Turtle is apparently cooked alive

From The Times see full article

Ofcom has censured ITV for editing a programme to make it appear that a turtle was being roasted alive by Bear Grylls, the “survivalist”.

ITV breached broadcasting rules during a family show by showing Grylls apparently biting the head off a live frog and cooking a turtle in its shell on an open fire.

Edited clips from the former SAS soldier’s Channel 4 show, Born Survivor, were included in the ITV1 satirical show, Harry Hill’s TV Burp.

Viewers raised concerns about the animals’ welfare, and several parents complained that their children had been upset by the scenes.

Harry Hill’s producers said that some viewers did seem to believe that the turtle had been ‘cooked alive’, which was of course not the case; however, unlike the programme makers of Born Survivor, we did not show the killing of this poor animal, which may have led to this confusion.

Ofcom rejected that argument and ruled that the clips were inappropriately scheduled. ITV compounded the offence by editing the clips so that viewers were not aware that the turtle had been killed before being cooked.

Adjournment Debate
House of Commons
26th July

   
Nutter Vaz has another Manhunt whinge in parliament

From Hansard see full article

Keith Vaz: I have raised my second point, which is about video games, on many occasions in the House. Since we last had such a debate, I am delighted that the British Board of Film Classification has banned Manhunt 2, the sequel to Manhunt 1, which was produced a few years ago and caused so much controversy. According to Giselle Pakeerah, the mother of Stefan Pakeerah, the young Leicester boy who was stabbed to death in a park in Leicester when aged only 14, the 17-year-old killer copied exactly scenes from Manhunt 1 to lure Stefan into the park and stab him 17 or 18 times with a knife.

Manhunt 2 is even worse because it shows graphic scenes of violence, including people being syringed in the eyes and bludgeoned to death. I was delighted when the BBFC decided to ban it. However, having banned the first video game in 10 years, it is important that the Government react much more proactively. I know that my hon. Friend the Parliamentary Secretary is the mother of a young child. My children are 12 and 10 and I cannot supervise them every moment of the day. I see them at their computers—obviously, since I became interested in the subject, I check what they are doing there. However, peer groups of which young children are a part may result in their watching videos that are inappropriate for their age because they have access to those games.

A partnership between the retailers, the producers of the video games and the Government is therefore important to ensure, first, that labelling is clear. It is still about the size of a 10p piece, which is far too small. The content of some games is so serious that a warning should be splashed on the bottom that clearly states the age limit so that those games will not pass the retailers who sometimes sell them because inexperienced people operate cash registers and do not know that they should not sell them to someone who is under 18. Such labelling also means that, if such a game is lying around a house, people can see that it is inappropriate.

I welcome what the Government have done and the statement that Tony Blair made just before he resigned as Prime Minister. He said that there is a wider social responsibility, beyond the notion that the publishers should be able to make profits out of such games. A huge amount of money is made out of the production of such games, for which we have become the centre of Europe, but there is a wider social responsibility, too. I therefore hope very much that something can be done to ensure additional research. The Government can do that immediately, without having to wait for the publishers, although they ought to contribute towards the cost of the research.

 
Rush Hour 3 in the Chinese slow lane

From Variety see full article

The Rush Hour 3, with its clueless cops and international star Jackie Chan, seems like an unlikely political football.

But Asia is abuzz with talk of the slapstick comedy being slapped with a rumored ban in mainland China, even though star Chan is one of China's favorite sons.

The Film Bureau, the body that oversees the release approval procedure, told Variety the pic is still being considered by the censorship committee, and insisted it has not been banned. But sources close to the film and other distributors in the region say Chinese censors will likely not greenlight a theatrical outing in China.

The problem is apparently a scene featuring a Chinese organized crime family that Chan and Chris Tucker's characters take on during a visit to Paris. With Triad dealings so central to the plot, authorities possibly much higher than the Film Bureau have apparently decided the pic is fundamentally anti-Chinese and are not offering filmmakers a chance to recut.

   
Madonna fashion adverts cleared by ASA

Based on an article from ASA see full adjudication

A TV ad, for clothes designed by Madonna, showed a young woman being led up to Madonna, who was sitting at the head of a conference table, surrounded by fashionably dressed women. Madonna said How can I help you?.

One of the young woman's socks rolled down her leg and she pushed the other one down to match. Madonna said I like it. The shot cut to her striking a whiteboard, which had the word FASHION projected on it, with a riding crop saying "IT, IT, IT, IT, IT". She then slammed the crop onto the table and asked What is it?.

The young woman hesitated and said, Well I think it ... Madonna replied, Don't think it, you need to know it. The young woman was escorted into a dressing room by two men, who undressed and redressed her in more fashionable clothes while Madonna repeated Doesn't have it. Doesn't have it. Doesn't have it. The young woman then returned to the boardroom wearing the same outfit as Madonna, who said You made it. A designer rushed over and threw himself at Madonna's feet and cried No, no, no, no, no, you made it. Madonna and the young woman then strode away together and Madonna said And I love it.

The ad was given an ex-kids restriction by the Broadcast Advertising Clearance Centre (BACC).

Issue
1. 18 viewers complained that the ad was offensive, because they believed it depicted a young girl being stripped by force by two men and under threat of physical punishment.

2. Seven viewers challenged whether the ad was harmful, because they believed the depiction of the young girl would appeal to, and encourage, paedophiles.

ASA Assessment

1. Not upheld:
Although the ASA acknowledged that some people had found the ad disturbing, we considered that the quick change of clothes undergone by the interviewee was likely to be seen as a reference to catwalk fashion and the riding crop as a symbol of Madonnas perceived artistic style, not a threat of physical punishment. Because of that, we considered that the ex-kids restriction for the ad was sufficient to avoid frightening young children and concluded that the ad was unlikely to cause serious or widespread offence, or be seen to encourage or condone violence or cruelty.

2. Not upheld:
We noted the actress who portrayed the role of the interviewee was 24 years old and considered that most viewers would not infer from her style of clothing that she was a school girl. We also considered that it was clear, from the ad, that she was applying for a job within Madonnas fashion company and therefore likely to be past school age. We further considered that the quick change of clothes was likely to be seen to contain a sense of urgency, rather than being sexually suggestive or titillating. Because of that, we concluded the ad did not portray a child in a sexually provocative manner or contain material that could harm children by encouraging paedophiles.

 
Underwear adverts are banned as indecent, vulgar & suggestive

From Desi Babes Indian see full article
See banned advert on YouTube

The Indian government has banned two underwear advertisements — Lux Cozy and Amul Macho — claiming them to be indecent, vulgar and suggestive.

The Information and Broadcasting ministry has instructed all television channels to stop showing the advertisement with immediate effect. The ads have been considered "indecent, vulgar and suggestive" and thus violate the Advertising Code, the Ministry said in its order.

The advertisements were being shown on many channels including Star Plus, India TV, NDTV and IBN 7.

The I&B ministry has directed all channels to stop screening ads of Lux Cozy and Amul Macho. One of the ads shows a woman washing a man’s underwear at a ghat and progressively getting turned on. Her washing actions turn more suggestive, as she pounds the underwear.

In the other, a washerwoman calls at an apartment to pick up laundry and a man wearing a towel answers the door. As his towel drops, leaving him only in his undies, she eyes him flirtatiously.

Mario Party 8 withdrawn

Based on an article from The Times see full article

Nintendo has withdrawn a computer game from sale in the UK because it contains the word 'spastic' in its script.

Mario Party 8, a multi-player game for the Wii console, went on sale in the UK on Friday but was taken off the shelves after the mistake was discovered.

In the game, designed to be played by groups at parties, a blue wizard called Kamek appears on screen and intones: Magikoopa Magic! Turn the train spastic! Make this ticket tragic!

Nintendo said in a statement: Unfortunately we have discovered that a small number of games contain the wrong version of the disk due to an assembly error. We have therefore decided to recall all copies of the game from UK retailers so that this mistake can be corrected.

Games experts said that computer game translation – like film dubbing – was prone to errors because translation services often did not take account of the meaning of words in particular cultures.

Nintendo said that Mario Party 8 was developed in the US, where the word does not have the same offensive connotations as in the UK. The inconsistency was not identified early enough when the title was produced for the UK, the company said, and as a result, 2% of the first batch shipped to the UK contained the American wording.

Andrew Rickell, executive director of Scope, the disability charity, praised Nintendo for withdrawing the game, but said that games manufacturers needed to do more testing locally to weed out similar errors: Spastic' is an extremely offensive word. It is a medical term which refers to the inability – or limited ability – to control muscle movement, typically among people who have cerebral palsy, but the wider meaning is of someone who is incapable of doing something, either physically or mentally. It is simply not allowable in the UK.

Nintendo would not say when Mario Party 8 would be re-released.

Fighting school children on YouTube

From the BBC see full article

Police chiefs have urged websites to remove violent video footage of children fighting, following an investigation by the BBC. Police say the companies should monitor what is posted on their sites and remove any violent or criminal content.

Panorama found that films showing brutal fights between children are regularly uploaded to sharing websites. The investigation found films showing children as young as 11 and 12 punching and kicking other youngsters.

But YouTube, one of the sites found with footage, says it relies on users to "flag up" inappropriate films.

Deputy Chief Constable Brian Moore, of the Association of Chief Police Officers, said it was the responsibility of internet companies to search their sites for videos of violence and crime. They should then pass the details to police.

He said: They are responsible for what is on their products - they are making a profit from this. We would question who is in a financially better position to police the likes of YouTube - those in the private sector, who are earning huge amounts of money, or police forces which are currently having to stretch budgets.

But YouTube, said it did not employ anyone to police what is posted. The site, which is owned by Google, claims pre-screening content is a form of censorship which is not the role of a private company. A spokesman said the website takes down videos but only if they are flagged by users and subsequently found to breach their guidelines.

The YouTube spokesman added the website would help police if they were approached for information.

Panorama: Children's Fight Club will be shown on BBC One on Monday, 30 July at 2030 BST.

From the Observer see full article

Teachers are demanding that YouTube be closed down for refusing to remove violent, threatening and sexual content involving children and staff.

Members of the Professional Association of Teachers have accused the company of encouraging cyber-bullying by ignoring their pleas to take down inappropriate clips.

In one case in Scotland, pupils filmed a teacher in the classroom and then posted it on the website alongside the caption 'you are dead'. Teachers claim that YouTube repeatedly ignored complaints about the footage, although it was eventually taken down.

On Tuesday delegates at the PAT annual conference will call for YouTube and similar sites featuring user-generated video content to be shut down and subjected to an investigation.

Many parents have also expressed concern. Margaret Morrissey, of the National Confederation of Parent Teacher Associations, said: Unless YouTube can assure parents as well as schools that if anything goes up of this nature it will be immediately removed, the PAT will get a lot of support from parents for this motion.

I propose fellow nutter Keith Vaz

 
Keith Vaz to chair Home Affairs Committee

From UK Parliament see full article

At a meeting on 26 July 2007, the Home Affairs Committee chose the Rt Hon Keith Vaz MP to be its Chairman.

Keith Vaz has been Member of Parliament for Leicester East since June 1987.

The motion that Vaz take the Chair of the Committee was proposed by Mr Martin Salter MP and agreed unanimously.

The previous Chairman of the Committee was the Rt Hon John Denham MP, who withdrew from participation in the Committee after accepting ministerial office on 28 June.

   
First cut of Saw IV is NC-17 rated

From First Showing see full article

Producer Mark Burg, director Darren Lynn Bousman, and star Tobin Bell were on hand Comic-Con to discuss the latest details on Saw IV. The juciest detail of them all: they submitted to the MPAA and (as expected) got an NC-17 on their very first attempt.

Mark Burg and Darren Lynn Bousman announced that they had just got an NC-17 rating on the very first cut of the film. When asked if they would just leave it that way (and the audience cheered), Mark Burg stated about the MPAA that one day we'd love to have the guts to leave it as is and tell them to… where he cut himself off before saying too much.

TV channel banished to cable now to be booted off cable

Based on an article from IFEX see full article

Ten days after the embattled Venezuelan broadcaster RCTV, now called RCTV Internacional, resumed broadcasting via cable and satellite on 16 July 2007, a new threat emerged that could result in its being removed from cable service distribution by 1 August. The government had previously stripped RCTV of its terrestrial broadcast licence on 27 May.

