John Beyer Uptight about tights

Tuning into GMTV yesterday, viewers were told to expect a display of the High Street's snazziest tights ahead of the Christmas party season.

Instead erotic dancers appeared once Lorraine Kelly announced a three-minute fashion feature on how to 'glam up' with this season's tights at 8.50am.

But when three models in corsets and short black skirts arrived on set with a portable pole, even the presenter seemed a little taken aback.

And gathering herself together at the end of the feature, she added hastily: This is not naughty pole-dancing, this is pole-dancing for exercise. We did not concentrate on the tights. We were too busy looking at your great moves, she said.

The usual nutters were not amused however. John Beyer, of the TV campaign group Mediawatch UK, said: It is absolutely inappropriate for pole dancing to be promoted in a show of that kind at that time of day when children could be watching. As it was an item about tights, it seems the pole dancing was completely unnecessary. I wish ITV would concentrate on producing more wholesome television.

A GMTV spokeswoman said: Pole-dancing is the latest keep fit craze and is great for upper body strength and toning so we thought it would be a fun way to illustrate these tights.

Comment: Manufactured Outrage

From Dan

However there are no mention of any complaints from viewers and it just seems yet another attempt by the Daily Mail to manufacture outrage about something on TV that not many people are bothered about by wheeling out Beyer for an outraged quote.

Freemuse, the World Forum on Music and Censorship, says that media organizations around the world will join in celebrating Music Freedom Day on 3 March 2008.

It is day which can serve as a focus point for the media - an occasion to take a closer look at the subject of banned music, and the lives of blacklisted musicians, said Freemuse Executive Director Marie Korpe.

So far, seven media organizations from four countries are planning programs for Music Freedom Day broadcast. They include the CBC, which will be presenting a music documentary called Censor This! on that day. Seventeen other CBC radio and television programs will feature reports on music and censorship for a week.

The BBC's Radio 3 will be airing a special report on the program Songlines.

The Nobel Peace Center in Oslo will host a concert celebrating Music Freedom Day in March 2008. The concert will feature artists who are facing music censorship and will be broadcasted by NRK – the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation.

March 3rd is the annual Music Freedom Day where Freemuse invites musicians and journalists to consider directing their activities or programming on this day, or the days leading up to it, on the subject of banned music.

A prosecutor is investigating whether to press charges against the Turkish publisher of a bestselling book by atheist writer Richard Dawkins for inciting religious hatred.

Publisher Erol Karaaslan said yesterday that he would be questioned by an Istanbul prosecutor as part of an official investigation into The God Delusion, written by the British expert in evolutionary biology.

Karaaslan could go on trial if the prosecutor concludes the book incites religious hatred and insults religious values, and faces up to one year in prison if found guilty, Milliyet newspaper reported.

The prosecutor started the inquiry into the book after one reader complained that passages in the book were an assault on "sacred values", Karaaslan said.

The publisher said he would be questioned today and faces prosecution both as the book's publisher and translator. The book has sold 6,000 copies in Turkey since it was published by his Kuzey publishing house in June.

The EU, which Turkey hopes to join, is pressing Ankara to change laws that curb free expression and do not fit within the bloc's standards of free speech. Turkey has said it will soften a law which makes it a crime to denigrate Turkish identity or insult the country's institutions.

Douma (puppet) was a Street Fighter style game set in Lebanese politics. The online game lasted only a day before authorities compelled its creator, known only as “Z.F.”, to take it down.

Douma’s designer ZF told the Daily Star: We tried, with a medium we know [games], to give the people their given rights as citizens, to control the attitude and decisions of the politicians they elect … We tried to find another way for the fans to relieve their anger.

Players could choose their combatants from among seven prominent political figures. An eighth announces each round by riding across the battleground on a moped. From the newspaper account:

Each zaim (”chief”) has a special move with particularly devastating effects. The Hajj Hassan character’s secret weapon, for example, is a battery of Katyusha rockets, while Geagea’s is a kneeling prayer that summons the crushing fist of “God.”

ZF is hopeful the game may return soon: We are working on it, and fast, we’re just looking for the right way to do it.

The French lobbying group, the Internet Rights Forum (Le Forum des droits sur l'internet) has issued guidelines for online game publishers and legislators.

Some of the recommendations, notably those relating to online advertising or protecting minors, could be applicable across Europe, said Forum spokesman Laurent Baup, while others specifically address French laws restricting hate speech or defining intellectual-property rights.

Among the group's wishes are the inclusion of an on-screen timer to make players more aware of how long they spend online, and changes to the content ratings publishers apply to online games.

Games that allow participants to chat using voice or instant text turns it into a public space where game publishers no longer control all that goes on, the Forum warned. Deciding whether the player or the publisher is responsible for the content of messages that turn out to be defamatory is a complex task. Publishers face another challenge: deciding whether such remarks make appropriate viewing for young players.

Game publishers already use the voluntary Pan European Game Info (PEGI) system to rate the suitability of offline game content for players of different ages. It rates games as suitable for those aged 3+, 7+, 12+, 16+ and 18+. PEGI's creator, the Interactive Software Federation of Europe, also operates a rating system for online games, PEGI Online. But confusingly, that system takes no account of content that users might introduce to a game, it merely serves as a warning to parents that a game includes online features, the Forum said.

The Internet Rights Forum wants the PEGI Online ratings system strengthened. The group proposes that no game allowing players to send text messages can be rated 3+ or 7+, and that such games can be rated 12+ only if messages are moderated by an adult before transmission.

The Forum also wants publishers to guarantee that age ratings will apply to in-game advertisements, and to put warnings on packaging if an online game contains ads.

Information about age ratings could also be made available electronically to parental control software on PCs, so that the software can restrict young players' access to inappropriate games.

The Forum wants to make older players more aware of the time they spend online, and called upon publishers to incorporate an on-screen stopwatch in their games, showing the duration of the current session.

The Internet Rights Forum plans to create a Web site for parents and teachers, explaining in simple terms for nonplayers what online games are about and what risks they pose. The site should launch early next year.

A hit television series described as Italy’s answer to The Sopranos has been ordered off the air by the country’s justice minister who claims it glamorises the Mafia.

Clemente Mastella said the final episode of Il Capo dei Capi (The Boss of All the Bosses) will not air this week. It will be suspended, he said: I do not believe that television, even a private network, should be allowed to sing the praises of the Godfather.

The series, broadcast on Silvio Berlusconi’s Mediaset network, has become essential viewing with an average of seven million viewers a week. It tells the life story of Salvatore “Toto” Riina, 67, who ran the Sicilian Mafia in the 1980s.

Rockstar has launched its appeal against the BBFC's decision to refuse Manhunt 2 certification, accusing the board of putting its reputation above the interests of gamers.

Geoffrey Robertson, representing Rockstar, began the proceedings at the Video Appeals Committee hearing by claiming the British Board of Film Classification was a misnomer - suggesting it should instead be referred to as the British Board of Videogame Censors.

