Indonesia bans 'disturbing' documentaries

From the Jakarta Post

Four documentary films about the life of people in Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam and Timor Leste will not be screened during the 8th Jakarta International Film Festival (JiFFest) due to government restrictions.

JiFFest program manager Lalu Roisamri confirmed that films the state censorship agency (LSF) described as "disturbing" would not be screened at JiFFest, which is scheduled to run from Dec. 8 through 17: I'm disappointed because the implication is that JiFFest and its audiences are not considered mature enough to watch them, Lalu said.

The JiFFest program guidebook distributed to the press contains a reference to the four films plus short synopses, but with the word "censored" printed across them in large type.

The four films are Passabe, Timor Loro Sae, Tales of Crocodiles and Black Road.

The first three were also banned at last year's festival. The films portray the situation in Timor Leste from colonization to independence. Meanwhile, Black Road by journalist-turned-filmmaker William Nessen, tells the story of Aceh's struggle for independence. It took four years for Nessen to complete.

Based on an article from the BBC

Blogs and other internet sites should be covered by a voluntary code of practice similar to that for newspapers in the UK, a conference has been told.

Press Complaints Commission director Tim Toulmin said he opposed government regulation of the internet, saying it should a place in which views bloom...BUT... unless there was a voluntary code of conduct there would be no form of redress for people angered at content.

Toulmin described the phrases "free speech" and "free press" as relative terms because views expressed on the internet are still governed by laws such as libel and data protection.

The Press Complaints Commission enforces a code of practice for the UK newspaper and magazine industry, covering accuracy, discrimination and intrusion, amongst other things. Members of the public unhappy with coverage can take their complaints to the commission.

Toulmin said this self-imposed regulation did offer people a means to complain about coverage, although it was not the answer to all your problems.

Complaints can already be made about online versions of newspapers and magazines which already subscribe to the PCC code. But apart from those sites, generally on the internet there are no professional standards, there is no means of redress, Toulmin said.

He added: If you want to see how the newspaper industry would look like if it was unchecked, then look at the internet.

He said a voluntary code of practice would allow content to be checked without government involvement, stressing: We're not in favour of regulating the internet. The flow of information should not be regulated by any government.

From AsiaNews.IT, 24th Oct 2006

The Chinese government plans to register millions of Chinese Internet bloggers who are using the web to publish their views under a pseudonym, thus forcing them to subscribe to censorship from the central authorities. This was reported today by the official state media.

Under the new system, currently being assessed by legislators, users would be allowed to continue using their online pseudonyms to write their blogs, but must register with the authorities under their real names.

The real name requirement is an “unavoidable choice” if China wants to properly develop its blogging community, according to the head of the Internet Society of China, Huang Chengqing. The Internet Society of China is the state-controlled organisation in charge of developing the new monitoring system.

The government “acknowledges that the decision to register bloggers could create problems of privacy and free-speech concerns”.

From News.com.au

The book publisher, Scholastic Australia, pulled the plug on the Army of the Pure after booksellers and librarians said they would not stock the adventure thriller for younger readers because the "baddie" was a Muslim terrorist.

A prominent literary agent has slammed the move as "gutless", while the book's author, award-winning novelist John Dale, said the decision was "disturbing because it's the book's content they are censoring".

There are no guns, no bad language, no sex, no drugs, no violence that is seen or on the page, Dale said, but because two characters are Arabic-speaking and the plot involves a mujaheddin extremist group, Scholastic's decision is based 100% (on) the Muslim issue.

Scholastic's general manager, publishing, Andrew Berkhut, said the company had canvassed a broad range of booksellers and library suppliers, who expressed concern that the book featured a Muslim terrorist. They all said they would not stock it, and the reality is if the gatekeepers won't support it, it can't be published.

Scholastic described the writing as "almost flawless" and the story about four children chased by Afghan terrorists after discovering a plot to blow up Sydney's Lucas Heights nuclear reactor a "gripping page-turner".

Dale's agent, Lyn Tranter, yesterday branded the move "a gutless" publishing decision. I am appalled that this is censorship by salesmen, she said.

This must be one of the most worrying stories for a long time. The Police seem to be setting up a law where 'offence' is criminalised and yet we know how easily 'offended' religious people are.

Surely we should be supporting the right to offend....I have a feeling we will need it!
 

From The Guardian

Police are to demand new powers to arrest protesters for causing offence through the words they chant and the slogans on their placards and even headbands.

The country's biggest force, the Metropolitan police, is to lobby the attorney general, Lord Goldsmith, because officers believe that large sections of the population have become increasingly politicised, and there is a growing sense that the current restrictions on demonstrations are too light.

Trouble at recent protests involving Islamic extremists has galvanised the Met's assistant commissioner, Tarique Ghaffur, into planning a crackdown. His proposals are due to be sent to Lord Goldsmith, who is reviewing how effective the current laws are in tackling extremists.

The police want powers to proscribe protest chants and slogans on placards, banners and headbands. Human rights experts say that such powers could also be used against protesters such as animal rights and anti-globalisation activists. The civil rights group Liberty said the powers would make the police "censors in chief".