Mario Seijas, president of the Venezuelan Chamber of Subscription Television, said on 26 July that RCTV Internacional had five days to register as a national broadcaster under a provision of the National Commission for Telecommunications (CONATEL) that was introduced by the Radio and TV Social Responsibility Law of 2004.

This provision in theory requires any broadcaster operating in Venezuela to be formally registered as a "national broadcasting producer." The authorities have said that if RCTV Internacional does not comply, its programming will cease to be available by cable on 1 August. National broadcasters are expected to simultaneously retransmit the president's speeches and other government government propaganda when they are broadcast by the state media

RCTV Internacional responded with a statement disputing that it has to register as a national broadcaster. Legally, it said, RCTV Internacional is an international TV station producing programmes to be broadcast worldwide, just like Telesur, Warner, HBO, Sony, History Channel, Sunchannel, E! Entertainment Television and A&E Mundo. The stations cited are all available by cable in Venezuela.

Currently available by cable and satellite in Venezuela, Trinidad and Tobago and part of the Netherlands Antilles, RCTV Internacional is going after international Spanish-speaking viewers, not only in Latin America but also in the United States and Europe.

 
Morality in Media harp back to the last generation

So who can remember the times when morals weren't actually declining? You'd they would have hit rock bottom by now.

Based on an article from USA Today see full article

X-rated entertainment is the profit center hotels don't like to talk about. It's big business, making hundreds of millions for hotels and vendors.

Anti-porn nutters have unsuccessfully tried to stamp out raunchy hotel room entertainment. Morality in Media released a letter from its president, Robert Peters, to Marriott CEO Bill Marriott Jr. Peters writes that he tries not to stay at Marriotts, despite their quality, because the chain offers porn.

I realize that Marriott is not the only major hotel chain that distributes pay-TV pornography, the letter says. Marriott is, however, the only major chain whose founder (your father) was honored by Morality in Media for his efforts to fight pornography.

   
Nutters senators look to filtering the internet

From Press Esc see full article

US senators today made a bipartisan call for the universal implementation of filtering and monitoring technologies on the Internet in order to protect children at the end of a Senate hearing for which civil liberties groups were not invited.

Commerce Committee Chairman Daniel K. Inouye and Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee Vice Chairman Ted Stevens both argued that Internet was a dangerous place where parents alone will not be able to protect their children.

While filtering and monitoring technologies help parents to screen out offensive content and to monitor their child’s online activities, the use of these technologies is far from universal and may not be fool-proof in keeping kids away from adult material, Sen. Inouye said. In that context, we must evaluate our current efforts to combat child pornography and consider what further measures may be needed to stop the spread of such illegal material over high-speed broadband connections.

The measures they are calling for include directing the Federal Trade Commission to form a working group to identify blocking and filtering technologies in use and identify, what, if anything could be done to improve the process and better enable parents to proactively protect their children online.

Beyer Recommends... Malcolm and Barbara: A Love Story

 
Beyer recommends Malcolm and Barbara: A Love Story

Thanks to Dan
From The Telegraph see full article

A documentary is to be broadcast which shows the moment a man suffering from Alzheimer's disease dies.

Malcolm Pointon, a pianist and lecturer who developed the disease aged 51, was the subject of an award-winning programme eight years ago which chronicled his battle against illness and the devotion of his wife, Barbara.

Now filmmaker Paul Watson has returned to the family to make a sequel which ends when Mrs Pointon calls him into a room in Thriplow, Cambs, where her 66-year-old husband is dying.

It is only the second time a person has been filmed for British television passing away from an illness.

But John Beyer, of Mediawatch-UK said: There is a certain dignity in death that is not appropriate for people to gawp at on television. The way that broadcasters seem to want to intrude on every human activity undermines that dignity. We are entitled to privacy and dignity, and television destroys all that.

Watson, whose documentary will be shown on ITV1 on August 8, said It is only Barbara's fortitude that keeps me from weeping for Malcolm. It was she who asked me to film 'to the bitter end. The film includes his moments of happiness and love for Barbara up to his death surrounded by his family. I don't want our ITV audience to be frightened of death.

   
ISP filtering trials continue

So if Australia sets up one size fits all filtering what age should it target. Is the net cleaned up so it is suitable for 8 year olds, 12 year olds or 15 year olds?

From ZDNet Australia see full article

The government has squashed speculation that its Internet content-filtering trial had been brought to an end prematurely.

Communications Minister Helen Coonan yesterday made that announcement, despite statements by the Family First senator Steve Fielding that the three-month trial, scheduled to have been carried out in Tasmania, had "been quietly scrapped".

Family First has been campaigning for mandatory filtering at ISP level to prevent children getting access to pornography online and announced on Tuesday the government had ditched the filtering trial after both Telstra and Optus would not participate.

Coonan said one privately funded trial had been cancelled, but the planned pilot managed by the ACMA (Australian Communications and Media Authority) will go ahead as planned. The tender for companies wishing to take part closed last week and three bids were received, according to the government.

Under the ACMA scheme, ISP-level filtering products will be tested on blocking "inappropriate and illegal content", whether such products would clog ISPs' networks and if such products have improved since the government last examined their capabilities in 2005-2006.

The federal government has already examined the potential ISP-level filtering three times; firstly in 1999, a CSIRO technical trial; in 2003-04 as part of the review of the Online Content Scheme; and in 2005 during a trial conducted by NetAlert, involving RMIT and ACMA.

Following the most recent trial, Coonan acknowledged problems with the concept saying: Each report has found significant problems with content filter products operating at the ISP-level ... The Australian trials have also found the effect on performance of the Internet by ISP filtering to be substantial and a lack of scalability of the filters to larger ISPs.

Coonan also announced this week that the government will reveal details on the AU$116.5 million NetAlert -- Protecting Australian Families Online initiative in the coming weeks, which will include an AU$18.3 million Internet safety education campaign and the provision of free online content filters to every Australian household and public library to help block unwanted content through the AU$93.3 million National Filter Scheme.

 
Iran group opposing repressive Iranian internet filtering 

Based on an article from Payvand see full article

More than 10 million websites are currently being "filtered" in Iran, according to the state Information Technology Company. Reporters Without Borders ranks Iran's press situation as "very serious"

At a time when the country suffers from what human rights defenders describe as a severe "information crackdown," a group of young Iranians inside the country is determined to battle the dominant policy of online censorship imposed by the Iranian leadership.

The group Iran Proxy is formed by some Iranian youngsters who believe that this "new dictatorial barrier" must be fought from inside of the country -- and that they must remain underground to be able to do so.

Iran Proxy describes itself as the first anti-filtering group inside Iran. It says it is focused on introducing and promoting simple -- and yet technologically advanced -- ways of helping Iranian users skirt web filters.

Iran Proxy tries to teach to the Iranian users the advanced methods of getting around this new dictatorial barrier, which is the result of false policies of governments and religious extremists, in a simplified and understandable way through publication of a series of articles, one of the underground group's members tells Radio Farda on condition of anonymity.

Iran Proxy has so far created tens of proxy websites with search ability and also featuring fixed links to news websites that are currently being blocked by the Iranian government. The proxies, which get updated constantly and can be e-mailed to users, help surfers to enter the restricted pages.

According to the results of the worldwide research carried out between the years 2004 and 2005 by the OpenNet Initiative, Iran was filtering around 30 percent of the target websites, Iran Proxy tells Radio Farda. The results revealed that Iran was practicing one of the most strict methods of Internet filtering.

In recent months, the Iranian state-run telecommunications center has begun the launch of an entirely new filtering system that includes a software robot able to observe viewed web pages and block them after drawing a comparison with the defined algorithms, Iran Proxy tells Radio Farda.

From The Nation see full article

Malaysia has warned web bloggers not to write on "sensitive issues" relating to religion or politics, threatening to arrest wrongdoers using a security law that allows detention without trial.

Minister in the Prime Minister's department, Mohamed Nazri Abdul Aziz, said the government would not hesitate to use the draconian Internal Security Act, as well as the Sedition Act, against irresponsible bloggers. Both laws allow for indefinite detention: I want to issue a warning that the time has come for us to take action against them (bloggers). We have the right and we will do it. We have been very patient.

Mohamad Nazri's comments, which came in parliament late Tuesday, were in response to several articles on a local blog which the government claims contained disparaging comments against the king as well as Islam, the country's official religion.

The article on Malaysia Today, a popular and widely-read blog site dedicated to anti-government political articles, prompted the ruling United Malay's National Organisation party to lodge a police report against the writers.

Police have yet to comment on action to be taken against the blogger

   
Manhunt 2 to be released uncensored after cuts?

From The Scotsman see full article

Take Two, the company behind Edinburgh games designers Rockstar North, has vowed to release the controversial game Manhunt 2 uncensored.

Take-Two said it would stand by the title, though it suggested some cuts would be made.

Speaking to shareholders, chairman Strauss Zelman said: We have hundreds of extraordinarily talented people who have worked on this title for three years. Supporting their creative vision and bringing it to consumers as unvarnished as possible is crucial to us. We don't see ourselves in the 'adults only' business.

   
Condemned 2 game self censored

Based on an article from Kotaku see full article

In an interview with Condemned: Bloodshot producer, Constantine Hantzopoulos, Hantzopoulos admits that the ESRB 'AO' rating on Manhunt 2 has caused Sega to censor their content:

I worked on [Indigo Prophecy] and had to cut the sex scenes out of the game for the US...It sucked because I don't believe in that, right. But you've got to do what you've got to do. We're working closely with the ESRB to make sure everything goes through okay but there's stuff we've cut already. There were things we were doing that even I couldn't believe we were going to those places....An example of what we cut would be putting someone's head in a vice. That was too much, you know.

 
Foreigners criticising Venezuelan government to be deported 

From The Guardian see full article

President Hugo Chávez has announced that foreigners who visit Venezuela and criticise his government will be escorted to the airport and expelled.

In a televised address the Venezuelan leader ordered cabinet ministers to monitor statements by visitors and deport them if they "denigrated" his leadership: How long are we going to allow a person - from any country in the world - to come to our own house to say there's a dictatorship here, that the president is a tyrant, and nobody does anything about it? No foreigner, whoever he may be, can come here and attack us. Whoever comes, we must remove him from the country. Here is your bag, sir, go.

He did not name any critics but the immediate target was believed to be Manuel Espino, the head of Mexico's conservative ruling party, who on a recent visit to Caracas questioned the president's democratic credentials.

Foreign journalists and NGOs operate freely in Venezuela and about 80% of the domestic media is in private hands. But the climate is changing. The only critical TV channels, RCTV and Globovision, are confined to cable, leaving most viewers to choose between private channels that soft-pedal journalism or state channels that provide fawning coverage of the president.

   
No industry support

From Australian IT see full article

The results of Australia's only live commercial internet content filtering trial will never be known because the exercise, championed by the federal Government, was quietly abandoned.

The trial was expected to go ahead in Tasmania last year but the major internet filtering technology supplier for the project, Internet Sheriff, has revealed that it was abandoned because Australia's two largest ISPs, Telstra and Optus, refused to participate.

Internet Sheriff chief executive David Ramsay said the project was commercially risky without support from the two carriers: Without having them involved to supply the bandwidth at no cost it would have been quite expensive with no guarantee of any outcome for me. To go and spend upwards of $600,000, I needed some sort of idea what would have happened if this was successful and no one could really give us any assurance as to what the next steps may or may not have been.

The trial was expected to show if it was feasible for ISPs to take steps to stop pornographic and offensive internet content reaching their customers.

Tasmanian Liberal senator Guy Barnett, a strong champion of the trial, said he was disappointed it didn't go ahead.

Communications Minister Helen Coonan has, however, directed Australia's communications regulator, ACMA, to conduct a new ISP-level internet content filtering trial and report its findings to the Government by June next year. ACMA last week closed its tender, seeking experts to conduct the trials.

 
Indian films are banned in Pakistan...mostly

Note that Awarapan is listed as an Indian film on IMDb

From Malaysia Sun see full article

Awarapan, a movie starring Bollywood actor Emran Hashmi, has triggered a fierce court row between Pakistan's government and a movie producer who wants the film banned.

The ministry of culture and the Censor Board, in a joint reply to the Lahore High Court, have justified the screening of Awarapan, saying it was produced in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and not India.

