists

From Ledger-Enquirer

In the harshest crackdown in years on foreign correspondents based in Havana, the Cuban government has ordered at least three of them - including the Chicago Tribune's - to stop writing because of their "negative" reporting.

The government last week ordered veteran Chicago Tribune foreign correspondent Gary Marx to stop covering Cuba immediately and gave him 90 days to leave the island, said Tribune managing editor for news George de Lama.

Mexico City's El Universal reported that its correspondent in Havana, Cesar Gonzalez-Calero, and an unidentified correspondent for the BBC got the same orders. More are expected to follow.

The sanctions come at a tense time for foreign journalists in Cuba. Although Cuba has always restricted news coverage of its affairs, reporters on the island say the pressures against filing negative reports intensified after leader Fidel Castro became sick in July and was replaced by his brother, Raul.

Raul had been widely expected to be more pragmatic and open to reforms than his brother, but journalists in Havana have said several have been called in for extended questioning about their stories since Raul took over.

Missouri nutter wants age limit set to 21 for adult entertainment

Based on an article from X Biz

A Missouri nutter is sponsoring a new bill that would regulate adult businesses’ hours of operation, impose zoning restrictions and raise the age limit of patrons and employees from 18 to 21.

The bill would make it illegal for anyone under the age of 21 to enter an adult bookstore, cabaret or video store unless he or she is making a delivery or repair.

It would also require adult stores to operate from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m., Monday through Saturday, and remain closed Sundays and state holidays. Scott says Bartle’s office would prefer to treat adult-oriented stores like mainstream businesses.

We would like to invite tourists here, Scott said. We have made a lot of efforts to promote Missouri as a family-friendly state.

Bartle has sponsored several bills seeking to repress adult businesses in the past.

Village People Radio Show banned in Malaysia

From Brandon Sun

Malaysia's state censorship board has banned a documentary film about former Malaysian communists now living in southern Thailand, saying it was too sympathetic toward communism and critical of the government, the movie's director said.

Amir Muhammad, a prominent Malaysian filmmaker, said in a posting on his blog that he has until March 10 to appeal the board's decision to ban Village People Radio Show, which was shown at the Berlin Film Festival earlier this month.

Village People Radio Show is described as a portrait of village life in southern Thailand, where retired Muslim members of the Communist Party of Malaya now live.

The censorship board listed seven reasons for the ban, saying the movie was unsuitable for public viewing because it portrayed the communist struggle as a noble cause and criticized the Malaysian government for unfairly treating former communists, Amir said.

Apa Khabar Orang Kampung, which carries the English title Village People Radio Show was among the films confirmed for the 20th Singapore International Film Festival (SIFF) which runs from April 18 to 30.

Israel mandates biometric checks for adult web surfers

From X Biz

Members of the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, gave preliminary approval to a bill that would require Internet service providers to restrict access to websites with adult content.

The bill, which calls on ISPs to block minors from accessing adult websites that contain sex, violence or gambling, moved through the Knesset with unanimous support. Only one lawmaker from the 25 member body abstained.

According to the language of the bill, access to adult websites would require physical or biometric age verification in addition to a password.

The bill’s sponsor, Amnon Cohen, said newer computers have the capability to institute his proposal. Cohen said he proposed the bill because of national studies concluding that 60% of Israeli children between the ages of 9 and 18 have seen porn online.

The legislation also calls for a fine of nearly $5,000 for ISPs that fail to comply.

Absent from the bill is a definition of how sites would be classified as adult. Nor does the bill contemplate the technical or financial feasibility of its requirements.

The bill's definitions are flawed and it constitutes a violation of the right for privacy and freedom of speech, said Dr. Michael Birnhack of Haifa University's Faculty of Law. The bill does not define what is a site that deals with sex, and so it would appear that it is also meant to block access to sites explaining about human sexuality, open sex, gay and lesbian sites, or sites explaining about martial arts because they deal with violence.