Ghaffur has previously advocated banning flag burning. But this document would take the police a lot further. Ghaffur says there is a "growing national and international perception" that the police have been too soft on extremist protesters, which has led to rising anger across the country.

As well as the absence of a law banning the burning of a flag, there is no law banning the burning of a religious text.

The police want powers to tackle a "grey area" in the array of public order laws. At present, causing offence by itself is not a criminal offence.

There must be a clear message that we will not allow any extremist group to display banners or make public statements that clearly cause offence within the existing law, the document says.

The document continues: Is the sand shifting in our collective viewpoint around what constitutes 'causing offence'? Equally, we need to have a clearer determination of current community perceptions around what 'public offence' actually means. We also need to think more laterally around how we police public demonstrations where 'offence' could be caused, while still respecting the British position around freedom of speech.

The document, entitled The widening agenda of public demonstrations and radicalisation, says Islamic extremists have learned how to cause offence without breaking the law. It also reveals that the government has yet to implement the bill outlawing religious hatred which received royal assent in February. It says that the law may prove useless against extremists: Virtually all activity by protesters could constitute insulting or abusive language, behaviour or banners towards particular religions, but would fall outside the remit of inciting religious hatred.

The director of Liberty, Shami Chakrabarti, said: [The proposal] misunderstands the nature of law and free expression in a democracy and casts the police as censors in chief. It aims to protect people from 'offence' rather than harm, slates the CPS and muses wildly on 'public perceptions'.

From The Peninsula

Pakistani police arrested two Catholic men from Faisalabad for allegedly burning a copy of the Qur’an despite the fact that their accusers did not see them commit the act itself.

Their arrest spared them a possible lynching by a mob of 500 Muslims who had surrounded the house in Munir Park where James and Buta Masih both lived.

A catholic attorney, Khalil Tahir, took on their case. He told AsiaNews that the police locked up in an isolation cell rather than go before a judge for fear that extremists might attack them.

A local priest, Fr Yaqoob Yousaf, told AsiaNews that the Muslim employer of James Masih’s daughter Nargis, who works as a maid for his family, gave her items that she might reuse. She took them to her father’s house. After sorting out things they kept some for themselves and sold some in the market. Her father burnt waste papers in the street. Both are illiterate and are unaware whether any pages from a holy book was among them. More importantly, no one saw them burn pages from the Qur’an.

Arshad Mubarak, a local Muslim, made a complaint at the local police station against James Masih and his neighbour and friend Buta Masih for burning the Qur’an in the street. He told the police he didn’t actually see the two accused burning the Qur’an but that other local people told him that that was what they were doing.

However, Father Yaqoob said that the plaintiff was trying to get James Masih to sell his house to no success and that the accusation gave him the opportunity “teach him a lesson for refusal”.

A Pakistani court has now sentenced the two Christians to 15 years of hard labour on charges of desecrating the Holy Quran under the country’s tough blasphemy laws, officials said yesterday.

James Masih and Boota Masih were found guilty of burning pages of the Muslim holy book, judge Mohammad Aslam said in a verdict on Saturday after a trial in the industrial city of Faisalabad.

Both men, who are not related, were also fined 25,000 rupees (416 dollars), court officials said.

From Silicon

Based on an article from PALGN

Rule of Rose is a psychological horror game which has been withdrawn from release in the UK.

Australian media have now also discussed why the title should be banned,

Australian Family Council nutter spokesman Bill Muehlenberg said: It depicts young women as fair game for kids to torture. It could push some children over the edge, while desensitising others to violence.

Rule of Rose hadn't yet been classified by the OFLC, but Red-Ant (the game's Australian distributor) has confirmed to PALGN today that it will not be available for this territory at this stage.

The issue was also discussed on the Channel 7 Sunrise program today, the panelists felt the game should be banned, or given an R rating.

From Hindustan Times

The Indian government is exploring the possibility of allowing movies certified for adult viewing during late night hours.

The government will soon start consultation with the industry and civil rights group on allowing feature films certified as ‘A’ by the Censor Board.

While the movie channels want that adult movies should be shown after 10:30 pm, the social groups are not willing to allow screening of movies before midnight. There also divergent views on what type of adult content should be allowed on television.

I&B ministry PR Dasmunshi held a meeting with the representatives of television channels on Wednesday and assured that the government will come out with some guidelines on the issue soon.

Showing any sort of adult content on television got banned after the Mumbai High Court directed that only UA or U certified movies could be shown on television.

The court had also said that only movies certified by the Censor Board should be shown on television. Following the order, the I&B ministry issued an notification under Cable Network Act prohibiting showing of any adult content on television.

Six months after the government notification, the television industry has renewed its efforts to get government censorship reduced.

They have got a shot in the arm from the new Minister of State in the ministry MH Ambareesh. He has earlier sought more freedom for television while reducing government censorship. Keeping in view his affinity to film fraternity, Ambareesh has been tasked with section related to films in the ministry.

Adult content on late night shows is on the agenda of the new content code. But, what adult stuff can be shown will be decided only after consultations with the various stakeholders, a senior ministry official said.

Based on an article from ars technica
See also psiphon

Press release from Cybertip.ca
See also technical paper about how cleanfeed works

Canada’s largest Internet service providers (ISPs) have joined forces with Cybertip.ca, Canada’s
child sexual exploitation tipline, to launch a new voluntary initiative to help in the battle against online child sexual abuse.