There's no evidence that playing interactive videogames leads to a propensity to act them out in real life. We wonder why Manhunt 2 has been singled out for special treatment, he stated.

Robertson went on to accuse the BBFC of being simply ignorant of the gaming experience and throwing adjectives with hyperbolic abandon at the game. Their reputation is not at stake; if it were we could show how, over the last century, they've been derided for some of the most stupid decisions in censorship history, he continued. But we're not going to go down that road.

According to statistics presented by Robertson, there are 26.5 million gamers in the UK. Their average age is 28 and the gender split is 45 per cent female, 55 per cent male.

Addressing the panel from the Video Appeals Committee present to hear Rockstar's appeal Robertson said, There you are, seven of you - not one of you has experienced, I'm told by the chairman, computer games, or are a gamer.

At this point one member of the panel interjected, stating, That's not true. Some of us actually have played computer games. It was also confirmed that the panel did play Manhunt 2 in advance of the hearing.

Robertson described as offensive and outrageous the allegation the board makes against adults in this country that they're somehow going to go and shoot or kill as a result of playing Manhunt 2.

Millions of gamers play videogames and no crime has ever been directly attributed to them, with one exception. And in that case, the murder of British teenager Stefan Pakeerah, it was found that there was no connection.

From Escapist see full article

Tiga CEO Fred Hasson and psychologist Guy Cumberbatch have spoken out in defense of Rockstar at the company's appeal.

Hasson said he stood behind his earlier claims that the BBFC made its decision to ban the game based on articles in the Daily Mail and other publications, saying, I can only come to the conclusion that is the case. Having seen the content of the game, I can't see any other reason why they've done that.

Hasson claimed he was surprised at how tame it is compared to some very graphical scenes I've seen in other games which have received certification. I expected it to be a lot worse... I can't believe this has been singled out as something that is worth banning.

Cumberbatch, who has done extensive research into media violence, said he conducted a survey in which 86 respondents, all of whom had seen at least two 18-rated movies and played two 18-rated videogames, played Manhunt 2 for 15 minutes and also viewed a series of video clips taken from different levels of the game. They were then asked how they felt the game compared to other games and films; 68% said other games on the market were equally violent, while 80% said equally violent films were available. Further, according to Cumberbatch, several respondents indicated that gamers would be "disappointed" with the level of violence in the game.

Certainly no one's going to suggest Manhunt 2 is one of the least violent games around, Cumberbatch said: In my own limited experience of playing Manhunt 2, it's fairly sanitized as a work compared with what you might expect in a film.

The BBFC have their Say

From Euro Gamer see full article

The BBFC has accepted there is no proven link between anti-social behaviour and violent videogames - but said more research is required to conclusively rule any connection out.

Speaking at the appeal hearing yesterday Andrew Caldecott, representing the BBFC, stated: The board's position is that there is insufficient evidence to prove, as a fact, there is a causal connection between violent games and behavioural harm... It's a perfectly fair point, and one which we accept, but it's not by any means a complete answer to the question the [Video Appeals Committee] has to decide.

On the subject of research presented earlier by Rockstar in defence of its argument, Caldecott said: The research certainly achieves the objective of establishing that research does not demonstrate that there is a causal link. But what it certainly does not establish is that there isn't.

He went on to observe that neither side had suggested Manhunt 2 was suitable for people aged under 18 at any point during the hearing. For a young person, this is a disturbing game, it is a shocking game, and there are issues about innocence and matters of that sort in relation to young people. In a Utopian society, you would have effective measures where the over-18s could play what was suitable for them without being cluttered by the fact minors will see them. But you can't make classification decisions without regard to the social prevalence [of games].

Caldecott went on to present the BBFC's response to the argument that videogames should be judged by the same standards as films such as Saw and Hostel. He told the appeals panel, Film is a different medium; it is simply is a different experience. There are ways in which it is perhaps more involving, because you are dealing with absolute reality, with real people, in film. On the other hand, many people watch horror films to some extent from the point of view of the victim, or the point of view of what's going to happen - not with this very distinctive point of view of being the person who's wielding the weapon, and is rewarded for killing in the bloodiest way possible.

Caldecott later suggested that videogames with violent content are more likely to be seen by children than violent films. A videogame is inherently less likely to be strictly supervised, and that is supported by research, he said, adding that violent films are usually watched late at night.

Turning to Manhunt 2 specifically, Caldecott focused on the nature of the game's violent content. In this particular game, the victims are people. They are not aliens or griffins or Daleks... You see lots of human beings quite mercilessly kicking and punching other human beings as you move through the game.

"It's a frequent theme of level one, which is the only one I've actually played right through. Even when you're not killing someone yourself, you're passing someone who's getting a good beating or having an unpleasant time.

He also pointed to the weapons used in the game as a particular area for concern. They're not magic wands or Excalibur; many of them are everyday objects.

Concluding the hearing, the chairman of the Video Appeals Committee said: This is a very important case and there is an awful lot we must consider. We will work hard at it and get you a decision as soon as possible. A date was not set for the announcement of the decision.

The head of the Federal Communications Commission is struggling to find enough support from a majority of the agency’s commissioners to regulate cable television companies more tightly.

The five-member commission is set to vote on Tuesday on a report, proposed by Kevin J. Martin, the agency’s chairman, that would give the commission expanded powers over the cable industry after making a formal finding that it had grown too big.

After news reports this month that Martin supported the finding — along with the commission’s two Democrats — the cable industry heavily lobbied the commission and allies in Congress to kill the proposal. Those efforts may be paying off.

Replying to questions on a BBC TV programme, Lord Carey of Clifton, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, has publicly agreed with the Christian think-tank Ekklesia that it is time for Britain's archaic blasphemy law to be abolished.

Lord Carey, who is an outspoken conservative evangelical within the Church of England, was responding to comments by Ekklesia co-director Jonathan Bartley on a discussion about blasphemy on BBC1's Sunday morning current affairs and religion programme, The Big Questions.

The ex-Archbishop protested against what he said was an increase in "offensive" material about Christianity in the public domain, including Jerry Springer - The Opera. But Lord Carey said that Christ told his followers to put away their swords and did not seek to defend faith by force.

Bartley said that a blasphemy law was itself blasphemous from a theological viewpoint, because it suggested that the transcendent God somehow needed human laws for protection.

The Committee to Protect Journalists honored five journalists with its 2007 International Press Freedom Awards in a ceremony Tuesday night that highlighted the fight for justice in journalist murders, and an increase in the targeting of journalists in reprisal for their work.

2007 CPJ International Press Freedom Awardees:

• Dmitry Muratov is editor-in-chief of Novaya Gazeta, the only truly critical newspaper with national influence in Russia today. He founded the paper in 1993 and is still its driving force. Novaya Gazeta, with a staff of 60, is known for its in-depth investigations on sensitive issues such as high-level corruption, human rights violations, and abuse of power. It has paid a heavy price for this pioneering work; three of its reporters have been killed. The most recent casualty was investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya, who gained international recognition for her independent coverage of Chechnya and the North Caucasus.
   