The reply was submitted on the petition of producer Younas Malik, who challenged the movie's exhibition.

The government told the court that Al-Alam Plastic Factory LLC in the UAE had produced the movie and its distributor, Sohail Khan, had applied for permission to screen the movie in Pakistan. The movie was mainly shot in Hong Kong and partly in Pakistan.

The government also explained that there were three categories for Indian film or films with Indian artists in Pakistan.

1. Films produced in India are banned in Pakistan since 1965.
2. Films produced in Pakistan containing Indian artists were also not allowed under Martial Law order 57.
3. Films produced in foreign countries except India, even though having Indian artists, could be shown in Pakistan in view of the amendment carried out in Rule 10 of Censorship of Films Rules of 1980.'

Awarapan' had been allowed under a third category. The Censor Board had issued a certificate, clearing the film as suitable for public exhibition with certain cuts.

While Bollywood movies are not allowed into Pakistan, there is a huge thriving market for Indian cassettes, CDs and DVDs, allegedly smuggled from the Gulf.

Travelodge to eject adult pay channels

From The Telegraph see full article

Budget hotel chain Travelodge is expected to announce the removal of all pornographic pay-per-view TV channels from its 20,000 bedrooms, in an effort to become more family-friendly.

The plans - likely to cost Travelodge millions of pounds per year in lost revenues - were revealed by a senior management source last night.

Travelodge's pay-per-view televisions will be replaced by a £10m roll-out of new flat-screen, digital TVs with 18 free, family-friendly channels such as CBeebies and Film Four.

Travelodge has doubled the number of families staying in its hotels since 2003. Leisure breaks account for 70% of sales with the rest generated by business customers - thought to form the main market for television pornography in hotel rooms.

A hotel industry source said UK hotel guests spend hundreds of millions of pounds every year on adult television services in their rooms.

The company is expected to claim that the loss of income from removing the porn channel will be compensated for by the attraction of more customers in the long term.

 
A ban of false and offensive information

From the BBC see full article

Tajikistan's parliament has approved legislation making it a criminal offence to publish false or offensive information on the internet.

The bill must be signed off by President Emomali Rakhmon before becoming law.

Under the proposal, anyone who publishes statements that "offend dignity" may face imprisonment.

Tajik media are largely state-run and human rights groups say the country lacks freedom of expression.

Human rights groups have criticised Tajik authorities for using legislation against slandering the president to restrict political debate.

In practice, the defamation provisions are often applied not only to factually false attacks on reputation, but when the media criticises politicians, the London-based human rights group Article 19 said in a report published on Friday.

A fight impeded by their own internet filters

If all nutters would use internet filters then it would leave the rest of the internet free for normal people.

From The Telegraph see full article

A head teacher has criticised YouTube after footage of two girls fighting at his school was posted on the video-sharing website.

The clip, which was filmed on a mobile phone, shows the two teenagers wrestling on the ground and exchanging blows. One of the girls is seen having her head banged on to the concrete as crowds of children cheer them on. The fight was allegedly filmed by a boy on his mobile and posted on YouTube.

Max Bullough, the head teacher of Hayling College, near Portsmouth, Hants, said the website was "completely unregulated". He said it was difficult for the school to have the footage removed and in the end the police had to be called.

We are a county school, and the county council firewall prevented us from looking at YouTube, because it is a banned site, so we had to ask someone to look on their home computer to establish that the clip was there.

The problem then was getting it removed. If you are not registered you can see the clip, but you have no access to the flag symbol that you can click on to suggest that material is unsuitable. So we could see it, but could do nothing about it. If you look on the 'contact us' connection it does not offer you a telephone number or an email address to log a complaint. In the end we had to call in the police and they got it removed.

We had no sooner got the clip removed than it was placed back on there from a different source. So we had to go back to the police to have it removed a second time.

The 49-second clip was watched by 1,159 people after being uploaded on Tuesday.

From Media Helping Media see full article

The royal government of Bhutan has blocked the Bhutan Times, from being viewed from within the country because, officials say, the site has been covering ‘controversial issues’.

The Bhutan Times has been seen as a popular sites for forum discussions where people can register and express their opinion on important national issues.

The editorial policy of news organisation has been to offer balanced and in depth news, covering both sides of the story.

However, some forum discussions were seen to be critical of the minister Sangey Nidup, who is maternal uncle of the present Crown King.

21st July

Do you realise that if you get pregnant . . . It will be the closest thing to work I’ve done in my life?”

Spanish order ban on cartoon of royal

From The Times see full article
see also El Jueves

A Spanish cartoonist faces a possible jail term for insulting the Crown Prince in a graphic drawing that has shattered one of the country’s greatest taboos.

Spain’s National Court ordered police to seize all 400,000 copies of the weekly satirical magazine El Jueves from newspaper kiosks, as well as the “printing plates”. Judge Juan del Olmo also ordered the magazine to identify the cartoonist responsible for its latest cover, which was met with disbelief in a nation where even the smallest criticism of the Royal Family is deemed off-limits.

It depicted the heir to the throne, Prince Felipe of Asturias, having sex with his wife, Princess Letizia, and saying: Do you realise that if you get pregnant . . . It will be the closest thing to work I’ve done in my life?

The drawing referred to a recent decision by the Government to award mothers €2,500 (£1,680) for each child they bear. Insulting royalty or “damaging the prestige of the Crown” is a crime in Spain, punishable by up to two years in prison.

The public prosecutor’s office said in its writ that the cartoon was clearly denigrating and objectively libellous. The court also planned to issue an injunction to stop websites or other media from reproducing the cartoon.

   
Committee approves of FCC pedantry

From AVN see full article

The Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation has approved the Protecting Children from Indecent Programming Act (S. 1780), a piece of legislation that would allow the FCC to levy fines against broadcasters based on the broadcasts of a single "indecent" word or image.

I am pleased to see the Commerce Committee swiftly approve this bill, said Senator Stevens. It is important to give the FCC the tools it needs to continue to protect the American public from indecency on radio and broadcast television.

The committee's website states, This legislation would specifically allow the FCC to establish that a single word or image in a given context may be considered indecent and levy fines against the broadcaster. It does not address or change the law regarding whether a word or image in a particular context is actually indecent.

Screenings continue of canned South African TV documentary

From the BBC see full article

South Africa's national broadcaster, SABC, has dropped a court action to halt the screenings of a documentary about President Thabo Mbeki.

The latest screening of the documentary then went ahead in Johannesburg followed by a discussion.

SABC originally commissioned the film but had not broadcast it on editorial grounds. It now says it will broadcast the film at a future date.

The controversial documentary is called Unauthorised: Thabo Mbeki.

Despite cancelling the screening twice, SABC rejects accusations that it has been practising self-censorship.

The film has already been screened a few times but was due to be shown more widely later this month.

   
Video game detractors should grow up

From The Telegraph see full article by Nick Cowen

When a piece of art or entertainment is the recipient of a ban, one can't help but begin to build up a grisly mental picture of what it holds in store for its audience. Usually, this perception is far worse than the reality.

I fell foul of this before being allowed to play a copy of Manhunt 2, published by Rockstar Games, which was recently judged too gruesome for release by the British Board of Film Certification (BBFC). As I entered a Rockstar HQ's darkened play-area, kitted out with a couple of wide-screen TVs and Nintendo and Sony consoles, I was nervous about the kind of gaming experience I was in for. I expected to be shocked and appalled. Possibly terrified and nauseated.

So is Manhunt 2 as bad as is implied by the BBFC's refusal to grant it a classification? It is a macabre and graphically violent game – even though the graphics aren't photo-realistic. It also differs from its predecessor with a stronger narrative, more fluid controls and players are able to use parts of their environment to dispatch opponents (such as drowning them in a barrel of water). Playing Manhunt 2 is admittedly an exciting and visceral experience.

But overall, one would be hard-pressed to point to a single visual, plot-driven or thematic aspect of the game as proof that it's deserving of an outright ban. Yes, "stalking and brutal slaying" are key game-play features and the action is vicious and violent throughout – but these are criticisms that could easily be aimed at the first Manhunt game, which the BBFC saw fit to release into circulation (albeit with an 18 rating).

There might someday be a game deserving of a full-blown ban, but Manhunt 2 is not that game. In light of the fact that the BBFC cleared its predecessor for public consumption, it's hard to understand their decision to refuse a classification for Manhunt 2 when the game's core elements, (which the BBFC say offer a "sheer lack of alternative pleasures"), remain unchanged from the original.

Why it is necessary to ban games intended for players 18+?

From Game Politics see full article

Rockstar have written to GameIndusty.biz

We are still exploring our options for Manhunt 2, but how does banning our game support the industry or further the development of the medium? …

a ban is a triumph for the industry’s harshest critics, not an act of diplomacy. A ban is only likely to encourage those who believe video games, already the most regulated medium in entertainment history, should be further restricted.

What about games make them deserve special treatment from the authorities? …Yes, we have responsibilities as an industry… Creative industries have always faced harsh political and legal criticism…

We believe in a well-run ratings system. With the best rating system in history and the future of the industry and medium at stake, we don’t understand why it is necessary to effectively ban all games intended for players 18 and older.

   
Stinging criticism from New Zealand nutters

Based on an article from NZ City see full article

New Zealand's Hell Pizza chain has upset Christian-based nutters again, this time with its latest promotional magazine.

The 20 page glossy publication includes photographs of Nicky Watson in underwear, comments relating to the use of condoms, and an article on the death of Steve Irwin, where the magazine claims to have an "exclusive" interview with the stingray who killed him. It also claims the Prime Minister is planning to adopt 192 children.

National director of lobby group Family First Bob McCoskrie says the magazine is offensive and Hell Pizza has gone too far. He says the pictures used are more suited to a soft porn magazine. McCoskrie intends to make a formal complaint to the Advertising Standards Authority.

Hell Pizza is laughing off the criticism. Spokesman Matt Blomfield says he is surprised by Mr McCoskrie's reaction: I made Bob aware of the magazine before it even went out, and he joked with me and told me he would look at doing an interview for the magazine. But he is twice the weight of Nicky Watson.

   
Swearing on Radio offends Ofcom

From The Times see full article

Ofcom has found BBC Radio 2 in breach of broadcasting rules after a lunchtime f-word outburst from Jack Dee during a comedy programme. The BBC admitted that it had not checked for offensive material before the broadcast.

Listeners complained about the programme, The Green Guide to Life, a sketch show about the “complications and confusion of modern-day living”, broadcast at 1pm in April. Dee was heard to say: What do you mean, fuck off, during the Saturday show.

The BBC said that the language was completely inappropriate for broadcast and apologised.

The prerecorded programme was made for the BBC by an independent production company. It had been intended for a late-evening broadcast but the producers did not indicate that it contained strong language.

Ofcom Said: It is the clear responsibility of the broadcaster to ensure that all material, irrespective of who originally produced it, is suitable for broadcast and appropriately scheduled.

University morality police snoop on Facebook

From The Guardian see full article

The Oxford University staff are logging on to Facebook and using evidence they find on student profiles to discipline students.

Photos on the social networking website of undergraduates celebrating the end of their exams have been emailed to students by the proctors, Oxford's disciplinary body, as evidence of breaches of the University's code of conduct.

Students now face fines of up to £100 after proctors collected evidence of students celebrating the end of exams by "trashing" their friends, covering them with champagne, confetti, flour, and even foodstuffs including raw meat and octopus. Students may be unable to graduate until the disciplinary hearings are resolved.

Proctors emailed third-year mathematics and philosophy student Alex Hill with links to photographs of her on Facebook on Friday: I have been charged by the proctors for breaching rules and being 'disorderly', on the basis of photographic evidence from Facebook, she said.

Oxford University Student Union has advised students to limit their Facebook privacy settings to "friends only" to prevent proctors viewing their accounts.

A spokesman for Oxford University said University proctors had warned students that students indulging in antisocial behaviour would be disciplined: The proctors wish to take the steps available to them to identify and discipline the culprits.

   
Concerns about the Fairness Doctrine

Based on an article from The Conservative Voice see full article

Republican Mike Pence has introduced the Broadcaster Freedom Act, a bill that would prevent the restoration of the Fairness Doctrine by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).