The new initiative, named “Project Cleanfeed Canada”, is the latest contribution from the multi-stakeholder Canadian Coalition Against Internet Child Exploitation (C-CAICE). It is intended to make the Internet safer for Canadians and their families by reducing their chances of accidentally coming across images of child sexual exploitation on the Internet.

The participating ISPs, which so far include Bell Aliant, Bell Canada, MTS Allstream, Rogers, SaskTel, Shaw Communications Inc., TELUS and Videotron Ltd will install sophisticated new filters designed to protect their customers from inadvertently visiting foreign web sites that contain images of children being sexually abused and that are beyond the jurisdiction of Canadian legal authorities.

Cybertip.ca will establish a list of the sites to be filtered which will be incorporated automatically into the ISPs’ filters. The ISPs will have no involvement in compiling the Cybertip.ca list.

Project Cleanfeed Canada is named after a similar initiative called “Project Cleanfeed” implemented by British Telecom in the UK and subsequently adopted by a number of other European ISPs.

From the BBC

A court in Yemen has sentenced a newspaper editor to a year in jail for reprinting Danish cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad.

The court also ordered the independent weekly newspaper which carried the cartoons to be closed for six months.

The editor, Kamal al-Aalafi, said he had reprinted the cartoons to raise awareness, not to insult Muslims. Mr al-Aalafi has been released on bail and will appeal the sentence.

The editors of two other Yemeni publications face similar charges.

From Spong

505 Publisher of horror-game, Rule of Rose has bowed to England's mainstream media and calls from European Union rightwingers by announcing today that it will not be making the game available for retail in the UK:

Apparently, the mainstream media can now censor just as well as the official censors. The refusal to sell the game legally almost certainly stems from two reports in The Daily Mail and The Times newspapers.

But it is not simply the newspapers that forced the point. Political pressure exerted including European Union Justice Commissioner, Franco Frattini will also have contributed to 505's decision to take Rule of Rose out the back and shoot it in the back of the head, execution style.

Release plans for the rest of Europe are unknown at this moment. But the uncertainty generated surely makes online delivery of games content look more and more appealing.

As mentioned earlier, Julian Petley has written an interesting piece on extreme porn: New steps to extend police powers to punish porn users with the theme that it just provides the basis for an awful lot more censorship to come.

The introductory paragraph sets the scene:

If the Government was a scientist, its research funds would have dried up long ago, it would have been kicked off the international conference circuit, shunned by the top journals and cold shouldered by its peers. That is the damning implication of a report by MPs that slipped out last week with little comment or debate. Although many will shrug at its conclusions that - surprise, surprise - politicians are less-than-straightforward in how they commission and use research, the findings make grim reading. At best, ministers and shadow spokesmen cannot distinguish between anecdote and science. At worst, they can be dodgy operators who use research selectively to "prop up'' policies, or even fraudsters who think nothing of scientific malpractice.

I loved the paragraph:

But many politicians still seem unable to comprehend that science is a never-ending dialogue between theory and experiment, not the recruitment of convenient facts. When the Health Secretary, Patricia Hewitt, told one newspaper this year that more women should have babies at home, she signalled her determination by saying that she had even commissioned research to support her case.

And a few paragraphs about the Home Office:

Leaving aside ignorance and fuzzy thinking, the MPs uncovered various horror stories that suggest outright science abuse. Prof Tim Hope, a criminologist from Keele University who has worked with the Home Office, told them that "it was with sadness and regret that I saw our work ill-used and our faith in government 's use of evidence traduced''. Of the two case studies looking at burglary reduction that the department commissioned, it decided to only write up one: "Presumably because the area-wide reduction was greater here than elsewhere.''

Prof Hope also accused the Home Office of manipulating the data so as "to capitalise on chance, producing much more favourable findings overall'', despite the fact that "for individual projects, the [Home Office] method produces considerable distortion''.

 He went on to allege that the department had interfered with other researchers: "At the British Society of Criminology conference in the University of Bangor in July 2003 there were a number of papers to be given by academics on the basis of contracted work that they were involved in, as I was, for the Home Office. A number of the researchers were advised not to present their papers at the last minute even though they had been advertised in the programme by Home Office officials.''

Other academics voiced similar concerns: Reece Walters, of Stirling University, told the MPs: "It is clear the Home Office is interested only in rubber-stamping the political priorities of the Government of the day. To participate in Home Office research is to endorse a biased agenda.'' A depressingly consistent picture of abuse has emerged at this particular department. An earlier investigation by the select committee concluded that the Home Office system for classifying drugs is irrational and "not fit for purpose''.
   
The Statistics Commission has even called for the responsibility and publication of crime figures to be at "arm's length'' from Home Office policy makers and for the British Crime Survey to be moved to the Office for National Statistics.

See the full article at Official: Politicians Don't Reveal the Truth

From the Washington Post

Earlier this month the Russian government agency in charge of movie distribution ruled that Russian people could not see Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan The agency's reason: Borat offended ethnic feelings.