• Mazhar Abbas is a well-known champion of press freedom in Pakistan who has worked as a journalist for 27 years and has endured repeated threats as a result of his work. He is deputy director of ARY One World Television, an Urdu and Hindi-language 24-hour news channel from Pakistan, and secretary-general of the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists.
  
  In May, he was one of three journalists who found bullets in white envelopes attached to their cars when they came out of a late-night meeting at the Karachi Press Club. He was on the hit list of the Mohajir Rabita Council, an ethnic political group in Pakistan’s southern province of Sindh, which is allied with President Pervez Musharraf. Abbas was also charged by police earlier this year after protesting the closure of three independent TV channels for reporting on anti-Musharraf demonstrations.
   
• Adela Navarro Bello, 39, is the general director of the weekly magazine Zeta in the border city of Tijuana, Mexico. Created in 1980, Zeta is one of the only publications to regularly run investigations on organized crime, drug trafficking, and corruption in Mexico’s northern states, where self-censorship is rampant. The cost of Zeta’s coverage of crime along the U.S.-Mexico border has been high: Héctor Félix Miranda, co-founder of the magazine, was killed in 1988, and co-editor Francisco Ortiz Franco was murdered in 2004.
   
• Gao Qinrong, who worked as a reporter for China’s official Xinhua News Agency in the northern province of Shanxi, was released last year after spending eight years in prison. In 1998, the investigative reporter exposed a scam irrigation project in his home province; Xinhua didn’t publish the report but it was circulated in the internal edition of People’s Daily, which is distributed to Communist Party leaders. When the story went on to attract national media attention from other news outlets, local officials blamed Gao. He was charged with a laundry list of crimes, including embezzlement, fraud, and even pimping, and sentenced to a 12-year jail term. After his early release for good behavior—he ran a prison newspaper—Gao gave lengthy interviews to Chinese and international news organizations. Before it was shut down domestically, coverage of his case drew new attention to the issue of press freedom in China. Gao is struggling to get the charges against him dropped so he can return to working as a reporter.
   
• Tom Brokaw, one of the most trusted and respected figures in broadcast journalism, received the Burton Benjamin Memorial Award given for a lifetime of distinguished achievement in the cause of press freedom.

The northern community radio network will protest to the Chiang Mai governor after two of its 10 member stations broadcasting in a hilltribe dialect were forced off the air for supposed security reasons.

Sangmuang Mangkorn, coordinator of the Chiang Mai-based Migration Action Programme, said a man claiming to represent the Third Army called up the two stations, in Fang and Chom Thong districts, and ordered them to stop broadcasting, citing security reasons. The stations broadcast in Karen dialect.

He said there might be a political motive behind the closure order as the Dec 23 general election was approaching. It is widely known that the majority of hilltribe people who have Thai ID cards were key supporters of the dissolved Thai Rak Thai party, which has been resurrected as the People Power party.

Sangmuang said his radio station in Chiang Mai's Muang district, which broadcasts in the ethnic Shan dialect on FM 99 MHz, had also been warned that it might be shut down even though the station's programme content focuses on health and law issues.

Culture Minister Khaisri Sri-aroon

The Ministry of Culture warns that news coverage about adultery scandals of public figures, including politicians and celebrities, might violate Article 9 of the 2007 Act Protecting the Victims Suffered from Family’s Violence.

The Director of the Center for the Protection of Children’s Rights Foundation, Mr Shapphasit Khumpraphan says the media cannot reveal the victims' names of family violence as prohibited by Article 9 of the Act. Penalties include an imprisonment not exceeding six months and/or a fine of up to 60,000 baht.

Shapphasit also suggested the media cover news which benefit society, while ensuring that news stories concerning violence in families do not contain the names of either the offenders or the victims.

Microsoft abruptly closed down four pro-anorexia websites in Spain after a complaint that they were endangering the lives of teenage girls.

The websites, which offer tips such as take up smoking and if your stomach rumbles, hit it, were accused of teaching teenagers how to starve themselves.

Internet companies usually wait for a court order before closing any sites that they host. But Microsoft acted swiftly after complaints from a Catalan watchdog that several blogs on its Live Spaces community glorified starvation as a lifestyle choice.

Jaime Esteban, an official from Microsoft's Spanish division, agreed that the blogs infringe all the rules on content created by users and visible on our sites. He thanked the internet watchdog, IQUA, for alerting it to the sites and invited it to get in contact if it found any other objectionable content.

The Catalan authorities have heaped praise on Microsoft's swift action. Santiago Ramentol, the president of IQUA, said that he was very satisfied with the decision of the company, given the lack of worldwide laws regulating the use (of the internet).

He said that other internet hosts they had approached in similar cases, such as Google or Hispavista, had demanded court judgments before acting.

Independent journalists in Kazakhstan say authorities have signaled their desire to place domestic Internet content under stricter government regulation.

The journalists said that at recent meetings with Culture and Information Minister Yermukhamet Yertysbaev, the minister had recommended they not publish material based on audio recordings of top officials' conversations.

The meetings came after several opposition websites during the past month posted reports or audio recordings of purported phone conversations by current or former government officials that included discussions of illegal or unethical activities. The source of the recordings has not been established, although many believe they came from the Kazakh president's estranged former son-in-law and ex-national security deputy director, Rakhat Aliev.

The National Secular Society has demanded an explanation from West Midlands Police about why it conducted a witch hunt against the makers of Channel 4's Dispatches programme Undercover Mosque. But attempts by the NSS to force the W. Midlands force to explain their actions through the Police Authority and the Independent Police Complaints Authority have been dismissed.

The NSS has tried to discover what was behind the West Midlands (WM) police's pursuit of the programme-makers by initiating a formal complaint against WM Police and its Police Authority, and later appealing to the Independent Police Complaints Authority. As we suspected would happen, these have been ruled inadmissible – third party compplaints will not be entertained, even when there is a public interest at stake. We made the complaints to register our concerns and, if they were rejected, to draw attention to the inability in such circumstances to challenge the police.

Keith Porteous Wood, Executive Director of the NSS, said: We welcome Ofcom's adjudication. But it raises the uncomfortable question as to why the top echelons of West Midlands Police and their Police Authority were prepared to go to such extraordinary lengths to try to punish Channel 4 executives for exposing the truth about the situation in mosques.

The supervisory bodies — The Independent Police Complaints Commission and HM Inspector of Constabularies — although acknowledging the seriousness of the complaints, were powerless to investigate. The Police Reform Act should be amended to permit consideration of third party public interest complaints in serious cases. This is even worse than shooting the messenger. If the police had managed to bring a prosecution or their Ofcom complaint had been successful, it would have sent the clear signal that they had the power to silence journalists investigating issues that were inconvenient to them. This would have resulted in a disastrous increase in self-censorship.

A major investigation should be launched into whether regional police forces can be vulnerable to undue local pressure. The Government must also take some blame for creating an environment in which religion and race are conflated in the public sector thinking, and for creating a climate where religion is given a privileged position, and it seems, excused a great deal.