Jeez guys, give the gays a break. There's plenty of others to blame

Believers in nonsense unsurprisingly spout nonsense about the BBFC

I agree though with: "standards of human behaviour are being fatally eroded by constant subjection to suggestions and images promoting the exploitation of other human beings"...ie religion

From the Daily Mail

The Church of England yesterday warned that the spread of hard-core sex and violence in films is "fatally eroding" standards of behaviour.

It questioned the increasingly liberal decisions by film censors and accused them of allowing wider and younger audiences to see pornography and violence.

The Church called for new thinking about the effects of negative and degrading images on public safety.

The attempt to put pressure on film censors and broadcasters at the Church's parliament, the General Synod, follows efforts by senior bishops to defend marriage and to do more to uphold Christian beliefs. The Synod heard that "standards of human behaviour are being fatally eroded by constant subjection to suggestions and images promoting the exploitation of other human beings".

Church leaders named a series of films, including Destricted, 9 Songs, Baise-Moi, and Intimacy, which they said had been allowed a wide adult audience by being granted 18 certificates, but which in the past would have been restricted under R18 certificates to being shown in private clubs and to being sold on DVD in sex shops.

They blamed the BBFC for allowing such material to reach general audiences.

The Rev Richard Moy said: There have been numerous cases where defence barristers have asked judges to consider in mitigation that the defendant's actions were influenced by watching pornography. And yet the BBFC is making pornography easier to access by giving hardcore material 18 certificates. And material which previously would have been classified 18 is now being classified 15. And material previously classified as 15 is now classified as 12. How can we ask children and young people to behave in a socially responsible way if, through the media, we celebrate and revel in exploitation and abuse?

The Synod voted unanimously to condemn the exploitation of the humiliation of human beings for public entertainment.

A previous president at the BBFC, Andreas Whittam-Smith, who passed two of the criticised films - Baise-Moi and Intimacy, is now a senior Church official in charge of the its financial wing. He told the Synod that the films, however they were marred by their sexually explicit content, they had something to say. He said regulators felt bound to reflect what they believe is the public mood and added: It is only the Church's teaching . . . which can have an influence and change things.

   
Dolce & Gabbana advert offends in Spain

From The Independent

Dolce & Gabbana are wowing the fashion world on the catwalks of Milan, but feminists in Spain have condemned their latest advertising campaign as sexist and violent, throwing the flamboyant duo into a hissy fit and prompting withdrawal of the images.

The ads, which appeared in Spain, show a half-naked man holding a scantily clad woman to the ground by her wrists while four predatory hunks look on. Spain's Women's Institute, a government organisation linked to the Labour Ministry, described the scene as offensive to women's dignity and an incitement to sexual violence.

Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana announced they would drop their campaign in Spain and covered their retreat with acid-drenched sneers. We will withdraw that photo from the Spanish market alone, since they are behind the times. What does an artistic photo have to do with the real world? If Spanish views held sway, you'd have to burn museums like the Louvre and all the paintings of Caravaggio, they added.

But Spanish women objected not to the supposed sensuality or eroticism but the image's glorification of sexual violence. The advert suggests it is acceptable to use force as a way of imposing oneself on a woman, reinforced by the passive complicity of the men looking on, the Labour Ministry said.

Last month, a D&G campaign featuring bloodstained models brandishing knives was banned in Britain after the Advertising Standards Authority received scores of complaints that the pictures glorified violence. The ads appeared in newspapers alongside stories about mounting British gun crime.

Long Road to Heaven banned in Bali

From the BBC

The Indonesian island of Bali has banned a film about the 2002 bombings that killed more than 200 people.

It is Indonesia's first film about the atrocity and received its premiere in the capital Jakarta last month.

An official from the provincial film board said Long Road to Heaven could reopen old wounds. I Gusti Ngurah Gde, head of Bali's film board, said: We fear people who do not understand it would trigger conflict and direct hatred at a certain group.