The agency denied "banning" the movie, claiming instead it made a mere "recommendation" not to distribute it. But in today's Russia where political loyalty is imperative, a recommendation from "above" means an order. If nothing else, it's for businesses to be sure they're "staying on the safe side."

This "negative recommendation" against distributing Borat is the first time the post-Communist Russian authorities have banned a piece of creative expression in years. Russian liberals cringe at another alarming signal that the practices of the Soviet police state are making a creepy comeback.

On the other hand, there is no question that Borat insults the Kazakhs. To say that the movie is politically incorrect is an understatement.

From the BBC

Police in Cairo have detained a blogger whose posts have been critical of the Egyptian government.

Rami Siyam, who blogs under the name of Ayyoub, was detained along with three friends after leaving the house of a fellow blogger. No reasons have been given for Siyam's detention. The other friends were released after being questioned.

Human rights groups have accused Egypt of eroding freedom of speech by arresting several bloggers recently.

Bloggers are at the centre of Egyptian political activism. In recent weeks, bloggers have been exposing what they say was the sexual harassment of women at night in downtown Cairo in full view of police who did not intervene.

The most recently detained blogger, Abdel Kareem Nabil, was detained in Alexandria on 6 November and was charged with disrupting public order, inciting religious hatred and defaming the president.

From E-Commerce Times

The One week after gaining unfettered access to the online encyclopedia Wikipedia, Chinese Internet users have been cut off from the service again.

Andrew Lih, a former journalism professor at Hong Kong University who tracks censorship in China, wrote on his blog last week that people throughout the country are unable to contact Wikipedia. The report was confirmed by Rebecca MacKinnon, former Beijing bureau chief at CNN and a research fellow at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard Law School. MacKinnon said that a number of Chinese friends wrote to her complaining about the shutdown.

Based on an article from Malaysia Sun

China will restrict broadcast reporting on vicious crimes so the country's young people have a healthier media environment, the Beijing government says.

We must not let improper crime reporting harm young minds, said Zhang Haitao, vice director of the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television.

Reporting of cases that harm public security and cases of vicious crimes, such as kidnap and arson, will be subject to strict controls, he continued. Detailed reports of detective work and investigations by the police will be banned and detailed descriptions and analysis of criminal methods and motives will also be banned.

Zhang added TV programs should not exaggerate violence, murder, pornography and horror scenes and the name, address, photograph and anything else that might reveal the identity of a juvenile delinquent should not be mentioned.

From IFEX

Reporters Without Borders has condemned the "archaic censorship" being implemented by the communications ministry and reiterated its call for the government of Chad to lift the draconian curbs on press freedom that are part of a state of emergency decreed on 13 November 2006.

The publication of newspapers with black strips replacing articles censored by civil servants is a sad spectacle, the press freedom organisation said. Using scissors will not help the government restore peace. It will just radicalise the opposition and give it additional arguments for resisting. We urge President Idriss Deby Itno to order his government to seek negotiated solutions rather than continue with these absurd and depressing measures.

The special unit created at the communications ministry to implement prior censorship of the N'Djamena-based print media began to function on 14 November, the day after the state of emergency was decreed in N'Djamena and six of the country's regions,.

The decision to restore prior censorship of the privately-owned press was prompted by recent articles about the rebels who are fighting government troops in eastern Chad. In early November, the weekly "Notre Temps" published photos of rebel leaders and speculated about each one's possibilities for replacing Deby as president.

From Seven FX Software

From Play.tm

Germany's new governing coalition are considering a total ban on all videogames which depict 'lethal violence', according to reports from Europe this week. The politicians have vowed to bring in new laws in order to curb a rise in youth violence, with a focus on the influence of violent media, particularly games.

One MP supporting the proposed ban told a German games magazine that violent games had no place in kids' bedrooms. Andreas Scheuer of the Christian Social Union added that whilst ultimate responsibility must fall upon parents, the government should ban ultra-violent titles in order to aid the less media savvy.

Germany's interactive software association chief, Olaf Wolters, added that he will try to work with the government in order to resolve this concern and negate an outright ban, telling the magazine that As far we are concerned, there are no such things as killer games, but adult games.

Violence in the media has been a sensitive subject in Germany since a nineteen year-old killed sixteen innocent people in a 2002 shooting massacre. Counter-Strike was blamed for the atrocity, the youngster apparently being an avid fan. The game was eventually banned, and strong censorship laws have been in place ever since, with other games occasionally being banned too. Some MPs are calling for stronger enforcements, still, however.

From GamesIndustry.biz

Publisher 505 Games has issued a statement inviting politicians and journalists to judge new PS2 title Rule of Rose for themselves following controversy over the level of violence in the game.

Rule of Rose is a horror genre videogame, similar to a number of other videogames and movies on the market today, but does not in anyway incite minors to commit violent acts and does not promote acts of violence towards minors, the statement reads.

Following an in depth analysis by Pan European Game Information, the Interactive Software Federation of Europe and the Video Standards Council, the Rule of Rose videogame was judged to be suitable for European

market distribution. The statement goes on to observe that PEGI awarded Rule of Rose a 16+ rating.

In the UK, Rule of Rose has made The Times and the Daily Mail following Frattini's comments. But it's coverage in Italian publication Panorama which 505 Games has taken exception to - they claim the magazine "erroneously stated" that the winner of the game is the player who buries a young girl alive.