From the Guardian see full article

David Henshaw, the managing director of Hardcash Productions which made the Dispatches film Undercover Mosque , said he was still "very, very angry" and considering legal action

With the backing of Channel 4 he hoped to launch a libel action against the West Midlands police and a Crown Prosecution Service lawyer who was quoted in a joint press release accusing Hardcash Productions of "completely distorting" what some of the preachers were saying. The media regulator dismissed the complaint saying it was a legitimate investigation.

Hardcash's reputation has been severely damaged and it was a good reputation, Henshaw told the Guardian. The Ofcom judgment is great. But damage was done that day in August, huge damage.

David Davis, the Shadow Home Secretary, said: Once they [the police] were clear that no criminal offence had been committed, it was, in my view, a serious misjudgment to continue to pursue the editorial team and risked impeding freedom of speech.

“The Dispatches programme raised matters of wide public interest, touching on security and community relations. The documentary handled inherently sensitive issues in a responsible manner. Having been advised by the Crown Prosecution Service that no criminal charges should be brought, there was no cause for a police complaint to Ofcom. That decision drew the police into scrutinising editorial decisions of a television producer, which is not an appropriate law enforcement function and risks deterring legitimate investigative journalism.

Don Foster, media spokesman for the Liberal Democrats, said: This whole case raises serious questions about West Midlands Police and the CPS in what appears to be an attempt to censor television, stifle investigative journalism and inhibit open debate.

The owners of a clothes shop have been ordered by police to censor artwork depicting a naked man for fear it may cause "harassment, alarm or distress" to the public.

An officer from Gwent Police told Flick Sawkins and Angela Harker of Starling Vendetta Boutique they could be prosecuted under section 5 of the Public Order Act unless the offending body part was covered.

A strategically-placed fig leave now hides the modesty of the "window installation" by artist Kate Montgomery which takes pride of place in the shop’s window in Newport, south Wales.

Wardens working for Newport City Council were initially approached by shoppers several weeks ago concerning the naked body before the complaint was passed to police.

According to Newport West MP Paul Flynn, there is now a 140 strong petition demanding the removal of the fig leaf on the grounds of artistic freedom plus a bit of council-bashing. On his website blog, he added: It’s difficult to believe that anyone would be outraged by what seems to be a human body made out of rags – sorry an attractive vintage art object.

It seems the owners of the boutique, which only opened last month, are similarly incredulous about the cover-up. On their website they said: We don’t entirely agree with this decision and would be interested to know what you, our customers, think.

The Daily Mail reported:

Mr Green said he was 'hugely disappointed' Liberty was seeking to use his case to challenge blasphemy laws, which he described as vital for protecting God's name.

He added: "It is a great shame that Liberty have gone down this road, and strayed away from their core activities of defending civil liberties, which we as an organisation support."

Looooooooool! Christian Voice support defending civil liberties!

Yeah they do! They want civil liberties for all...

Apart from gays.

And people who say things which upset their precious religious beliefs.

Yeah civil liberties for all say Christian Voice!

Lol!

From the Times

Meanwhile the case has now completed and the High Court reserved judgment on whether Christian evangelists could bring prosecutions against Mark Thompson, BBC Director-General, and the producer of the controversial show Jerry Springer – The Opera.

A time scale for the publication of the judgement has not yet been provided

Unhappy with her daughter's private school, Sonjia McSween created a blog to warn other parents.

The unexpected result: The New School of Orlando Inc. slapped McSween with a defamation lawsuit to stop her from publishing and talking about the school and force McSween to pay damages.

Some say it's a case of censorship. Others say First Amendment rights have nothing to do with it.

Rebecca Jeschke, spokeswoman for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which advocates digital free-speech rights and maintains a legal guide for bloggers said: People need to get used to this new world where everyone has a soapbox and can use it.

Also known as New School Preparatory, the kindergarten-through-eighth grade school alleges that McSween deliberately told unflattering lies, causing enrollment to drop. It alleges defamation, libel, slander and interference with business relations.

McSween contends that she was just sharing what happened to her and her daughter, Logan.

The problem started after Logan, now 7, began kindergarten at New School Preparatory in 2005. She withdrew in January and attends another private school. McSween said she spent thousands on tuition, books and registration for the school to "mistreat" her daughter.

My daughter went from being a happy child to a child who was scared to make a mistake because she was not perfect, McSween said.

The lawsuit says McSween posted false and otherwise libelous remarks alleging that students at the Marks Street school were belittled, exposed to "extreme stress" and "dictatorial conditions." She further alleged that the school told parents how to run their homes and threatened parents for speaking negatively about New School Preparatory.

Lawrence Walters, an Altamonte Springs First Amendment lawyer unfamiliar with the New School case, said lawsuits often are designed to stifle criticism by forcing defendants to back down to avoid expensive litigation.

US nutters, Reclaim Our Culture Kentuckiana (ROCK) has launched Phase II of its anti-adult entertainment campaign with the recent erection of a billboard along Interstate 65 in Southern Indiana.

The billboard, depicting "someone's daughter," according to ROCK, shows a young woman along with a blood-spattered "XXX." According to a statement on the GROUP's website, This latest image will highlight the sexual exploitation of women.

A similar billboard, without the blood-spattered slash mark across the letters "XXX," but instead featuring a set of handcuffs, which reads "Garbage in, garbage out" was placed by the GROUP in July across from signage promoting a local adult bookstore. A third sign, phase three of the GROUP's campaign, is planned for a future erection — highlighting what the GROUP sees as the harm adult entertainment businesses inflict on children.

According to the ROCK website, the GROUP is also engaged in the areas of freedom of religious expression regarding efforts to push expressions of faith out of the public arena, attacks on marriage, [the] culture of death in our society as well as secular humanism and new atheism.

The Committee to Protect Journalists is greatly alarmed that news channels on the Pakistani networks GEO TV and ARY Digital were ordered by authorities to halt transmission from the United Arab Emirates after refusing to sign a Pakistani government-mandated “code of conduct.”

GEO TV was ordered by the UAE Information Ministry in Dubai to cease satellite and Internet broadcasts by midnight local time on Friday, according to Sami Abraham, senior correspondent and producer of GEO TV in New York. ARY Digital received a similar order with no reason given for the shut down, according to ARY news director Mohsin Raza.

We are surprised that the authorities in Dubai, which is developing as a regional free trade and communications hub, would prevent such satellite transmissions, said CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon. We call on Pakistani and UAE authorities to reverse this order immediately and allow private TV networks to report on the important developments taking place in Pakistan without being subject to stifling official restrictions.

Questions must now be raised in Parliament about the behaviour of the West Midland police. By their actions, they have made the people of Britain signally less safe.

The Dispatches programme performed a public service in exposing sources of the kind of extremism that threatens the safety and security of this country. For the police to turn on this programme with patently implausible charges against it is deeply sinister and against the public interest. As Channel Four said after the ruling, the police action had given: legitimacy to people preaching a message of hate.