There has been growing speculation on Capitol Hill that Democrats will seek to reinstate the Fairness Doctrine under the guise that conservative talk radio is disproportionately dominating American radio.

Pence’s bill places a one-year moratorium that prohibits any funding to the FCC for the enforcement of the Fairness Doctrine.

The fairness doctrine, overturned by the FCC in 1987, was part of a 1949 FCC regulation requiring broadcasters to afford reasonable opportunity for the discussion of conflicting views of public importance.

Democrats would like to level the playing field of the radio airwaves through government action, largely because liberals have been unsuccessful in challenging conservative and conservative-leaning radio icons such as Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Neal Boortz and several others.

The return of the Fairness Doctrine would also affect Christian radio. Jay Sekulow of the American Center for Law and Justice is concerned about an effort to codify speech on the national airwaves, especially for Christian broadcasters. In a recent commentary, he said that: 30 minutes of religious or conservative broadcasting would have to be balanced with 30 minutes of the opposing viewpoint, even if it aired on Christian radio.

Writing on WorldNetDaily.com, Ron Strom quoted NRB president Frank Wright as saying that giving equal time to the opponents of Christianity by Fairness Doctrine legislation could mean the end of Christian broadcasting as we know it. Christians need to be prepared to go to battle to guard against any future efforts aimed at silencing or diluting conservative and Christian radio broadcasts. The Bible tells us clearly in Mark 16:15 … Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.

 
Indian censor talks about the easily offended

From The Age see full article

As India's chief film censor, there are films Sharmila Tagore enjoys to watch but will not allow the Indian public to see.

She describes the Mike Nichols film Closer, which starred Julia Roberts and Jude Law, as beautiful, brilliant and well-performed.

But the producers would not agree to cut some sexually explicit dialogue, and so the film did not get its certificate for release in India.

She said she feared that the wordy sex talk of the film's neurotic Londoners, once hastily dubbed into Hindi, might not be well-received by Indian audiences - especially those outside the big metropolises, who are typically more conservative, less educated and, she says, less "media-literate".

Films can corrupt, she said, particularly when it comes to how men view women. At the same time we have to know the pulse of the people. We don't want to be too restrictive.

Her team sits through about 1,000 feature-length films each year. They order cuts to be made in roughly two out of every three films, and deny a distribution certificate to about a dozen films each year, often for inciting violence against minorities.

She regrets that at the back of everyone's minds are India's small band of conservative zealots who react noisily, often for political gain, whenever they believe Indian values are threatened, organising mobs that break and burn objects in front of television cameras and beat people up.

The fear of what Tagore calls street censorship has forced the film board to be more strict than it might otherwise be: In India everybody is in the mood to get offended right now.

She reckons things have become worse since she was the target of angry conservatives in the 1960s when she appeared on a film magazine cover wearing only a bikini - an unprecedented level of public skimpiness for an Indian woman at the time.

Bikinis are now more than acceptable, and some Bollywood stars have even started kissing and performing sex scenes onscreen in recent years. Tagore is not impressed: I've seen actors kissing and they're still not very comfortable with it. They're trying to be progressive. But India is very superficially modern. In these films the dresses are modern, the dancing is modern, the hairstyles are modern, but when it comes to thinking, then they're very conservative.

   
Ofcom warn of frequent watershed lapses

Based on an article from Broadcast Now see full article

Ofcom has issued a warning to broadcasters after a rise in the number of supposedly inappropriately edited programmes being aired before the 9pm watershed.

The concerns centre on material originally produced for a post-watershed timeslot that has been transmitted unedited - or inadequately edited - before 9pm when children are likely to be listening or watching.

A statement from Ofcom said that in such cases broadcasters frequently blame the failures on scheduling problems and/or human errors.

But the regulator said that broadcasters are under a clear duty to ensure that robust procedures are in place, supported by a sufficient number of appropriately qualified and trained staff, to ensure full compliance with the [Broadcasting] Code.

Ofcom warned that regulatory action would be taken if compliance procedures were not in place.

Mother instinctively deflects blame from murderous son and herself

Based on an article from News of the World see full article

The parents of Britain's most violent teenage murderer claimed that violent computer games turned their son into a twisted killer.

Stuart Harling got life for stabbing nurse Cheryl Moss to death while she was on a cigarette break.

Now, two weeks after he was convicted at the Old Bailey, his mother Lorraine Harling has confessed she and husband David had no idea of the well of savagery that had quietly built up in their son: I knew he was playing the video games but we didn't really know what went on in them, how brutal and graphic they were.

One of Harling's favourite games was the notorious Manhunt. Lorraine, said: I know these games are played by kids across the world, but some are truly horrific. And if they can cause a trigger to be pulled in someone's head they should be banned.

The trial was told how police discovered that, before the murder, Harling spent days on the internet talking to paedophiles and researching serial killers such as the infamous Dennis Nielsen.

Lorraine said: Stuart was 11 or 12 when I bought him the PlayStation. For a long time I didn't even realise games had age limits on them. We'd just buy him the game that all the other kids had. I didn't really know what they were about. I think most parents are the same. I was his mother, but I'd no idea what was happening.

   
Nutters claim blasphemy and art exhibition is cancelled

Based on an article from Art Forum see full article
Spotted by MediawatchWatch

Vado Retro —an exhibition with 150 works about art and homosexuality, from Da Goeden to Pierre et Gilles—has been cancelled at Milan's Palazzo della Ragione.

The exhibition was already installed when protests were voiced about a "blasphemous" sculpture of the Pope made by the Milan artist Paolo Schmidlin. The sculpture—titled Miss Kitty—features a likeness of the Pope dressed in pantyhose. Another piece showed the Italian Premier Roman Prodi’s spokesman talking to a transvestite.

The Miss Kitty exhibit prompted the Catholic Anti-Defamation League to complain: It is a vulgar offence against Christ’s Vicar and the feelings of the Roman Catholics.

To calm critics, Vittorio Sgarbi, the city's councilperson for culture who is responsible for the exhibition, had already announced that visitors under the age of eighteen would not be allowed to visit the exhibition. But the measure was not enough. The opening was delayed after Miss Kitty and two other works were taken out the exhibition. That measure was also insufficient, at least for Milan mayor Letizia Moratti, who requested that another twelve works be removed from the show, due to their pornographic and pedophilic nature. Sgarbi refused—a refusal that led to the cancellation of the exhibition.

Vado Retro will be shown in its entirety in Naples.

From IFEX see full article

A Malaysian blogger has been arrested under the Official Secrets Act for comments posted on his blog that pointed to a corrupt internal security system in Malaysia.

SEAPA protests the detention of the 26-year-old blogger, Nathaniel Tan, and shares the concerns of the Kuala Lumpur-based Centre for Independent Journalism (CIJ) that the arrest may be symptomatic of an emerging clampdown on online expression in Malaysia.

This year alone, two bloggers and one news site are being sued for defamation and a task force has been set up to look at how existing laws can be used to circumvent Malaysia's Bill of Guarantee against Internet censorship.

On 13 July 2007, Tan, who is also a webmaster of the opposition Parti Keadilan Rakyat, was taken from his office in Petaling Jaya, Selangor, by three plainclothes policemen, according to Tan's colleagues. He was remanded for four days in connection with Section 8 of the Official Secrets Act on suspicion of possessing "official secrets". A link posted on his blog ( http://jelas.info ) connects to a website that accuses Deputy Internal Security Minister Johari Baharum of accepting bribes in exchange for the release of people detained under Malaysia's Emergency Ordinance that allows for detention without trial.

Interestingly, on the same day Tan was remanded, national news agency Bernama reported that Johari had tasked the police to track down writers who "spread lies through websites" - specifically those who direct criticisms against government leaders.

Band on trial for lyric railing at exams

From Courier Post see full article

A rock song lashing out against Turkey's equivalent of the SAT has landed a band in court.

The troubles besetting the five-man group called Deli (Crazy), as they head to trial Thursday are typical of the extremes endured by a country historically torn between cultures - Islam and secularism, Europe and Asia, democracy and military dictatorship, and a reverence for institutions of state that frequently collides with basic civil liberties.

The musicians, along with their manager and a former band member, will go on trial on July 19 in the Turkish capital, Ankara. If convicted, they face up to 18 months in jail, although they could get off with a fine or a warning.

The punk song is called OSYM, the Turkish acronym for The Student Selection and Placement Center. That's the state institution that decides which students go to university, based on a three-hour multiple-choice exam held every June.

Life should not be a prison because of an exam, go the lyrics of OSYM: I have gotten lost/ You have ruined my future/ I am going to tell you one thing:/ Shove that exam...

The lyric prompted Unal Yarimagan, the professor who chairs the university placement system, to seek legal advice, and the matter was referred to state prosecutors.

   
Malaysian nutters told to suppress their natural urges

From Bernama see full article

Muslims in Malaysia should exercise wisdom in addressing religious issues and not become hysterical when confronted with something seen as challenging their faith or belief like a film, said Information Minister Datuk Seri Zainuddin Maidin.

He said it was crucial for parents to play their role to nurture strong religious belief in their children which would protect the young Muslim generation from being easily influenced by elements which could dent their faith.

Zainuddin said this to Bernama in reaction to calls by various quarters for the government to ban the screening of the film Evan Almighty following claims that the movie contained scenes which insulted Muslims and Islam.

Zainuddin said banning the film would not solve any problem because Malaysians are a multi-racial society and has different religious beliefs. Zainuddin said even if the film was to be banned, people could still watch it on online.

The film has been approved by the Malaysian Film Censorship Board and will be screened in cinemas starting Aug 23.

   
South African Christians whinge at late night adult TV

Based on an article from Christian Post see full article

Christian nutters 'outraged' over the presence of late-night porn on public television held a protest outside the TV station’s studios, arguing that pornography fuels sexual abuse.

Christian Action Network – a conservative umbrella organization mobilizing Christians to protest against pornography, abortion, and same-sex union in the country – demonstrated and prayed outside the e-TV studios in Cape Town on Saturday morning.

We have had e-nough! Porn on free-to-air national TV is outrageous, said Taryn Hodgson, international coordinator of the Christian Action Network, in a statement.

There are many parentless homes in South Africa and many homes where children are not supervised as to what TV they are watching. R18 restrictions are not enough to prevent children from watching these films [Emmanuelle & the like].

E-Tv denied the link between pornography and sexual abuse. A letter from e-TV’s regulatory affairs executive officer Olefile Bop Tshweu read: We submit that in broadcasting these films the timeslot is appropriate, the warnings are adequate, the content does not breach the Code and there is no evidence that these films contribute to sexual crimes.

The Christian Acton Network plans to urge advertisers who are currently advertising during these pornographic films on e-TV to discontinue advertising.

Nutters are planning to hold protests outside the e-TV studios in Durban and Bloemfontein in the month of July.

 
Grand Theft Auto on trial

From New Zealand Herald see full article

A 20-year-old man accused of a carjacking says he was driven to commit the crime after playing a violent video game for hours on end.

In what is believed to be a legal first in New Zealand, Sheik Tanweerul Haque Sahib is blaming the R18 video game Grand Theft Auto - an escapist shoot-'em-up where gamers are encouraged to steal cars by force - for an alleged incident in which he stole a convertible at knifepoint and then crashed after a motorway joyride.

The defence has failed overseas but research suggests that violent video games are linked to increased aggression and that playing for extended periods of time could cause a "dissociative state", in which individuals cannot recall their actions.

Charged with aggravated robbery, assault and threatening to kill, Sahib is alleged to have threatened the driver of a Saab convertible with a knife in a carjacking incident in central Auckland last October.

Sahib's lawyer, Graeme Newell, said Grand Theft Auto would be a plank in the defence case when his client stood trial next month. An expert witness had been called to testify.

Simply blaming a video game for causing criminal activity was no legal defence at all, Auckland University law Professor Scott Optican said, although it could explain a defendant's actions: As long as you do the crime, do the act, with the intent to commit, what causes you to do it, propels you to do it, or motivates you do to do it is not relevant.

 
Banned in Japan

From the BBC see full article

Now the campaign for the upper house election in Japan has started, tough rules on how politicians can canvas for votes have come into force.

Surprisingly, in a country with some of the fastest broadband speeds and a wide internet penetration, it is now illegal for candidates to create new websites or update existing web pages between now and election day, 29 July.