The burial of the protagonist or of any other child does not appear in any scene of the game, not even indirectly, according to 505 Games: The scene that has triggered the discussion is in reality a dream sequence that serves as part of the introduction to the adventure: a non-interactive video sequence in which the protagonist, who is not a minor, is captured inside a crate.

The interactive part of the game is based primarily on exploration and the solving of mysteries. The only sporadic fighting scenes are against monsters.

Rule of Rose is due out in Europe next Friday. 505 Games has announced that it will be inviting politicians and journalists to the game for themselves by attending a preview presentation, to be held on November 23 in Milan.

The police have also been sniffing around the concept of somehow enforcing the repressive Video Recordings Act on download material. There is an article about this in the Adult Industry trade paper, ETO. But really I cannot even guess where they are coming from to suggest that the Act applies to computer communications.

From Hansard
See the full (uncorrected) transcript of the Session

David Cooke, the director of the BBFC, and Peter Johnson, Head of Policy had a session in the House of Commons with the Culture, Media And Sport Committee: New Media And The Creative Industries.

David Cooke

Our fundamental concern is about what might happen in the future, starting right now when things could be very different and we would face not so much a loophole but possibly a bypassing of the Video Recordings Act in quite a major way. Let me just try and explain this. Last year 17,000 titles were classified by the BBFC and 13,000 of those were DVDs, so that is very much the bulk of our business at the moment. In principle, all of those titles could at some point in the future migrate to distribution by download rather than in physical format.

Lawyers disagree about what precisely the impact of the Video Recordings Act is in that situation, but I think that the general view is that the Video Recordings Act probably would not bite. That has not been tested in the courts yet.

That could produce a situation in which our current, we believe, quite well respected and trusted system of age ratings and consumer advice would cease to apply and we know from our workload at the moment that there would be some very abusive material included in that content, and we have given some examples of some of that in our evidence. Self-regulation would obviously apply in that context but the question is really do we believe that that would be adequate or would we be in the kind of situation that we faced in the early 1980s with the concerns on video nasties.

We think that there are probably two broad approaches to tackling this problem.

We are certainly not pitching to trespass on anybody else's patch or to rub up against other regulators and we are certainly not pitching to try and regulate all downloads, which will constitute a huge and variegated mass of material, but we do think it would be possible to look quite carefully to seek to identify that part of the download market which would be very similar to DVD retail and DVD rental and to seek to bring that within the Video Recordings Act. That would be one approach. We can well see that that would be controversial and would be against the tenor of some of the other discussions you have had in the Committee.

Another approach which could be considered, either in conjunction or separately, would be to look at what kind of co-regulatory offerings were possible in this new environment. We believe that our expertise and the trust which BBFC ratings and consumer advice have and the high recognition factor that our ratings have, are the kinds of things that would enable us to play a part.

See the full (uncorrected) transcript of the Session

From Thai Visa

A new group advocating freedom on the Internet filed a petition with the Thai Human Rights Commission asking for an end to online censorship.

The petition was signed by 30 people, including many academics, and Freedom Against Censorship Thailand (FACT) which said 70 international organisations have expressed their support.

CJ Hinke, the originator of the petition, said: If people don't have all the information, they are not fully informed and without a fully informed public, you can't expect people to make the right decisions.

FACT, which was formed earlier this month, is the first organisation of its kind in Thailand seeking to end the censorship of more than 35,000 websites in the country.

The group said the government blocks 2,500 web pages, including some from the BBC, CNN, Yahoo News and articles from Yale University Press about Thailand's King Bhumibhol Adulyadej. When users in Thailand try to access the pages, they receive a green screen saying the site was blocked.

At least 11% of the websites blocked contained criticism of ousted prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra or his Thai Rak Thai party, the government's handling of the violence in southern Thailand, and the September 19 coup that overthrew Thaksin, the group said.

Hinke said that the government has insisted the sites needed to be blocked "to preserve Thai social harmony". He said if the government refuses to comply with the request, he will sue the ministry. He said the group is also planning to put another petition online and to circulate software that would allow Internet users to access blocked sites.

From The Telegraph

Rules to cut children's exposure to junk food adverts were unveiled to a hail of criticism from the food industry and health campaigners.

The food industry said rules were "over the top", could damage the quality of children's television and were riddled with inconsistencies. It also pointed out that regulations allowed fast food companies such as McDonald's to sponsor children's television programmes but banned adverts for olive oil, raisins and Marmite.

The rules, which have gone much further than expected, will cost broadcasters around £39 million in lost advertising revenu. Ofcom will use a nutrition profiling formula devised by the Food Standards Agency to rule which foods are high in fat, salt and sugar.

The ban will cover programmes made for children, dedicated children's channels and shows with a "higher than average" proportion of child viewers.

Ofcom believes its measures will lead to under-16s seeing 41% fewer junk food adverts. Children under nine will see 51% fewer under the changes to be introduced by the end of January.

Health and food campaigners, who have called for a total ban before 9pm, said the regulator had "betrayed children" by not going far enough.