The West Midlands police appear to have turned themselves into a mouthpiece for Islamists trying to shut down legitimate and necessary debate. The idea that the police should believe that ‘community cohesion’ — aka the sensitivities of the Muslim community – should trump the need to identify those endangering not only the cohesion but the security of the whole country suggests that the police have totally lost the plot here.

There is also something badly wrong with a system which is unable to act against those identified on this programme inciting hatred in this way. Is this because of the pusillanimity of the CPS? Is it the inadequacy of the law? Whatever the reason, this is the way a culture offers up its own throat to the knife.

In what appears to be looming political trouble for the video game industry, four United States senators have signed a letter calling for a “thorough review” of the ESRB rating system.

Senators Hillary Clinton, Joe Lieberman, Evan Bayh and Sam Brownback sent the letter to ESRB president Patricia Vance yesterday. The move was prompted by the furore surrounding the M rating assigned by the ESRB to a revised version of Manhunt 2.

All four senators have been critics of the video game industry in the past. Clinton, of course, is the front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination. From the letter:

As you know, in June 2007, the British Board of Film Classification refused to rate Rockstar’s Manhunt 2 videogame … stating that it contains ‘unremitting bleakness and callousness of tone. In October 2007, the BBFC again refused to rate a revised Manhunt 2 stating that ‘the impact of the revisions on the bleakness and callousness of tone … is clearly insufficient.

[The ESRB, however,] reduced the revised version’s rating to “Mature,” effectively opening the door to its widespread distribution and its licensing approval by game system manufacturers Sony and Nintendo.

In sum, we ask your consideration of whether it is time to review the robustness, reliability and repeatability of your ratings process, particularly for this genre of ‘ultra-violent’ videogames and advances in game controllers.

Christian evangelists have launched a High Court battle for the right to bring a private prosecution for blasphemy over Jerry Springer: The Opera.

The show was an offensive, spiteful, systematic mockery and wilful denigration of Christian belief, one that that no-one would dream of making about the prophet Mohammed and Islam, two judges were told.

Stephen Green, national director of the evangelical group Christian Voice, is challenging a refusal by District Judge Caroline Tubbs at the City of Westminster Magistrates’ Court in January to issue a summons for the start of a private prosecution against the Director-General of the BBC Mark Thompson, who allowed the controversial show to be screened on BBC2. Green also wanted to issue a similar summons against the show’s producer, Jonathan Thoday, who staged it at the Cambridge Theatre in London’s West End and then in a nationwide tour.

Michael Gledhill, QC, appearing for Green, said that such prosecutions for blasphemous libel were extremely rare, occuring perhaps once a generation. He said it was not being argued that God cannot be criticised, he said. Such criticisms were commonplace in a number of plays and productions broadcast on television. Rather, he said, the complaint arose from the manner in which the criticisms were made.

Gledhill argued that the district judge had erred in law in refusing to issue the summonses as the show had clearly “crossed the blasphemy threshold”.

He argued: This is not just about protecting the rights of a section of the Christian population. It is about protecting the constitution of the nation which is built on the Christian faith.

Neither Mr Thoday nor Mr Thompson felt the least inhibition in ridiculing God, Jesus Christ, the Virgin Mary, the sacrament of the eucharist and Christian belief, Gledhill told Lord Justice Hughes and Mr Justice Collins at the High Court in London.

Through Jerry Springer: The Opera they had treated the Christian faith with contempt, reviling it by parodying Christian beliefs scurrilously and in the most ludicrous manner.

The human rights group Liberty is intervening in the case to argue that the blasphemy laws are outdated and that free speech rights must protect sacred, profane and secular language alike.

Gledhill accused District Judge Tubbs of failing properly to assess whether the elements of blasphemous libel had been made out in the case of Jerry Springer: The Opera. He argued no reasonable person, applying the correct legal test, could find that the elements of blasphemy were not present.

David Pannick, QC, for Mark Thompson, Director General of the BBC, said that people’s religious beliefs might be integral to British society but equally so was freedom of expression, especially in matters of social and moral importance.

The Opera won a large number of awards for exceptional artistic achievement, a recognition that this was a powerful satire on a particular type of exploitative television and not, as the claimant fails to appreciate, an attack on Christianity. He added that the target of the satire was not religious belief but the confessional talk-show genre.

Thompson, in a submission, said that the judges should refuse permission for a private prosecution for several reasons: there had been “very considerable delay” by Mr Green in making his application: the programme was broadcast in January 2005; the attempt to bring criminal proceedings was “verging on the vexatious”; and the claimant had sought at a late stage to amend his application.

The hearing continues for a 2nd day.

The 2007 Annual Report of the Office of Film and Literature Classification was tabled in New Zealand's Parliament last week

The Office classified more material than ever before, largely due to an increase in the number of submissions from law enforcement agencies. It made decisions on 2,762 publications in 2006/07, six per cent more than in 2005/06. The Office banned 14% of the publications it classified, restricted 74%, and classified 12% as unrestricted. The largest proportion of banned material dealt with the sexual exploitation of children. [Note this is down to censors checking material seized by the police, it is not material submitted with view to commercial distribution]

Chief Censor Bill Hastings said censorship law requires the Office to protect society from the harm caused by restricted and objectionable publications. To do its job, the Office must fiercely guard its independence by balancing competing views. For example, the Office classified the film Out of the Blue by balancing the filmmaker’s opinion with those who were most affected by the event the film depicted.

Censors must also be aware of broad but often quietly spoken public opinion and resist capture by narrow but often loud lobbies, added Mr Hastings. For example, the Office found that demands to ban the computer game Bully for allegedly glorifying bullying were unfounded after examination of the game revealed its anti-bullying stance. Similarly, The Peaceful Pill Handbook was banned after the Office found that it encouraged criminal activity instead of simply offering advice and advocating law reform as its authors claimed.

Twenty years ago, a young black man walked into a pub in Bristol and ordered a drink. Behind him, a gang of white youths started a chant: Nig nogs on the starboard bow, starboard bow… Straightforward, everyday racism. Only this time, it was caught on camera and broadcast on BBC1.

Fast forward 20 years, and another young man walks into a mosque in Birmingham, one apparently committed to interfaith dialogue. The preacher, however, seems less than committed. Christians and Jews are enemies to Muslims, he says. What about a gay man? Throw him off the mountain. And women? Allah created the women deficient. Again, all caught on film, this time broadcast on Channel 4.

Two clear cases of antisocial, illiberal behaviour. But here's the difference. Twenty years ago, Avon and Somerset Police were full of praise for our undercover exposé; at last, people could see what they were up against, that racism wasn't the invention of an oversensitive race relations industry. How naïve we were to imagine that such a sensible reaction would follow the broadcast of Dispatches: Undercover Mosque.
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When the film was first shown, local politicians in the West Midlands were understandably horrified. The police went to court to obtain an order to go through our rushes, convinced there was enough to investigate a possible breach of the law, including the encouragement of terrorism.