The movie looks at the tragedy from different points of view, including those of a Balinese taxi driver who lost a relative in the blast. Also portrayed are an American surfer searching for peace after the 9/11 attacks and Muslim militants who were blamed for the bombs.

Police question students about the ridicule of religious nonsense

From Index on Censorship
Spotted by MediawatchWatch
Magazine detailed at Harry's Place

The controversy over the publication of one of the now infamous Jyllands Posten Mohammed cartoons in a Cambridge University student publication has taken on a new seriousness, after two students were questioned under caution by Cambridgeshire police.

The students, understood to be the editor and guest editor of unofficial Clare College magazine Clareification (renamed Crucification for an issue focused on religious satire) were interrogated under Section 5 of the Public Order Act (“harassment, alarm or distress”).

Police confirmed to Index that the students were questioned last Friday, and a file has been sent to the Crown Prosecution Service, which will decide whether to press charges against the students in the coming weeks.

The magazine, circulated for free among Clare students, contained several articles ridiculing religious belief, and the front-page headlines Katie Lin-O-Scopes more reliable than Bible (a reference to the magazine’s spoof horoscope column) and Ayatollah rethinks stance on “misunderstood” Rushdie.

The editorial stated ‘I hate Islam’. The Mohammed cartoon appeared on the back page, juxtaposed with a picture of Clare’s student president with the caption One is a prophet of God, a great leader and an example to us all. The other is a violent paedophile.

Earlier, Cambridge University had signalled that it considered the matter finished with. A spokesman for the university said the student who had guest-edited the publication had been disciplined, but that there was no prospect of him being sent down.

   
Review board to research whether a 'reasonable' adult is offended by hardcore

Based on an article from Australian IT

The Classification Review Board has agreed to conduct research into whether the so-called reasonable adult is offended by films that show actual sexual intercourse.

The move comes as pornography company AdultShop.com today launches a Federal Court challenge to the review board's practice of giving films that show actual sex an X18+ rating.

A spokesman for the board said the research into community standards would take place through a series of forums over the next six months.

The public will be recruited and may be shown movies and asked whether they agree with the ratings given. It will be the first such review since the 1990s.

   
New York bans the use of the word 'nigger'

From New Zealand Herald

New York City symbolically banned use of the word 'nigger' today, the latest step in a campaign that hopes to expunge the  racial slur from hip hop music and television.

The City Council unanimously declared a moratorium that carries no penalty but aims to stop youth from casually using the word, considered by most Americans to be the most offensive in the English language.

The New York City measure follows similar resolutions this month by the New York state assembly and state senate, and supporters of the ban are taking their campaign to The Recording Academy, asking it not to nominate musicians for Grammy awards if they use the word in their lyrics.

Many rap artists and young New Yorkers toss the word around as a term of endearment or as a substitute for black, angering some black leaders who consider those who use it as ignorant of the word's hate-filled history in slavery and segregation.

Councilman Leroy Comrie, a sponsor of the moratorium, said the campaign against the word has gained strength since comedian Michael Richards spewed it in a racially charged tirade in Los Angeles.

Comrie also asked TV network Black Entertainment Television to stop using the word in its shows.

A Grammy spokesman said he doubted the academy's 11,000 voting members would support any measure that might censor artists: They are not going to be supportive of something that excludes someone simply because they are using a word that is offensive, said Ron Roecker, vice president of communication for the Recording Academy.

Miss Anara banned in India

From Business of Cinema

The Indian Central Board of Film Certification has refused to grant a censor certificate to Miss Anara, the film based on the real life MMS scandal in Jammu that rocked the country two years ago.

According to censor board officials, the film, that was slated for a 2 March 2007 release, portrays excessive violence by police officers. The film stars Anara Gupta (on whose life the film is based).

Producer-director K K Yadav affirms, There is nothing very violent in the film. Miss Anara is based on reality. I feel the censors have objected to the five lengthy scenes in the film where Anara and her mother are tortured. I am prepared to do the needful without disturbing the tempo of the film.