So instead, the loudspeaker vans are out on the streets again.

Prof Phil Deans, who works at Temple University in Tokyo, describes it as: almost a throwback to the 1950s. Cars with speakers on the roof, the use of posters, leafleting, and the almost complete absence of electronic media to communicate political messages, is one of the most startling things about the way elections are conducted here.

Usually Japan allows its politicians to use the internet to communicate with voters.

But as soon as an election campaign starts - the time when you might well think you would really want to communicate with them - the use of electronic media for campaigning is banned.

Instead it is on the traditional media where politicians hold court - for instance, on ponderous political TV discussion shows that sometimes look like they have not changed in 20 years.

Prof Yasunori Sone, a political analyst from Keio University in Tokyo, says Japanese election law is very strict: There are many rules and prohibitions. But many parties want a strict law to contain other parties' political activities. Some of us are trying to get the law changed. But the number of supporters for a change in the law is very small.

   
Muslim case against Danish politician fails

From Reuters see full article

A Muslim group lost a libel case on Friday against the leader of a Danish anti-immigrant party who had accused its members of treason for publicizing cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad.

A court ruled that Pia Kjaersgaard, leader of the Danish People's Party (DPP), did not libel the Islamic Faith Community when she accused some of its members of treason for traveling to the Middle East to publicize a Danish newspaper's publication of the drawings, which caused a worldwide uproar in 2006.

The court said the term "treason" was not libelous because it was used extensively in public debate. It ordered the plaintiffs, a loose network of Danish Muslim organizations which says it represents 50,000 members, to pay Kjaersgaard 40,000 Danish crowns ($7,400) in costs.

We are very disappointed with the verdict and are considering an appeal, said Kasem Ahmad, a spokesman for the Muslim group. He added that the group would issue a fatwa, or religious edict, against Jyllands-Posten if it did not receive an apology from the paper.

It's too early to say any details of the fatwa, Ahmad said. The fatwa is the last step and will also satisfy Muslims in the Middle East.

   
Legal in Puerto Rico but not in the USA

From Sun-Sentinel see full article

The founder of a Hollywood company that webcasts cockfights from Puerto Rico wants to make sure a federal law banning broadcasts of animal cruelty doesn't get in the way of his fledgling business.

Jason Atkins sued the U.S. Justice Department on in Miami federal court, arguing the ban should not apply to his firm's Web site because cockfights are an accepted and legal part of Puerto Rican culture.

Federal law makes it a felony to create, sell or possess photographs, videos or other images depicting the intentional wounding or killing of any animal. Violators face possible fines and up to five years in prison.

There is an exemption for material that has "serious religious, political, scientific, educational, journalistic, historical or artistic value."

David O. Markus, a Miami attorney who represents Atkins, said his client wants a declaration from the court that he is not committing a crime by airing the cockfights.

Markus said the law passed in 1999 was meant to crack down on videos catering to sexual fetishists and should not include cockfighting, which has a rich cultural and historical tradition in many parts of the world.

Though cockfighting remains legal in Puerto Rico, it is banned in every U.S. state except Louisiana, where legislation criminalizing the sport will take effect in August 2008.

The federal law prohibiting depictions of animal cruelty applies to activities that violate state or federal law, even if such acts are legal in the place where the acts occurred. For that reason, it would not be illegal to broadcast a cockfight in Puerto Rico but might be in Florida, where the sport has long been outlawed.

In addition to cockfights, the three-week-old Web site, www.toughsportslive.com, features extreme fighting matches from Brazil and footage of bikini-clad women competing in machine gun contests.

Manchester Cathedral to get wider exposure with gamers.

So not only have Sony told the church that they will not suspend sales of Resistance Fall Of Man, they have upped the ante. They have announced that they will now bundle the game with all Playstation 3 consoles.

From XBoxer

Sony's new bundle launching on July 18th can only be sold to customers over the age of 18 in the majority of Europe. Due to PEGI classifications, 28 of the 29 participating members of PEGI have classified Resistance: Fall of Man as an 18+ certified videogame.

In the UK, PEGI didn't rate the game, but the BBFC have, and given it a 15. So, legally, people under the age of 15 are not allowed to buy the console.

   
Malaysians succumb to biblical nonsense

From Bernama see full article

The Malaysian government has been asked to ban the movie Evan Almighty scheduled to be screened in Malaysian cinemas from Aug 23, as it is said to hurt Muslims' sensitivities by poking fun at God and Prophet Noah.

Secretary-general of the Muslim Consumers Association Malaysia (PPIM), Datuk Dr Maamor Osman said parts of the film were contrary to Islamic teachings and he feared that this could adversely influence the minds of young Muslims.

He said Muslims the world over should be wary of devious ways used by the enemies of Islam to influence Muslims' thinking through the media and movies.

The movie refers to the big flood during the time of Prophet Noah, but this has been turned into a comedy which is insulting to Islam. Featuring a human being as God in the movie is also against Islam.

The movie features actor Morgan Freeman as God, asking Evan Baxter (Steve Carell) to build an ark to escape the big flood that is to hit New York.

   
Attempting to restore FCC divinity over profanity

From AVN see full article

Conservative senator Sam Brownback will offer two amendments to a general government appropriation bill, in hopes of giving the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) back the power to enforce hefty fines over what it considers profane.

According to a recent report by Broadcasting and Cable, one of Brownback's amendments would, in his words, continue support for the FCC to fine broadcasters who air indecent, profane, or obscene content, and another that would fine broadcasters for airing excessively violent content during the hours when children are most likely to be in the audience.

A recent FCC policy penalizing accidentally aired expletives was struck down last month by a federal court, calling the FCC's proposal "arbitrary and capricious." Brownback's profanity amendment would attempt to essentially render that decision irrelevant.

Internet companies asked to halt suicide amongst the young

From the BBC see full article

Health Minister Michael McGimpsey has met Bebo, Vodafone and Google in a bid to stop websites being used to promote suicide among young people.

He highlighted the growing danger of copycat suicides linked to internet usage and social networking sites.

McGimpsey asked internet firms to confirm by the end of the month what action they intended to take.

The minister said that while recognising the positive contribution made by the internet industry, what was needed now were preventative measures. Young people are our most valuable resource and we cannot delay in putting in place strong measures aimed at protecting them. In the last twelve months the rate of suicides in Northern Ireland has increased significantly and the internet has been cited as a contributory factor in some cases.

McGimpsey chairs the Ministerial Coordination Group on Suicide Prevention.

Martin Salter Bansturbator!

 
What do you call it when people ban everything

From The Times see full article by Tim Worstall

One candidate is the verb “to bansturbate” (origin, Harry Haddock at nationofshopkeepers.wordpress.com). The word – a fusion of “ban” and the term for self-abuse – refers to both the public abuse of the rights of the citizenry as things that some people simply disapprove of are made illegal, and the near-sexual frisson of pleasure gained by those who pass such laws.

Much of the urge to ban is driven, just like Puritanism, by the fear that some people, somewhere, may be enjoying themselves; the rest by the terror of politicians and bureaucrats who fear that if they don’t do something, anything, we might begin to wonder why we pay them.

And once we’ve started down the path of pleasurable “bansturbating” kinkiness, then ever greater doses must be consumed to maintain the effect.

   
Ofcom publish annual report

Based on an article from Ofcom see full article

Ofcom has published its Annual Report dated 2006/7.

There a few words about convergence issues that are starting to make an impact, particularly internet based video: The Content Board remained engaged with Ofcom’s work in connection with the European Audio-Visual Media Services Directive (AVMS). It welcomed recognition for Ofcom’s position that future regulation under the Directive should be confined to television-type services, rather than all forms of internet content.

 
Brazilian broadcasters not keen on TV watersheds

From Variety see full article

Censorship was abolished after a bad experience during the 1964-85 military dictatorship. A recent decision of the Ministry of Justice to set up age classifications for shows has local media groups warning that the government again wants to restrict freedom of expression.

Local papers and TV newscasts are heavily criticizing the ministry's decision, which states that shows are restricted as follows:

• before 8pm, suitable for all
• 8-9pm, suitable for 12+
• 9-10pm, suitable for 14+
• 10-11pm, suitable for 16+
• after 11pm, suitable for 18+

The ministry postponed the introduction of the rules after the Brazilian Association of Radio and Television (Abert) got a court injunction partially suspending them. The ministry is holding public meetings on the subject.

The TV networks themselves suggest an age classification for their shows, based on whether they contain scenes of sex, violence and drugs.

After the show is aired with the suggested classification, a ministry team may review the age classification. But the ministry does not have the power to stop the show airing or to punish the network. If the net does not abide by the revised age classification, all that the ministry can do is to forward the case to the Prosecutor's Office, says a Ministry of Justice spokeswoman.

Market analysts say the real concern of the powerful local media groups is commercial, not philosophical. For instance in the western Acre state the networks air at 7 p.m. shows cleared for 10 p.m. in the main Central Eastern time zone, where most Brazilians live. Following local time for the age classification would be an extra cost broadcasters want to avoid.

 
US publishers baulk at cartoon nude

From Spiegel see full article

A US publisher has decided not to publish a series by children's book author Rotraut Susanne Berner. The problem? Cartoon breasts and a half-millimeter-long willy.

It is rare that a German book generates any interest in the United States. The delight was thus all the greater when a query came in from the American children's book purveyor Boyds Mills Press for a series by Rotraut Susanne Berner.

It was really a sensation, Berner told SPIEGEL ONLINE. At first. As it turned out, there were a couple of changes that had to be made before the books could be unleashed on the America public. First off, smokers had to be removed from the illustrations. But that wasn't all. One image shows a scene from an art gallery -- and for realism's sake, there is a cartoonish nude hanging on the wall along with a tiny, seven-millimeter-tall statue of a naked man on a pedestal. The US publisher, somewhat awkwardly, asked if they could be removed.

The US publisher, says Berner, was embarrassed to ask for the changes, but they were even more afraid of how American mommies and daddies might react if junior were exposed to such pornography.

For the author, any kind of self-censorship was completely out of the question. She said she could maybe have lived with putting black bars in front of the problem spots, but "invisible censorship" was out. If you're going to censor something, then the reader should be aware of it, she told SPIEGEL ONLINE.

But the US publisher would have none of it.

So far, no other country has been overly concerned about the cartoon boobies and mini-penis, Berner said.

Bloggers on Dangerous Pictures

From Postman Patel see full article

The UK Ministry of Justice introduced this week a new bill which incorporates a change in the Criminal Law which contributors to , and users of the World Wide Web - and anyone else concerned with the Freedom of Speech, should very seriously consider. It also looks as though it could (if anyone bothers) - re-create the arguments that raged after Lord Woolfenden's report removed legal sanctions on male homosexuality and privately organised prostitution.

This is not law, it is sanctimonius humbuggery.

 
Attempt to censor Sivaji: The Boss in India

For background the film was cut for a 12A for it's UK release. Distributor chose to remove a scene showing the hero of the film throwing a firework into his mouth, lighting it and then spitting it out at somebody else. Cut was made to achieve a 12A classification.

From Deccan Herald see full article

A defamation suit seeking Rs 50 crore damages and a ban on the screening of Tamil Superstar Rajnikanth's latest blockbuster 'Sivaji - The Boss' has been filed with Madras High Court.

In his petition, M Sathiyamoorthy of the Congress contended the film was defamatory in nature and aimed at tarnishing the image of AICC President and UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

The film dealt with the exploitation of education system by private institutions which collected capitation fees.

Fifteen minutes into the film, hero Rajnikanth who plays the role of a US-returned software engineer, visits the place of Adikesavan, the villain and head of a private university, who is shown standing between the laminated photographs of Ms Gandhi and Dr Singh.

By portraying the senior Congress leaders with the villain, the image of the senior party leaders was tarnished, Sathiyamoorthy contended and sought Rs 50 crore in damages and a ban on screening the film.

From CPJ see full article

AThe upper house of the Russian parliament today approved a package of amendments that would expand the definition of extremism to include public discussion of such activity, and give law enforcement officials broad authority to suspend media outlets that do not comply with the new restrictions. The package, proposed by deputies from the ruling United Russia party, now goes to President Vladimir Putin to be signed into law. The lower house, the state Duma, approved the measure on Friday.