We said they were wasting their time - what we had filmed was offensive, but we couldn't see that it broke any laws. It was just plain nasty, and clearly at odds with Green Lane Mosque's supposed commitment to moderation. This was the job of investigative journalism - to expose what was really going on, rather than what we were being told was going on.

So it was no great surprise that we heard nothing for months. We assumed it had all gone away. What we really didn't expect was a press statement out of the blue from West Midlands Police and the Crown Prosecution Service saying that not only did the featured imams have no case to answer, but that they had turned their attentions on us.

They had considered prosecuting us for inciting racial hatred, but decided there wasn't quite enough evidence, so had referred the case to Ofcom, the broadcasting regulator. A CPS lawyer, Bethan David, made one of the most damaging allegations: The splicing together of extracts from longer speeches, she was quoted as saying, appears to have completely distorted what the speakers were saying.

Well, we knew all along what Ofcom has now shown to be the case, that what was going on was the everyday television technique of editing, reducing material to broadcast length. Distortion? At no point in any of the diatribes we recorded, or broadcast from DVDs and tapes, did any of the preachers renege on the offensive statements they made in the film.

Context? No one from the West Midlands Police, the CPS or Green Lane Mosque has yet given us the correct context for the notion that women are born deficient, that homosexuals should be thrown off a mountain or that young girls who refuse to wear the hijab should be hit.

So what was the police's intervention about? Why did the police and the CPS feel entitled to act as television critics and, in effect, as potential censors of what we could watch? Clues to the motive, I think, lie in the slightly sinister phrase "community cohesion".

Anil Patani, the Assistant Chief Constable who reported the programme to Ofcom, is in charge of "cohesion" in the West Midlands force. He said he was worried that those featured in the programme "had been misrepresented".

His chief was worried that our alleged "distorted editing" would create an unfair perception of sections of the Muslim community in the West Midlands. Feelings of public reassurance and safety would be undermined. (The feelings of gays and women, apparently, were not so high on the agenda.)

But here's the strange thing. It emerged that, in the aftermath of Dispatches: Undercover Mosque, the West Midlands Police received no formal complaint about the programme. Not one.

I have now written to the DPP and the Chief Constable of the West Midlands Police asking for an explanation for the highly damaging allegations made in August - allegations that sought to undermine legitimate investigative journalism and that unjustly blackened the reputation of my company and my courageous and entirely honest team of programme makers.

The lingering suspicion must be that here was a police force over-anxious to placate local "community leaders" - and that those efforts took precedence over protecting free speech.

Rockstar Games is set to present its plea regarding the ongoing BBFC refusal to classify horror game Manhunt 2 to the Video Appeals Committee next Monday 26th November

It is set to take place at London’s The De Vere Hotel. (is that the the Cavendish at St James?)

Members of the public may attend.

Britain’s contemporary artists are fêted around the world for their willingness to shock but fear is preventing them from tackling Islamic fundamentalism.

Grayson Perry, the cross-dressing potter, Turner Prize winner and former Times columnist, said that he had consciously avoided commenting on radical Islam in his otherwise highly provocative body of work because of the threat of reprisals.

Perry also believes that many of his fellow visual artists have also ducked the issue, and one leading British gallery director told The Times that few major venues would be prepared to show potentially inflammatory works.

I’ve censored myself, Perry said at a discussion on art and politics organised by the Art Fund. The reason I haven’t gone all out attacking Islamism in my art is because I feel real fear that someone will slit my throat.

Perry’s highly decorated pots can sell for more than £50,000 and often feature sex, violence and childhood motifs. One work depicted a teddy bear being born from a penis as the Virgin Mary. I’m interested in religion and I’ve made a lot of pieces about it, he said. With other targets you’ve got a better idea of who they are but Islamism is very amorphous. You don’t know what the threshold is. Even what seems an innocuous image might trigger off a really violent reaction so I just play safe all the time.

Tim Marlow, director of exhibitions at White Cube, the London gallery, welcomed Perry’s admission. It’s something that’s there but very few people have explicitly admitted. Institutions, museums and galleries are probably doing most of the censorship. I would be lying if I said of course we would show something like the Danish cartoons. I think there are genuine reasons for concern. Fundamentalism is a really complex issue and one of the things artists can do is to help us through that complexity. Whether or not it’s their responsibility to do that I’m not sure though.

Few would have thought that a painting would have the power to shake the foundations of modern-day temple life in Thailand, a country which prides itself as the centre of Buddhism.

But before painter Anupong Chanthorn started working on his masterpiece Bhikku Sandan Ka (Monks With Traits of a Crow), he spent time seeking meaningful messages in Buddhist texts. That diligence paid off and when the painting bagged the country’s most prestigious national art award in September.

Since then, the powerful message in the painting has not only elevated the painter to the ranks of well-respected national artists, but also shocked society into an open argument on how much monks, who symbolically represent a fundamental part of Buddhism, can be criticised.

The painting shows two monks with pointed and sharp mouths resembling a crow’s beak. The monks squat facing each other on the floor with crows looking over their shoulders.

Late September, about 100 laymen and monks from two major Buddhist Universities protested in front of the Silpakorn University campus where the exhibition was held. Saying that the painting insult monks in the country, they demanded the university withdraw the award given to the painter and remove the painting from the exhibition.

Angry protesters carried Anupong’s picture decorated with wreaths and monks who joined the protest chanted a Buddhist prayer that is traditionally used at funerals. Civilians in the group later ‘cremated’ the picture.

Protest leader Satian Wibhroma from a Buddhist group called People’s Network to Protect the Nation, Religion and the Monarchy, accused the painter of insulting Thai monks as a whole. While crows in the painting represent greedy and evil spirits, amulets in the alms-bowls indicated superstitious beliefs which are against Buddhist teachings.

But painter Anupong dismissed such claims. He said while painting he intended to present certain facts of modern-day Buddhism to society. One reality was that some people became monks only to take advantage of the religion which, he said, hurt many Buddhists.

Anupong said that Buddhist texts faithfully reproduced the Buddha’s mention of different types of immoral behaviour that may afflict monks. The phrase ‘Monks with Traits of a Crow’ was among expressions he used in describing such monks. I intend to use this painting to bring back good conscience in people, he told IPS.

Public reaction to the painting was mixed. Some government officials and Buddhists said the painting, regardless of what it conveys, could hurt feelings of most Buddhists in the country. But many leading intellectuals, artists and an overwhelming number of anonymous writers in the Internet said otherwise. They defended the painting for its honest message. Some said monks should be open-minded in listening to frank criticism.

The police have been criticised for taking action against a television programme which exposed how some Islamic preachers use British mosques to spread a message of hatred and segregation.

Broadcasting watchdogs have cleared Channel 4 of wrongdoing over the controversial documentary about Muslim extremism.

The programme featured footage of preachers at a number of mosques, including one who praised the Taliban for murdering British soldiers.

West Midlands police rejected calls to take action against the preachers for stirring up racial hatred – and turned on the film-makers.

Three months ago, the police, backed by the Crown Prosecution Service, made a formal complaint to Ofcom, alleging that the way 50 hours of videotape had been edited was 'distorted'.