Dr Vivienne Nathanson, head of science and ethics at the British Medical Association, said: Some of the most popular programmes amongst the under-16s are soaps which will not be covered by this ban.

Based on an article from The Times

Computer games depicting brutal and sadistic behaviour, and the ease with which children can obtain them, are to be the subject of a discussion by the European Union.

A new Sony PlayStation game, which shows a young girl being kidnapped and tortured, led to Franco Frattini, the Justice Commissioner, calling yesterday for urgent action to limit the availability of “obscene” material to young people. He has summoned a meeting of EU Home Affairs ministers next month because of his revulsion after watching Rule of Rose.

The game is to be released in Britain on November 24, but is available to order on the internet. It has already sparked an outcry on the Continent: the Mayor of Rome has called for it to be banned.

The game puts the player in the shoes of a teenage girl who is repeatedly beaten and humiliated as she tries to break out of an orphanage. She is bound, gagged, doused with liquids, buried alive and thrown into the “Filth Room”.

It was given a 16-plus rating by the independent Pan European Game Information body (PEGI), but Frattini suggested that voluntary ratings were no longer enough to stop supposedly obscene games falling into younger hands: An increasing number of such games display and even glorify violence, sometimes extreme violence. He singled out Rule of Rose about: a young girl who is submitted to psychological and physical violence. This has shocked me profoundly for its obscene cruelty and brutality.

Frattini hopes that industry representatives will come forward with their own proposals to clean up games aimed at children and find a better way to restrict their distribution to older teenagers: It is first and foremost the responsibility of the parents to protect children from such games, but I nevertheless think that we at member state and European level also have to take responsibility to protect children’s rights. These types of games are dreadful examples for our children.

Sony did not release Rule of Rose in the US for fears of an outcry, particularly over alleged overtones of lesbianism and sadomasochism, but its distribution was taken up by a small independent company. Similarly, the game will be distributed in Britain by an Italian company which has not secured a rating from the BBFC.

A BBFC spokeswoman said: It may not come to us. It’s up to the distributor. If this game is not deemed by the distributor to be gross, they can give it a 16-plus [PEGI] rating.

The EU home affairs ministers’ meeting on December 5 will first look at how to increase awareness of the potential risks of violent computer games with tougher labelling and restrictions on sales to young people. Frattini is suggesting a follow-up conference early next year to consider a voluntary code of conduct on the production of interactive games for children.

His spokesman later added that the PEGI rating was: not sufficient because anybody can buy them. In practical terms, it is not like when you go to a movie and they don’t sell you a ticket.

A spokeswoman for the Department for Culture, Media and Sport said last night that Britain, with jail or fines for supplying 18-rated games to minors, has got strict measures which we think go far enough at present.

From IPP Media

The Tanzanian government has said that there is an on-going crackdown against people who possess pornographic materials.

The Deputy Minister for Information, Culture and Sports, Daniel Nsanzugwanko said that a person found guilty of possessing pornographic material in any form was liable to a two-year jail term or a 200,000/- fine. He said that his ministry, in collaboration with that of Public Safety and Security, was conducting an operation to wipe out the pornography business in Tanzania.

Nsanzugwanko said the operation was there to stay and had already borne fruit as eight people had been taken to court. The business is done in a very secret manner between the buyer and the seller. This makes it difficult to net the culprits, he said.

Nsanzugwanko said he was optimistic that the war against pornography would be won because experts who were conducting the operation were quite experienced and innovative.

He called upon the general public to support the government in its war on pornography by revealing the shops or people who sold the illicit material.

From the International Herald Tribune

Thailand's new military-appointed government is threatening to shut down an operatic version of Asia's classic Ramayana epic, ostensibly over fears one of its scenes may bring bad luck, the opera's composer said.

The opera, Ayodhya, premiered Thursday night and is scheduled for a repeat performance on Saturday, albeit with the 'offensive' scene toned down after pressure from Culture Ministry officials.

The composer, Somtow Sucharitkul, said that ministry officials approached him a few days before the show's opening to complain about a scene involving the on-stage death of a key character, the demon-king, Thotsakan.

The officials, whom Somtow did not identify, said that portraying Thotsakan's death on stage was taboo in Thai culture and would be a "bad omen".

Somtow said the officials told him that: If anything happened to anyone in power in Thailand, it would be blamed on this production."

The idea that depicting death will bring misfortune is usually applied to traditional Thai masked dramas known as "khon," according to theater scholars. It is not known to exist in other Asian countries.

Somtow and the opera's stage director, Hans Nieuwenhuis of the Netherlands Opera Studio, agreed to modify the scene so that the audience would not actually see the character die, though "not a note or word of the libretto was changed," Somtow said.

The following day, however, the ministry sent over a new contract including a broad clause saying that if anything in the opera offended the morals of Thailand, they had the right to close down the opera immediately, said Somtow, who signed it

Julian Petley has written an interesting piece on extreme porn with the theme that it just provides the basis for an awful lot more censorship to come

From The Guardian

Dozens of literary masterpieces and international bestsellers have been banned in Iran in a dramatic rise in censorship that has plunged the country's publishing industry into crisis.

Companies that once specialised in popular fiction and other money-spinners are being restricted to academic texts under a cultural freeze instigated by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Several thousand new and previously published works have been blacklisted by Iran's culture and Islamic guidance ministry, which vets all books.