Ostensibly designed to fight extremism—including the growing nationalist and neo-Nazi movements—the new measures would have the effect of muzzling critical voices, according to research by the Committee to Protect Journalists. Today, CPJ expressed grave concern that the amendments will be used to silence government critics, and it called on the Russian president to veto the legislation.

“The vague language of these amendments makes them ambiguous and all-encompassing,” CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon said. “They provide Russian authorities with yet another set of tools to silence critics and chill independent news coverage in the countdown to Russia’s parliamentary and presidential votes. We call on President Putin to exercise his responsibility as a democratic leader and veto these draconian measures.”

Martin Salter looking distinctly triggered: "No-one is stopping people doing weird stuff to each other,  but they would be strongly advised  not to put it on the internet. At the end of the day it is all too easy for this stuff to trigger an unbalanced mind".

 
Second reading of Dangerous Pictures Act due in autumn

Based on an article from the BBC see full article
Thanks also to Dark Angel's Realm of Horror

Reading West MP Martin Salter, who has been heavily involved with the campaign, asked the Home Secretary on Monday when the Dangerous Pictures bill was to receive a second reading.

Jacqui Smith Replied that it was due in the autumn, she said continued: The campaigning of Liz Longhurst... has brought the issue to the fore and applied the necessary pressure to bring about those legislative changes, which will be important in offering protection in this area.

   
New York church gets arsey about billboards

From Actress Archives see full article

A poster for a bidet company was to be put up in Broadway's theater district on a building that houses a church. The billboard featured bare buttocks, but has been temporarily banned by a judge in New York City. State Supreme Court Justice Mary Friedman ordered the temporary restraining order against the bidet company billboard yesterday after hearing the complaints of Reverend Neil Rhodes, the pastor of the interdenominational Times Square Church. Bidets, buttocks, and religion don't mix in Times Square.

The billboard ads were for the Washlet, a bidet-toilet seat that uses warm water and air to clean the buttocks. The ads featured naked buttocks with smiley faces. Sounds quaint.

To get the billboards banned, Reverend Rhodes had to pay a $90,000 bond pending a decision on the issues at a conference between the parties. The bond will go to the bidet company for damages and costs, including lost revenue, if the restraining order is overturned and the court rules that the church wasn't entitled to an injunction.

   
Everybody should be discriminated against equally

Based on an article from AVN see full article

Former Nationals leader John Anderson is calling for Prime Minister John Howard to extend restrictions on hardcore porn in Australia's Northern Territories to a nationwide ban.

Howard proposed the ban as an attempt to fight child sex abuse among the country's indigenous communities. The move has been met with support from Christian nutters, but Aboriginal leaders argue that the decision is discriminatory.

You can't restrict this to just Aboriginal children, Anderson told The Australian. The effects happen in non-indigenous communities as well as indigenous communities. I think what comes out of this is we are now conceding that there's a problem with this stuff, and frankly I think that all Governments ought to have a long hard look at it again.

According to the Nationals official website, Anderson is - surprise, surprise - a practicing Christian who is very conscious of the need for politicians to keep faith with the community.

Closes
9th July 2008

Open Up! We know you have horror fans inside

Withdraw section 6 of the Criminal Justice Bill

We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to Withdraw section 6 of the Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill, 2007.

or see http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/extreme-images/

If this Section becomes Law, it will create a 'thought crime' as described by George Orwell in the book '1984'. If enacted, it would remain lawful to own and to display publicly extreme, violent images intended to sell (advertising), to excite (video games), to entertain (gore/ horror films), to inform (TV news) and to be worshipped (crucifix). Ownership of only one category of extreme imagery would become a criminal offence meriting three years in prison; material intended to arouse sexually. That is, a state of mind of the user/ owner would become illegal. Actions and effects on others are valid reasons for the State to punish individuals. Thoughts and feelings are not.

About swearing during Live Earth concert

Based on an article from This Is Derbyshire see full article

Almost 150 people complained about the use of strong language during the Wembley Live Earth concert.

Phil Collins kicked off the swearing at around 2pm while adapting the lyrics to a Genesis song, causing the show's host, Radio 1 DJ Chris Moyles, to apologise for his "potty mouth".

US comedian Chris Rock shocked viewers during the concert. Jonathan Ross, hosting the event on the BBC, did the apologising spiel.

After the watershed, Madonna shouted another swear word during her headline act.

There have been 149 complaints, 134 to the BBC and another 15 to Ofcom.

A BBC spokeswoman said: It was a live broadcast with no delay so we did all we could to remind the artists that they were going on live on TV and to refrain from swearing. When any of them did get carried away we pulled away from it immediately and apologised.

 
Military censors in Sri Lanka

From Counter Currents see full article

Sathyajith Maitipe has just received instructions from the Sri Lanka Censorship Board to remove the sexual scenes from his film, even if he expects to get an Adults Only certificate. The film is Bora Diya Pokuna (Scent of the Lotus Pond)

This is no surprise; similar demands have been made of other filmmakers: Ashoka Handagama (Aksharaya / Letter from the Fire) and Prasanna Vithanage (Purahada Kaluwara / Darkness of the Full Moon) in the past.

The Sri Lankan Public Performance Board operates under the Ministry of Defence. Their brief is to keep an eye on anything they considered might damage Culture or interfere with National Security.

10th July

 
Council of Europe calls for repeal of blasphemy laws

From the National Secular Society see full article
See also Preliminary Resolution

The Council of Europe passed a resolution last week calling on member states to repeal all laws relating to blasphemy. It also said that religious groups must accept that in a free society their activities and doctrines cannot be protected from criticism and open examination.

The only restrictions on public debate about religion should be dictated by public order concerns and incitement to hatred and violence, the Council resolved.

The resolution, which was passed with a large majority in Strasbourg, said that criticism of religious groups should be tolerated in democratic societies. However, the council put a limit on religious criticism and freedom of opinion: it was not allowed to incite hatred, disturb the public order or be targeted at members of religious groups.

Keith Porteous Wood of the National Secular Society commented: Freedom of expression is the bedrock of democracy, indeed of our civilisation. The Council of Europe stands out among international organisations in recognising the potential damage to freedom of expression from religion and not caving in to the huge pressure for massively extended blasphemy laws. If only the United Nations and, to a lesser extent, the European Union we are far-sighted in this respect.

 
Thai Government backs off banning the beloved soapy dramas

Based on an article from Bangkok Post

The government has opted to set up a sub-committee to solve a dispute over television ratings and proposed broadcasting restrictions, rather than push ahead with its restrictive new regulations.

The move came after entertainers and people in the television production business protested against the proposed meticulous restrictions, which would determine what time programmes can or cannot be aired.

They said the restrictions, drawn up by academics, NGOs and state authorities, were impractical.

 
Israel to filter internet but with adult opt out available

From Haaretz see full article

The Israeli Ministerial Committee on Legislation has approved a proposed bill that would only allow access to adult-content Internet sites for users who agree in advance to identify themselves. They will likely be required to state year of birth and I.D. number, and access would would be denied to any surfers who did not specifically sign up to receive it.

These restrictions are similar to those now imposed on portals for adult content for cellular phones, and would apply also to sites with violent content and with gambling activities. The filtering is to be provided free of charge.

The proposed Internet censorship legislation is a private bill sponsored by MK Amnon Cohen of Shas, which was amended by the Communications Ministry. The amended bill was brought up for committee approval at the insistence of the Justice Ministry.

The original bill required biometric identification using fingerprints, but this stipulation was removed from the approved version. However, Internet Service Providers (ISP) will be required according to the proposed law ) to ask all new customers if they are interested in the free content-filtering service. If they choose to have full Internet access, then they will have to identify themselves as being an adult over 18.

Existing customers will be contacted within 60 days of the bill's approval, and will have to decide whether they are interested in accessing sex and pornographic sites. Customers who do not agree to access such sites will then be connected to a limited service that denies it.

The proposed bill give the communications minister authority to establish procedures for identifying customers, in order to allow them to view pornographic sites. Possibilities include using I.D. cards and numbers, or credit cards.

Violation of the new law would bring a heavy fine for the ISP.

   
Police revenue up for hoon driving

From The Newspaper see full article

The South Australian Police have asked YouTube to remove any videos that the force believes encourage "hoon" driving. The slang term refers to those who do burnouts, drift around corners and generally drive in such a way as to show off their vehicle. Police officials have also announced that they are monitoring the video hosting service to find evidence that could allow the confiscation of expensive vehicles.

The traffic intelligence section does keep an eye on YouTube on a reasonably regular basis to see if we can't pick up something that is identifiable, South Australian Police Superintendent Tony Rankine told the Adelaide Sunday Advertiser. I'm considering whether there is some way we can look at blocking or having some impact on the content with the website host.

A glimpse of a license plate in the video is all the proof needed for police to seize a vehicle, as the state's law already allows confiscation based on nothing more than a witness claim to have seen tire smoke or heard engine revving.

This tough-talking approach has has generated significant revenue for South Australia. It defines a hoon as one who: ...operates a motor vehicle in a public place so as to produce sustained wheel spin; or drives a motor vehicle in a public place so as to cause engine or tire noise, or both.

 
Thai film censors to be dominated by bureaucrats

Based on an article from the Bangkok Post

The government's attempt to pass the Film Bill has run into opposition. Last week the Thai Film Directors Association and Thai Film Foundation issued a protest against the bill, which has been approved by the cabinet and is now going into the National Legislative Assembly (NLA).

The bill will introduce a film rating system, which will govern access to cinemas by age classification. If passed by the NLA, the bill will also oversee the setting up of a National Film and Video Committee to be responsible for assigning the ratings and possibly supervising other film-related policies.

The protesters raised two valid points. Firstly, the film and video committee, under the bill, will be made up of 16 government officials and seven ''experts'' appointed by the government.

That goes against the spirit of allowing more public participation and guaranteeing the film industry gets a fair say.

In early discussions on the bill, film professionals proposed a model where the committee would be made up of an equal number of representatives from three sectors, the government, the film industry and the public, comprising groups such as parent or student associations. The idea is to ensure that the voice of filmmakers, and the audience, is heard, rather than letting government officials with limited understanding of the movie business make all the decisions, which often betray double standards and smack of unrealistic calls to cut or ban a film.

The committee is necessary, and filmmakers' demands should be taken into account.

The second issue raised by the protesters is that it maintains the state's right to cut or ban films. This is also against the spirit of a fair rating system.

Age restrictions mean the government already possesses a measure of control, and to retain the right to cut scenes or ban films is disturbing at least, and dictatorial at most.

The idea should be to promote and oversee, not to control, cut and ban

   
No 18 rated movies on subscription TV

From Refused Classification see full article

New Pay-TV Codes of Practice

The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) have finally released the new codes of practice for subscription television and radio services and open narrowcast radio services.

R18+ [equivalent to the UK 18] rated programs remain banned on Subscription Broadcast Television. This covers such Pay-TV movie channels as Showtime, Showtime Greats, Movie One, Movie Extra, and Movie Greats. If a film has been rated R18+ by the OFLC, then it is going to screen as a censored MA15+ version on these channels.

So the R-rated The Hills Have Eyes remake that is due to premiere on Showtime on Friday 13th July will be censored. Will Showtime tell you this? Not a chance! If more people knew that they were paying money to view censored product then maybe Foxtel would push harder to have the law changed.

The rules imply that R18+ films may be shown once the Government agrre to some sort of age validation technology.

X18+ [non violent hardcore] will remain prohibited regardless of age validation technology.

 
Chinese to legislate against anonymous online comments

From The Times see full article

Anonymous online postings are to be banned by a city in China, after residents mounted a successful internet campaign against proposals for a huge chemicals factory.

Internet users will have to provide their real names, backed up by data from their identity cards, when posting messages on more than 100,000 websites registered in Xiamen. Authorities are taking action after thousands of residents of the prosperous southern port city marched through the streets, mobilised by mobile phone text messages and an internet-based campaign.

Protesters used their mobile phones to send text reports, as well as photos and videos, to bloggers and websites in other cities, which posted live reports of the march. The local government has suspended construction of the £700 million chemicals plant, pending an investigation into the potential environmental risk.

Tian Feng, vice-director of the Xiamen Bureau of Industry and Commerce, said that a new law, the Measures for Management and Disposition of Harmful and Unhealthy Information on the Internet, would be announced soon by the city government: All postings must implement a real-name system. We are the first in the country to do this.