But The Mail on Sunday has been told Ofcom has backed Channel 4's claim that the film was fair and has criticised the police response.

The programme, Undercover Mosque, broadcast in January, featured TV footage of an Islamic preacher praising the death of a British soldier.

At a meeting in a Birmingham mosque, the cleric said: Do you know what was written in a newspaper? Hero of Islam! The hero of Islam is the one who separated his head from his shoulders!

Abu Usamah, a preacher at the Green Lane mosque in Birmingham, was secretly filmed saying: If I were to call homosexuals perverted, dirty, filthy, dogs who should be murdered, that is my freedom of speech isn't it?

The film prompted the Saudi Arabian government to complain directly to the Foreign Office. The Dispatches documentary claimed the Saudis recruited young Muslims in the UK, trained them in Saudi Arabia and sent them back to the West to spread a radical ideology of intolerance and bigotry" through British mosques and Islamic organisations.

An Iranian government decision to forbid the second printing of a Persian translation of Colombian writer Gabriel Garcia Marquez has spurred interest in the book, booksellers said Saturday.

The novel by the famed Latin American writer was translated into Persian and had an initial press run of 5,000 copies. It was only banned after the Ministry of Culture received complaints from conservatives who believed the novel was promoting prostitution.

The ban has only provoked greater interest in the novel and on Saturday, copies of the book were being sold for more than twice their list price.

Ahmad Abbasi, paid over the odds to get a copy: I don't know what the book is about. But when the government bans a book, there is something interesting in it. So, I'm buying the book out of curiosity.

The novel, known as Memories of My Melancholy Whores in the West, was translated into Persian as Memories of My Melancholy Sweethearts. It tells the story of an elderly man who had long used prostitutes and decides to mark his 90th birthday by sleeping with a 14-year-old virgin. He ends up falling in love with the girl.

Officials at Niloofar Publications, which published the first edition, confirmed Saturday they have been forbidden to put out the second edition.

Iran has tightened censorship of books, films and music since President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad came to power in 2005.

Two game industry veterans have launched a website that aims to help parents who might not know what a first-person shooter is but have kids clamouring for the new Halo 3 game. The site features reviews not for the kids playing the games but for the parents supervising them.

As former editor in chief of two magazines for devoted gamers, John Davison published hundreds of reviews that might as well have been in Klingon to someone who's never picked up a joystick.

"We wanted to provide a place where parents can turn to for neutral, objective information on the games their kids might want to play, said Davison. He and co-founder Ira Becker are counting on advertising to pay the bills.

Davison and Becker believe that parents want trusted, jargon-free information on games that can help them decide what's appropriate for their children. That exists for films, with websites such as Yahoo Inc.'s Movie Mom. But for games, there are few places for parents such as TereLyn Hepple to turn to that don't have social or religious agendas.

Davison said it was important that the editorial content remained neutral and descriptive because what might be scary to one child might be fun for another. For more subjective commentary, the site invites parents to write their own reviews.

We really believe that it's the parents that should be controlling this stuff, Davison said. And the best way to do that is to tell them the facts so they can make the call.

And just to show that ratings are hardly an exact science

	BBFC UK Rating	ESRB US Rating	WhatTheyPlay Parents Rating
Manhunt 2 [Cut M rated version]	Banned	17+	14+
Mass Effect	12+	17+	16+

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 swore as she exhorted the crowd to jump up and down.

The broadcaster's Editorial Standards Committee said that management should have been more open with the audience after the event and admitted it had made mistakes.

The BBC decided not to use a time delay despite saying it may consider using one in future after complaints about swearing at 2005's Live 8 concert.

BBC management told the committee that they had met Live Earth organisers and contacted artists about swearing before the July concert. They had made presenters aware of the need for apologies if any swearing did occur.

The BBC Trust said: Unfortunately, the BBC's efforts had not been sufficient to prevent the broadcast of the most offensive language, despite the foreseeable risks of a live event with pop stars. The committee therefore considered this a serious breach of the BBC's editorial guidelines."

They went on to say that the issues broadcasters faced with an event like Live Earth were: not insurmountable and in future BBC management would be expected to avoid a recurrence of these problems.

After winding up the video gaming community with the ban of Mass Effect, the authorities have done a U-turn by rating the highly-anticipated futuristic space adventure and allowing its sale in Singapore.

In a statement on Friday, the Media Development Authority (MDA) said the game had been reviewed by the Board of Film Censors (BFC) and is now rated M18.

Mass Effect was earlier banned in Singapore, the only country to have done so, as it contained an intimate scene between two female characters. The ban had triggered disappointment and anger among local and international gamers.

The Singapore censors previously banned two games, God of War II for nudity, and The Darkness, for violence and vulgarity.

Western documentary makers should think twice about making films about Islam because they do not understand the issues as well as their Muslim counterparts, a leading Muslim film-maker has said.

Parvez Sharma, whose documentary about what it means to be gay and Muslim had its European premiere at the Sheffield International Documentary Festival recently, said Western non-Muslim film makers were jumping on the "Islamic bandwagon": Post 11 September, [Islam] is suddenly very hot, and he cited the "plane-loads" of documentary makers who flew from New York to Afghanistan after the terrorist attacks of 9/11.

For many documentary film-makers there's very little understanding of the complexities. Everyone has been jumping on the Islamic bandwagon. Very few of those films do justice [to Islam]. They suffer from a lack of comprehension. There's this need to cash in on the Islamic theme.

Sharma, whose documentary, A Jihad For Love includes emotional interviews with gay Muslims from around the world, torn between their homosexuality and their faith, said there was a "paucity" of Muslim film-makers and called on Islamic documentary producers to make their own voices heard to combat Islamaphobia. His Jihad, filmed over six years, reveals the often shocking treatment meted out to homosexuals in Islamic states such as Iran, where one of the men featured was flogged for attending a gay party, and in Egypt, where another interviewee was thrown into prison, where he was raped, then fled to France.

For Sharma, a gay Muslim from the north of India who now lives in the US, making the film was an intensely personal experience. It was very important for me as a Muslim film-maker not to deal with Islam as a problematic monolith, which is how many people in the west see Islam, he said.

The BBC has received more than 600 complaints about a pre watershed episode of EastEnders

The episode, on Tuesday, showed a gang of thugs rampaging through the Old Vic attacking drinkers with baseball bats and glasses and smashing furniture with hammers as they hunted for reformed soccer hooligan Jase Dyer.

The programme, which began at 8pm after a warning, was watched by 9.6million people.

John Beyer, director of the nutters Mediawatch UK, said: This representation of gang violence was completely beyond the pale for a programme that is shown at that time of the evening and repeated in the afternoon on Sunday. It's a ratings game and they seem prepared to do anything to attract controversy.

A total of 622 viewers complained directly, some condemning the brutality as "disgraceful" and "sickening".