Newly banned books include translations of Tracy Chevalier's best-seller Girl With a Pearl Earring and Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code, the latter for upsetting clerics within Iran's tiny Christian community. The crackdown also covers classics, such as William Faulkner's As I Lay Dying, and scores of works by Iranian authors.

Another publishing house has been banned from selling a successful series of books featuring lyrics by the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, the Doors, Black Sabbath, Queen and Guns n' Roses. Stores were told to remove the books or face closure. Permission was subsequently denied for the publisher to reprint.

Crisis talks between Iran's publishing union and the culture ministry have failed to ease the situation. We have books on psychology, history, politics and folklore which have been sitting for nine months and still no answer, a publisher told the Guardian.

The clampdown has been headed by the hardline culture minister, Mohammed Hossein Saffar Harandi, a former revolutionary guard and close ally of Ahmadinejad. Opening Iran's national book week festival this week, Saffar Harandi said a tougher line was needed to stop publishers from serving a poisoned dish to the young generation. He said some books deliberately gave Iranians a sense of inferiority and encouraged them to be lackeys of the west.

Based on an article from LA Times

An Italian comedian has given a whole new meaning to the term irreverence with slapstick television skits in which he portrays an unmistakable Pope Benedict XVI, complete with thick white hair and heavy German accent. This pope, however, also goose steps and possesses a giddy obsession with fashion.

The Vatican is not amused.

Avvenire, the official newspaper of the Italian Bishops' Conference, blasted the parodies by comedian Maurizio Crozza as "failed satire" that bordered on the cowardly. These are vulgar television programs ... that attempt to ridicule figures dear to the Catholic world, Avvenire said.

The pope's personal secretary, Msgr. Georg Ganswein, also spoke out. Such satires, he said, should be yanked from the airwaves. Of course he has never watched them, Ganswein hastened to add, and never will.

Satire is fine, Ganswein said: ...BUT...these things have no intellectual level and offend men of the church. They are not acceptable.

From IFEX

Singapore, a city-state with some of the world's strictest controls on free expression and assembly, plans to tighten laws governing the Internet and public gatherings. The Southeast Asian Press Alliance (SEAPA) and Reporters Without Borders (Reporters sans frontières, RSF) have expressed concern about the proposed amendments, which are part of a penal code review.

Under the suggested amendments, bloggers and other Internet users could face prison sentences or fines for defamation, making "statements that cause public mischief" and "wounding" of racial or religious feelings. Documents, including film and sound recordings, sent over the Internet could also be subject to criminal prosecution.

The amendments, which include a provision making it an offence for anyone outside the country to abet an offence committed within the country, would allow the authorities to prosecute Internet users living abroad.

Also of concern to SEAPA and RSF is a proposed amendment to strengthen limits on "unlawful assembly." Outdoor gatherings of more than four people already require a police permit. The amendments would give the government more power to act against public gatherings as it would no longer have to prove in court an intention to cause a disturbance.

The proposals will come before parliament at the beginning of 2007. RSF recently ranked Singapore 146th out of 167 countries in its 2006 Worldwide Press Freedom Index.

The Government have announced a new Criminal Injustice Bill in the Queen's Speech.

This will make it a criminal offence to view images of rape and sexual torture. Offenders would be liable to be jailed for up to three years, even if the images actually featured actors who had given their consent.

The BBFC gave the UK cinema release a 12A rating.

From 7 Days

The Distributors of new movie The Queen said they would appeal the film’s rating after Dubai censors gave it an “Above 15” rating even thought the film, which is set for general release today across the UAE, doesn’t include any violence, sexual content, nudity or even profanity.

Nassim Khoury, marketing executive at Front Row Films, said distributors expected the film, which tells the story of Queen Elizabeth and her handling of Princess Diana’s death, to get a general rating - which means children of any age can attend. Instead, it got an “Above 15” rating even preventing parents from accompanying their younger kids to the movie.

The censor said he didn’t believe people younger than 15 would want to watch it, Khoury said: We will appeal the movie’s rating because the censors’ should follow specific and set standards not their own personal opinions. The film’s rating is expected to slash its revenue, with the loss of group bookings made by schools where the film detailing recent historical and cultural events would have been on the must-see list. The censor added: Also I don’t think a movie telling how bad the queen treated Diana would be understood by a nine-year-old.

From the Bangkok Post

The Thai National Legislative Assembly (NLA) yesterday approved in principle a bill which will allow the state to punish people responsible for computer-based crimes including data theft and the dissemination of pornographic materials. A vetting committee is set to scrutinise the bill in seven days.

The bill, accepted by the NLA in a 170 to 4 vote, is sponsored by the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Ministry. It seeks imprisonment and fines for those found guilty of crimes of theft and destruction of data, dissemination of falsified data, and of pornographic materials. For example, someone forwarding a pornographic email could be sentenced to up to three years in jail and fined up to 10,000 baht if found guilty under the new law.

The bill will govern the use of not only computer-based communications but also devices capable of similar functions including mobile phones.

However, assembly members raised concerns that the legislation should also protect individuals' rights and curb the authority of officials who regulate communications.