Sony apologise but the church continues the conflict

From The Independent see full article

Sony have apologised "unreservedly" for featuring Manchester Cathedral in the computer game, Resistance: Fall of Man.

President of Sony Computer Entertainment Dr David A Reeves for the Manchester Evening News: It is clear to us that the connection between the congregation and the cathedral is a deeply personal and spiritual one.

As a result, it is also clear that we have offended some of the congregation by using the cathedral in our science fiction game.

It was never our intention to offend anyone in the making of this game, and we would like to apologise unreservedly to them for causing that offence, and to all parts of the wider community who we might also have offended.

Furthermore, we will ensure that Manchester Cathedral is never used as a setting in any future Sony Computer Entertainment video game.

A Sony spokesman said the firm now considered the matter closed and would not be making any further comment.

From The Times see full article

Manchester Cathedral is calling for all video games manufacturers to sign up to a new set of “sacred digital guidelines” to prevent future “virtual desecration” of religious buildings.

The guidelines, which will be debated at the Church of England’s General Synod in York this weekend, are released today as Sony issue an unreserved apology to the clergy and congregation of Manchester Cathedral for using the building’s interior as the setting for a violent computer game.

But cathedral clergy say the apology, due to be published in the Manchester Evening News today is not enough.

Sony has admitted that it did not receive permission from Manchester Cathedral to use its nave for a climactic gun battle in the game.

Dean of Manchester, the Very Rev Rogers Govender, said: We asked Sony to apologise unreservedly to the Cathedral and wider community for the offence caused. This they have done. We asked them to withdraw the game. They have refused to do this. We asked Sony to make a donation to community groups nominated by the Cathedral. They have not responded.

He said the Cathedral Chapter had drawn up what are believed to be the first ever Sacred Digital Guidelines to prevent a repeat episode. He called on all computer games manufacturers, not just Sony, to sign up to the new guidelines, published in the form of a code of conduct for the use of religious building interiors in the computer and digital domain.

Digital Guidelines code of conduct

1. Respect our sacred spaces as places of prayer, worship, peace, learning and heritage.
2. Do not assume that sacred space interiors are copyright free.
3. Get permission from the faith leaders who are responsible for the building interiors you want to clone.
4. Support the work of those engaged in resisting the culture of gun crime and those involved in promoting the work of conflict resolution.

Comment: Melon farmers suggestions re Digital Guidelines code of conduct

1. Give all due respect for sacred spaces as places of prayer, worship, peace, learning and heritage but recognise they may also be used as places of indoctrination, incitement, violence, misinformation and pomposity.
2. Do not assume that sacred space interiors are copyright free...they ARE copyright free
3. If possible, get permission from the faith leaders who are responsible for the building interiors you want to clone. If not, fuck 'em.
4. Support the work of those engaged in resisting the culture of gun crime and those involved in promoting the work of conflict resolution. But don't support religious organisations, they are more likely to cause conflict than resolve it.

Naked skateboarding Bart Simpson passed PG

From The Times see full article

Good news for children of all ages: The Simpsons Movie has been awarded a PG certificate, despite a full-frontal image of a naked, skateboarding Bart.

The most disturbing image involves Bart eagerly accepting Homer’s dare to skateboard at high speed to Krusty Burger, stark naked. After a series of fortuitous cover-ups, there is a fleeting glimpse of the ten-year-old’s modest, but distinctly yellow, manhood.

Fortunately for the producers, Fox, the BBFC has taken a liberal approach. A spokeswoman said: Natural nudity with no sexual content is acceptable in PG films. She added: It will sail over most children’s heads. The Simpsons is really for grown-ups isn’t it? The film was passed PG for mild language, innuendo and comic violence.

   
ASA investigate asterisked Barnardo's advert

From The Guardian see full article

The advertising watchdog has launched an investigation into a campaign by children's charity Barnardo's, featuring a boy who tells parents and social workers to "F**k off", after complaints that it is offensive and in poor taste.

The Barnardo's campaign, labelled Believe in Children, launched last week across newspapers, radio, posters and online.

The Advertising Standards Authority is launching an investigation into one of the ads, the "F**k off story", which could set a precedent on how the swear word can be used in newspaper ads.

The ad, created by agency Bartle Bogle Hegarty, features a picture of a child. Text running alongside says: He told his parents to f**k off. He told fourteen social workers to f**k off. He told us to f**k off. But we didn't. And we still haven't.

Another version of the ad, which ran in national newspapers, removes the "k" leaving the offensive word written as "f***".

The ASA has so far only received two complaints on the basis that the use of the word is offensive and in poor taste. However, because the Barnardo's ad features such an offensive word the ASA decided the campaign requires investigation by its council.

6th July

 
PEGI expand their online game ratings

From Spong see full article
See also PEGI

The Interactive Software Federation of Europe (ISFE) has announced that the Pan European Game Information (PEGI ) rating system is being extended to include online gaming content for PC, consoles and mobiles.

The new system will mean that PEGI will rate downloadable games and content added online to games bought through traditional retail outlets.

Currently PEGI ratings cover games bought from store shelves and playable online, but they do not cover any content that may be added through online channels. World of Warcraft, for example, carries a PEGI rating of 12+, but content not contained on the disc is currently unclassified.

The PEGI system, of course, is voluntary. That means that the ratings given are merely guidelines for consumers. The ISFE has no powers to penalise distributors that sell PEGI rated products to under-age consumers. It remains up to parents, therefore, to make sure their children aren't buying inappropriate games online.

SPOnG spoke to the BBFC to see if it has any plans to deal with online content. We don't have any legal powers to do so, but some publishers want us to.

In the absence of any legal powers with regards to online materiel, which isn't covered by the video ratings act, the ratings would be of benefit only in as much as consumers are familiar with the BBFC's ratings and they could provide a guideline.

The new PEGI online ratings will be rolled out over the coming months, with most embracing PEGI Online by the end of the year, according to the announcement.

David Cameron asks for more positive lyrics in return for extra royalties

From the BBC see full article

David Cameron has pledged to extend copyright on music to 70 years - in exchange for an effort by music bosses to curb violent music and imagery.

The Tory leader told record industry chiefs they had a responsibility to help fix Britain's "broken society".

He said censorship was not the answer - but neither was just investing in youth projects when it was the "content" of music that was often the problem. Music did not just "reflect" culture but also created it, he added.

Cameron was addressing the annual general meeting of music industry trade body The BPI in central London.

Referring to a recent Unicef report on childhood, Cameron said the "single biggest challenge facing this country is that of the broken society".

He acknowledged his own favourite artists, such as Morrissey, Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash, had not shied away from violence in their lyrics. And that video games, films and other forms of entertainment must also take their share of the blame for fuelling violence.

But he added: Is some music, are some lyrics, are some videos and are some artists, helping to create a culture in which an anti-learning culture, truancy, knives, violence, guns, misogyny are glorified? Yes. Can we see the effects of this on our young people, in our schools and on our streets? Yes. Do we think we can combat this culture by government policies, policing and criminal justice alone? No."

Cameron added: When it comes to helping fix our broken society, it is not enough for the music industry to sponsor community projects. You can make a difference by providing positive role models for young kids to look up to, draw inspiration from and aspire to be.

In exchange, he said the next Tory government would extend copyright to prevent musicians missing out on royalties in later life.

Thanks to Phantom on The Melon Farmers Forum:

And is if show willing for this new breed of 'responsible rappers' Kanye West self censored his rap at the Princess Di memorial concert at Wembley:

I ain't saying she's no gold digger, but she ain't messing with no quote! quote!

In fact the meter rather gave the game away that he meant:

I ain't sayin she a gold digger, but she ain't messin wit no broke niggaz

Perhaps the line may also indicate an answer to the call for responsibility in return for extra royalties!

 
Thai Government to ban bad grammar and grown up TV

Based on an article from The Nation see full article

Producers of television soap operas voiced objections yesterday to an extreme plan to restrict what TV viewers can watch during specific times of the day.

If the plan goes ahead, most soap operas on air would struggle to find a place in the new TV schedules.

For the adult "Chor" category, which many soap operas will fall into, the plan requires they be broadcast between 10pm and 4am only.

Some serials may be a "Nor" category, but they would be allowed on air in the unfathomable hours from 9am to 4pm on weekdays (Monday to Friday) and between 8pm and 5am on weekends and holidays.

The Nor category also limits programmes to just one or two scenes in each episode with violence, sex or incorrect grammar.

Well known producer Thakolkiat Viravan said that in his interpretation, TV drama will no longer be able to show scenes in which a villain is killed. And heroines will not be able to meet the hero in front of a pub, as a pub is considered a bad place: Most TV series have a scene when a villain dies because he's a bad guy, but this plan goes deep into the detail. If there's a death scene, the rating is Nor.

Thakolkiat said he supported the rating system, which would help TV watchers know what was appropriate for them. But he was totally against the airtime conditions: TV is not a medium for children only. It's for everyone.

Jamnan Siritan, president of a TV production group, believed those who drafted the plan had no idea of the nature of TV operations: If the plan is implemented, every TV station is going to provide similar content in practice and each TV station is going to lose its character.

Public Relations Department director-general Pramoj Ratavinij convened a meeting with entrepreneurs in the TV business yesterday. He said the meeting was intended to gather opinions, which would then be forwarded to PM's Office Minister Khunying Dhipavadee Meksawan.

Pramoj said he would consult Dhipavadee about a question from Channel 3 on how to rate the Tom and Jerry cartoon. Although the cartoon is clearly created for children, it contains a lot of fight scenes.

4th July

 
EU blasts ISPs with law to censor bomb making info

From The Times see full article

Placing instructions on how to make a bomb on the internet will become a criminal offence across Europe under plans outlined by Brussels yesterday.

Arguments about freedom of expression will not be allowed to stand in the way of criminalising the publication of bomb-making information that could be used by terrorists, a senior EU official said.

It will be part of a range of antiterrorist proposals to be published in the autumn that will also include the collection of airline passenger data from every flight in and out of the EU. The extension of measures was promised yesterday by Franco Frattini, the EU Justice Commissioner, after the British car bomb plot and the murder of Spanish tourists in Yemen.

Internet service providers (ISPs) would face charges if they failed to block websites containing bomb-making instructions generated anywhere in the world, EU officials said.
The Brits that plotted to wreak death and carnage

It should simply not be possible to leave people free to instruct other people on the internet on how to make a bomb – that has nothing to do with freedom of expression, Frattini said yesterday: My proposal will be to criminalise actions and instructions to make a bomb because it is too often that we discover websites that contain complete instructions for homemade bombs.

EU officials denied that it would be impossible to track down websites based in remote places, insisting that the local provider based in the EU could be held to account. One said: You always need a provider here that gives you access to websites. They can decide technically which websites to allow. Otherwise how would China block internet sites? There are no technological obstacles, only legal ones.

But the Internet Services Providers’ Association (Ispa) said that it would fight any attempt to make ISPs criminally liable for content.

A spokesman described ISPs as “mere conduits”, carriers of information like the postal service. He added: An ISP is not a publisher. It does not have editorial control over content posted on its servers by a third party.

A government spokeswoman said that British-based sites that gave clear bomb-making instructions could result in prosecution for encouragement to commit a terrorist act under the Terrorism Act 2006. But she added that there were problems of jurisdiction if the site was hosted outside Britain.

Ban the BBFC

 
Writing to Gordon Brown

Thanks to Dan
From Mediawatch-UK see full article

John Beyer has been quick to write to Gordon Brown with his puerile suggestions:

After comments made by Gordon Brown about violence in the media in a recent Local Election broadcast, the director of mediawatch-uk, John Beyer, has written to the new Prime Minister.

In the broadcast Mr Brown wondered: How do you counteract the influences of the media, of the Internet, all the violence that kids can see so easily now? Mr Beyer said that Mr Brown should: Firstly, impress upon the Office of Communications (Ofcom) that the terms of the Broadcasting Code, which states that programmes “must not include material…which condones or glamorises violent, dangerous or seriously antisocial behaviour", are robustly applied.

Secondly, that the British Board of Film Classification, because it permits progressively worsening material for younger age groups, should be replaced by a new body, completely independent of the film industry, that complies with definitive guidelines devised to favour the Public Good rather than the film industry.

Thirdly, that an International Treaty should be formulated to determine and then prohibit Internet content that fails to meet generally accepted standards. The Internet poses a huge threat to governments and to the international moral and social order.

And of course Beyer would like to impose his own nutter inspired definitions of 'The Public Good' and 'generally accepted standards'.

Comment: Toxic Bollox

From Dan

It seems that nothing but scaremongering ill-informed hysteria can ever come out the views of Beyer and mediawatch-uk..

See their report: Toxic media harming children

The bit about porn made me fall about with laughter. Children hooked on porn! Lol give me a break! Beyer's just taken what he reads in the tabloid press (the Daily Mail most of all) and regurgitated it as factual opinion! Bollox!

The first major study of online pornography published in May 2006 revealed that 1 in 4 adults downloaded pornographic images and that relationship agencies have reported that as many as 40 per cent of couples with problems believe that pornography has contributed to their difficulties.

Which is why we need to lock people for three years for the GOOD OF THEIR RELATIONSHIPS? Oh dear oh dear!

British Internet surfers look up the word “porn” more than anyone else in the English-speaking world. What sort of example does this set to children? What does this say about our society?

Oh dear British internet surfers lock up the word porn more than anyone else in the world? Well of course we must stop them! Which is why Beyer is lobbying for them all to be thrown in jail alongside peadeophiles and rapists

4th July

 
German censors cut The Darkness computer game

From GamesIndustry.biz see full article
The uncut, 18 rated game is available at UK Amazon

Take-Two has been forced to reschedule the German launch of next-generation action game The Darkness after the Unterhaltungssoftware Selbstkontrolle (USK) requested cuts.

Nazi symbols, a finishing move and several mechanics relating to "Darklings" have had to be removed in order to satisfy the board's demands. The finishing move - a CGI sequence showing a human heart being ripped out - must be replaced by a yellowish-green-fog "soul absorption" instead.

The requested changes will affect both the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions of the game, and Take-Two has rescheduled the game for release on July 27.

The UK Xbox 360 version of The Darkness was released June 29th. The PS 3 version is delayed until July 20th for an unrelated reason.

Ofcom wound up by Cops on Camera

From Digital Spy see full article

The regulator has ruled that Bravo breached watershed rules when it aired Cops on Camera at 8am on January 20. The episode featured black and white footage captured by a CCTV camera of a violent attack on a man by a gang of youths. One viewer complained to Ofcom that the violence was unsuitable for broadcast at the time of day.

Virgin Media Television said that only a small number of children watched Bravo during the timeslot when the programme went out and that the 8am slot on weekends competed against children's programming on terrestrial TV. It also said that the CCTV footage was of poor quality and not presented in a graphic or sensationalist manner and so was appropriately limited.

In its response, Ofcom said: Ofcom has concluded that at 08:00 on a Saturday, a higher proportion of the audience is likely to consist of children, both the very young as well as older children; and they may well be watching without an adult present in the room to make decisions about what material is watched. Further the nature of the content of Cops on Camera includes elements that may well attract children. Ofcom has concluded therefore that children were not protected by appropriate scheduling from this unsuitable material and there was a breach of Rule 1.3.

It added: Ofcom is concerned that this is the fourth breach of the Code it has recorded against Bravo regarding unsuitable content in daytime programmes. If there are any further breaches of this nature by Bravo, Ofcom may consider further regulatory action.

Beyer Recommends... iPlayer

 
Beyer recommends iPlayer

Thanks to Dan
Based on an article from the Express

Nutters fear that the BBC’s new iPlayer could kill family viewing and threaten the TV watershed. Viewers will be able to download popular shows for seven days from the internet to watch on computer.

But industry observers say the £130million plan, to be launched on 27 July, will ‘fragment’ family viewing.

John Beyer, director of mediawatch-uk, said: The digital revolution has meant that viewing has become an individual rather than a family activity. More affluence means more television sets in the home and it is now a much easier option to avoid family disputes that everyone watches their own programmes on their own sets or, with downloading, on their own computers. In these circumstances, it is easy for the broadcasters to advance the rationale that the concept of family viewing ought to be abandoned.

There are no watershed provisions with the new iPlayers. A ‘labelling’ and pin protection system may be used to prevent children from downloading post-watershed shows.

2nd July

 
Germany debates proof of age seal

From EAN Online

In April 2007 the German Association for Video and Media Retailers invited members of the adult retail and production sectors for a panel discussion on the proposed certified seals in view of amendments to the youth protection law: a subject that quite rightly attracts European attention.

The clause causing the debate relates to so called pseudo minors (adults over the age of 18 with a child-like appearance). In response to the law the industry will undertake measures and steps in order to supply a legal product. It always was and still is a matter of course for these suppliers to only use performers in their films that are over the age of 18. The affixing of a seal, verifying this fact, to their products will emphasize their legal compliance with the law.

The meeting unanimously decided that a trademark should be established and issued only to those suppliers and distributors that are members of a pool of suppliers for which the producers have provided evidence that the performers featured in the productions are all over 18 years of age and that the appropriate ID shots exist: a photo of the person holding valid ID and a current newspaper and depicting full name, date of birth, place of birth and passport number.

This seal is to be affixed on the rear side of the cover next to and of the same size as the Güfa seal.

The seal will be applied retrospectively to all products and concerns were raised that the costs the seal would be unviable for many back catalogue items. This would make many assets such as stocks and rights worthless.

Bangladesh tries editor on trumped up charges

From Israel National News see full article
See also Blitz magazine

Muslim journalist Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury is on trial in Bangladesh for the crime of supporting Israel, although the official charges are listed as treason and blasphemy. Choudhury, who has urged the Bangladeshi government to recognize the State of Israel, was back in the courtroom to face allegations of spying for the Mossad, Israel’s international espionage agency.

Although the government privately agreed to drop the charges, which officials quietly admitted were false, the Public Prosecutor said in the brief court session that he intends to proceed with the case.

A new trial date has been set for July 18th. If convicted, Choudhury will be executed by hanging or be sentenced to 30 years in prison – itself a death sentence, according to Bangladeshi sources.

The Muslim writer was arrested several years ago by agents of the previous government as he was leaving the country for a speaking engagement in Israel. The initial charge was violation of the country’s ban on travel to the Jewish State, which officials used as an excuse to torture and hold the journalist in prison for 17 months.

The real issue, according to the Independent Media Review Analysis (IMRA), is his Zionism, which he expresses in articles that also expose the rise of radical Islam in Bangladesh.

He is on trial because he writes plainly about the danger of extremist madrassas teaching children as young as five to hate Jews and Israel.

Intense pressure by U.S. Congressman Mark Kirk (R-IL) and human rights activist Dr. Richard L. Benkin led to Choudhury’s release, but the reprieve was temporary.

According to IMRA, there is enough evidence to prove Choudhury’s innocence. The Bangladeshi government, say numerous advocates for the Muslim journalist, knows the charges are false.

Iraq murder squads stake out internet cafes

From X Biz see full article

Dozens of Iraqi citizens have been murdered after using the Internet to access adult websites.

We have received information from many sources that militants are operating spies inside Internet cafes just to find out who is browsing sites they have deemed offensive to Islam, Iraqi Aid Association spokesperson Fatah Ahmed said.

According to Ahmed, most of the killings and abductions have happened directly after the victim leaves an Internet café.

One victim of kidnapping and assault, university student Ibraheem Abdel-Qahar, told Al-Jazeera that he was kidnapped after leaving a café, then blindfolded, transported to what he believes was a house on the outskirts of Baghdad, and then beaten and tortured.

They told me to take off all my clothes and handcuffed me. They started to beat me and use cigarettes to burn my legs, Abdel-Qahar said, adding that he was beaten with an iron bar, and forced to drink chicken blood and his own urine.

Abdel-Qahar said that he was desperate, shouting questions at his abusers as to why they were assaulting him: After three hours of continuous torture they told me that it was because I was watching non-Muslim sites on the internet.

Armed marauders have not spared the proprietors who operate Internet cafés, either; in February, Internet café owners Fadhel Ibraheem and Youssef Ala’a were tortured and beheaded, reportedly for allowing access to adult sites in their café.

1st July

 
Ubisoft pull Mind Quiz game from Europe

From GamesIndustry.biz see full article

Ubisoft is pulling Ninetendo DS game Mind Quiz off the European market due to comments in the game which have been labelled as offensive.

Poor performance sees the player labelled in a manner derogatory to the disabled.

Ubisoft has blamed the Japanese development team for the error and its own slack quality assurance.

The 'offensive' blunder emerged when a woman contacted BBC Radio Ulster to complain about the game.

1st July

 
Campaign to sex up the workings of the EU

From The Times see full article

The latest promotional video available on the European commission’s space on YouTube, the video website, shows 18 couples having sex.

The video opens with a man and woman ripping each other’s clothes off in the bedroom while bottles rattle on a shelf. In the interests of sexual equality, two of the couples are gay.

The film climaxes with quivering bedheads and loud orgasms. It closes with the line: Let’s come together.

The video is part of a campaign by Margot Wallstrom, the communications commissioner, to boost interest in the workings of the EU.

The video is entitled Film Lovers Will Love This. The scenes were compiled by the commission’s press unit, using footage from Amélie and All About My Mother. Both films were supported by the EU.

Maciej Giertych, an MEP with the conservative League of Polish Families, accused the EU of using “immoral methods” to promote itself.

But Godfrey Bloom, a UK Independence party MEP, said: I suppose this film is appropriate. The EU has been screwing Britain for the past 30 years.

Canned South African TV documentary shown at film Festival

Based on an article from The Guardian see full article

A documentary critical of South Africa's president, Thabo Mbeki was due to be shown to the public more than a year after it was made and after twice being pulled from the state broadcaster amid accusations of political censorship.

The programme, which portrays Mbeki as paranoid and vindictive, will be screened at an international film festival in Durban.

The documentary, commissioned and then canned by the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) and seen by the Guardian, is critical of Mbeki's style of leadership.

Allister Sparks, a former editor of the Rand Daily Mail said he believes that the SABC management baulked at a sequence near the beginning of the film that shows Nelson Mandela speaking a decade ago as he handed the ANC leadership to Mbeki who is sitting at his side. Mandela warns his successor against abusing power: There is a heavy responsibility for a leader elected unopposed. He may use that powerful position to settle scores with his detractors, to marginalise or get rid of them and surround themselves with yes-men and women.

The documentary then goes on to build a picture of Mr Mbeki conducting himself in the manner Mr Mandela warned against. It describes how he centralised power and isolated himself from others in the party leadership.

The SABC first declined to show the documentary a year ago and insisted on cuts, principally of a section that repeated unfounded rumours that Mbeki was implicated in the murder by white rightwing extremists of the Communist party leader, Chris Hani, in 1993.

The revised programme was rescheduled for last month but then pulled again, because, the SABC said: internal procedures were not followed.

   
Australia soon to be only country without adult game rating

From ABC see full article

The Interactive Entertainment Association of Australia wants the classification system used for games to be the same as that used for films.

CEO Chris Hanlon says the current system is out-of-date: When the classification system was being developed in the early 90s the censorship ministers were directed to enforce more stringently the classifications for video and computer games, because at the time there was little research done into the social effects of games.

The Office of Film and Literature Classification's acting director-general, Jeremy Fenton, says games and films are vastly different forms of entertainment and have to be judged accordingly: With computer games, obviously one of the key differences is ... the interactivity that's involved.

Hanlon disagrees: The most current research that has been done was done by the BBFC only six weeks ago. What they found regarding the impact of interactive content was that there are no serious or negative or standout affects from games. If anything films, because they are much more realistic, have a much more immersive [sic] effect.

Hanlon says: The evidence that I hear from Australian game developers when they go overseas is that Australia's is seen as behind the times and a bit of a laughing stock because our classification system hasn't kept with world practice.

In fact, Australia and Singapore are the only two countries in the world that do not have a R classification for games. [Singapore] are about to introduce a comprehensive classification system for games which includes a R rating, Hanlon said: So soon we'll be the only country in the world with no R for games.

Since 2000, Fenton says the OFLC has banned 15 to 20 games. The BBFC has only banned one game in the past 10 years - Manhunt 2.