Assemblyman Chalongphob Sussangkarn said the legislation should punish only those who intentionally commit an offence. The stipulated 30-day seizure of computers belonging to offenders, and confiscation of relevant equipment and data should also not be based on officials' judgement only, he said.

Another NLA member, Viriya Namsiripongpan, suggested officials be forced to seek a court warrant before making any seizures to prevent unfair treatment.

Assemblyman Borwornsak Uwanno suggested the bill be widened to cover ''improper'' content uploaded to overseas servers and the spread of internet messages originating from overseas-registered domains which offend the monarchial institution.

Another member, Kanchana Silpa-archa, said measures should be put in place to control internet cafes where users need not identify themselves.

From the BBC

London Underground (LU) has been accused of censorship after refusing to put up posters for a comedy show.

LU said adverts for the show Pride and Prejudice and Niggas by African-American comedian Reginald D Hunter were likely to offend.

Hunter told the BBC the term refers to people with "impoverished mentality" rather than their ethnicity or race.

LU said posters could be put up if the title was changed, but Hunter said that would compromise his integrity. He said it was "censorship by a corporation rather than a government".

A statement from LU said: London Underground and Viacom work closely to ensure that when we consider advertising appropriate for the Tube, we take into account words or phrases that may offend some passengers. On this occasion, it was felt that the poster is likely to offend, so we took the decision to turn it down.

The three-week show is due to open on 4 December and runs until 23rd December 2006 at the Arts theatre, Great Newport Street, London, WC2H 7JB

From The Independent

A ban on television adverts for junk food has been agreed by the media regulator, Ofcom, after three years of rancour between health campaigners and the advertising industry.

In a move which will have wide-ranging consequences for television channels, advertisers and the health of the nation, the board of Ofcom agreed that advertising of foods deemed officially unhealthy should be halted before a nightly watershed to protect children.

Adverts for burgers, sweets and soft drinks will now be banned from children's television in the afternoon. A ban on the adverts into the evening is likely, with the cut-off point expected to range between 7pm and 9pm.

From Asian Sex Gazette

Malaysian government leaders have rebuked a local newspaper for publishing a frank expose of sexual attitudes among the country's youth.

The Weekend Mail gave detailed descriptions of favorite sex positions from its survey that delivered on its front-page promise: "You'll be shocked."

I received endless calls and SMS over the articles, Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak told a ruling-party meeting Sunday.

The minister for women, family and community development called the feature irresponsible and "downright vulgar."

The New Straits Times Press Bhd, which prints the Weekend Mail and The Malay Mail daily, apologized unreservedly for the stories and said it would question the editors. The articles were offensive and distasteful, the publisher's chief executive, Syed Faisal Albar, said in the apology displayed on the front page of The Malay Mail on Monday.

From See No Evil

Letter from Cathie Jamieson, Scottish Justice Minister

Your constituent will wish to know that we have not come to a final decision on whether or not new legislation is required. We will of course take into account the points made by Ms ****** and others during the consultation period when considering the way forward. if we do decide to introduce legislation in this area, we will of course endevour to ensure that any definition of violence is both clear and workable. I would also like to make clear that we would not criminalise the possession of images of activities which were themselves lawful.

I note Ms ******'s concerns about the human rights implications of any proposed legislation. She may be interested to know that under the terms of the Human Rights Act 1998, all public authorities in the UK, including the Scottish Executive, are required to abide by the terms of the European Convention on Human Rights. In addition, the Scotland Act 1998 also states that the Scottish Executive and the Scottish Parliament cannot do anything that does not comply with the Convention."

Comment from Teddy:

I don`t know whether to be encouraged or just downright amused by this!

"I would also like to make clear that we would not criminalise the possession of images of activities which were themselves lawful."

This in total contradiction to the HO proclamations, which have stated the desire to proscribe "realistic depictions"...and this is the Scottish Minister for Justice talking...

Thanks to Peter: We've absolutely got to fight this.

From The Times

Labour’s new legislation looks distinctly dog-eared.

The Queen’s speech at the state opening of parliament on Wednesday will be Tony Blair’s last as prime minister. Judging from what is expected, he and his government are running short of ideas. There is a sense of déjà vu about the package which is expected to include bills on:

Law and order. A bill on criminal justice will amalgamate previously trailed policies under one act, including reforms to the sentencing regime and a new (but previously announced) offence of possessing “violent and extreme pornography”.

From Refused Classification

The Welcome to Greensborough, a 2005 Australian film by Tom McEvoy has just been banned by the Australian censor.

The film screened at the 2005 Melbourne Underground Film Festival where it picked up a couple of awards, Best Editing & Best Guerrilla Film

The rise and revenge of Youth! The Australian answer to Kids, Gummo and Ken Park. The first Australian film I know of to have been refused a classification from the OFLC (…a first film historians?). Why? Because this film is about young people, made by young people…that actually dared to have scenes of late teenagers having sex. Shock Horror…that doesn’t go on does it? This is no Larry Clark drooling over teenagers here; this is young people reflecting their world, where in that world sixteen year old girls fuck sixteen-year-old guys. Well not anymore, director Tom McEvoy had to reshoot his love scenes with actors over 18. So the Melbourne