There were another 300 complaints about a reference in the same programme to the Hillsborough tragedy. The brawl was followed by character Minty Peterson telling northerner Dyer: "Five years out of Europe because of Heysel, because they penned you lot in to stop you fighting, and then what did we end up with - Hillsborough.

A BBC spokesman said the meaning of the comment may have been misinterpreted. On the brawl, she claimed the violence was "implied rather than explicit". The corporation announced last night that the most violent scenes would be edited out of the Sunday omnibus edition, but the Hillsborough reference will be left in.

The object of the internationally-acclaimed show Allah Made Me Funny: The Official Muslim Comedy Tour is to knock down stereotypes. In particular, Azeem, Azhar Usman and Preacher Moss, the three American Muslim comics who make up the show, try to demonstrate that Muslims are not, as many of us have good cause to believe, pathologically humourless.

Alas, their efforts have fallen flat in Scotland. We have just learned that Glasgow Caledonian University has banned a planned performance this month of the show.

Why? Because the university’s Muslim Students’ Association has proved pathologically humourless, and declared the show “derogatory to Islam”. The lily-livered Caledonian, fearful of another bout of Muslim rage, promptly pulled the plug on it.

A mealy-mouthed spokeswoman for Glasgow Caledonian University is reported in the Scotsman as saying: The university’s responsibility is to listen to and respect the views of all students on campus. When the Muslim Students’ Association expressed reservations about the show, it was decided the booking would not go ahead.

Reporters Without Borders today regretted that Iran continues to snub appeals from the international community on human rights, as one journalist was imprisoned and two publications suspended.

Yaghoub Salaki Nia was imprisoned at Evin jail in Tehran. His arrest brought to ten the number of journalists imprisoned in the country.

Intelligence ministry agents arrested freelance journalist, Yaghub Salaki Nia, a contributor to several banned media, including Shamesse Tabriz, Ahrar, Omid Zanjan, on 31 October. His house was searched and his work equipment and papers were seized. The journalist has also founded an organisation dedicated to the defence of political prisoners in the Iranian province of Azerbaijan.

Elsewhere, the Authorisation and Surveillance Commission of the Press on 23 September suspended political monthly Dilmaj, founded in 2004, but no reason was given. The quarterly Madresseh was suspended on 5 November for “apostasy”. The philosophical review had published an interview in its latest edition with an intellectual cleric, Mohammad Mojtahed Shabesstary, who carries out research into the Koran. Iranian leaders took the view that his remarks were “insulting of sacred texts”.

Stephen Green of Christian Voice is having his day in High Court. He is seeking the right to bring a private prosecution for the common law offence of blasphemous libel.

The case arises over the production and presentation of the award-winning musical Jerry Springer — The Opera at theatres around Britain from October 2003 to July 2006 and then its broadcast on BBC in January 2005. Mr Green wants to prosecute Jonathan Thoday for the production of the play and Mark Thompson, then Director-General of the BBC, for the broadcast.

He applied last year, two years after the broadcast, for a summons to bring the prosecution but was refused at the City of Westminster magistrates' court. Now he is going to the divisional court to challenge that refusal.

Blasphemous libel is the publication of any matter that insults, offends or vilifies the Deity, or Christ, or the Christian religion. It is irrelevant whether there was an intention to blaspheme - the intention to publish the material is sufficient.

But the district judge who heard the initial application held that it was arguable that the Theatres Act prohibits prosecution on the ground of blasphemy; and in any event, Green had not shown a prima facie case. However, Green then won leave from Mr Justice Underhill to seek a judicial review of the district judge’s ruling.

The case is a key test of whether the laws of blasphemy are compatible with free speech, as enshrined in Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights. Liberty, the human rights group, has intervened in the case and will argue that free speech protects the secular, sacred and profane alike — and that people should see free speech and conscience rights as running together.

But the case will also be a fresh test of whether blasphemy should exist as a criminal offence at all. Liberty will also argue that the offence should not be recognised in English law at all — because of its lack of sufficient legal certainty as held by the Irish Supreme Court in a case in 2000. The Council of Europe also recommended in June this year that blasphemy should be decriminalised, as has the Law Commission, in a working paper in 1981 and in its final report in 1985.

The chief reason cited for abolition is that blasphemy applies only to Christianity and the Council of Europe is concerned that members of a particular religion should be neither privileged nor disadvantaged by the criminal law.

But attempts to scrap it have foundered. David Blunkett, when Home Secretary, floated the abolition of blasphemy and blasphemous libel in 2004 as part of a package of measures to include the offence of incitement to religious hatred. The idea of the repeal was to answer critics, such as Rowan Atkinson, the comedian, who argued that the new incitement law would stifle criticism of religion, cartoonists' lampoons or jokes about vicars and priests.

Shami Chakrabarti, the director of Liberty, said: No person of faith should doubt the importance of free speech to freedom of religion — we must remember that even Jesus was prosecuted for blasphemy. This law has quite rightly been a dead letter for many years and is ripe for repeal, not a mischievous private prosecution.

The proposal was welcomed at the time by the National Secular Society, which said that it had been fighting the blasphemy law for more than 100 years. But at the same time, it expressed concern that the new incitement laws may be creating a new “all religions” blasphemy law.

The balance is a fine one — but incitement to religious hatred is clearly distinct from remarks that followers of a religion find insulting, disrespectful or undermining of their beliefs.

There is a growing case that the laws of blasphemy are anachronistic, inconsistent and ripe for repeal. Religions, it is said, should be strong enough to defend themselves. What is even more unarguable is that they should not be a tool to stifle freedom of expression.

Stewart Purvis has been appointment as the new Partner for Content and Standards at Ofcom.

The Content and Standards Group oversees regulation of television and radio quality and standards and compliance with the Broadcasting Code.

He’s a hard-bitten newsman who has a strong understanding of technology and the changes that it is bring to the world of media.

Purvis worked for many years in the news business, rising quickly through the ranks to the become Editor-in-Chief at ITN, and then their Chief Executive from 1995-2003.

Following that he became the first Chair of Television Journalism at City University, London in 2003 and News International Visiting Professor of Broadcast Media at Oxford University in 2005.

Tim Suter is leaving the same post at Ofcom to set up a media consultancy with former colleague Kip Meek.

The Georgian government should immediately allow two private television stations to resume broadcasting, and it must lift a ban on news-gathering imposed on all other private broadcasters, the Committee to Protect Journalist said today.

The government shut two popular Tbilisi-based television channels shortly before declaring a state of emergency Wednesday night. Imedi, considered the main Georgian opposition television and radio broadcaster, was raided by special forces and taken off the air at 9 p.m. Kavkaziya, a small independent channel, was also shut down.

Later Wednesday night, Prime Minister Zurab Nogaideli told a national television audience that a 15-day state of emergency had been imposed, during which no private broadcaster would be allowed to gather and disseminate news, according to CPJ sources and news reports. All news, he said, would be broadcast by state-funded Georgian Public Television

Yahoo has agreed to settle a lawsuit brought against it on behalf of several Chinese dissidents, according to papers filed in a California court.

No details have been given of the settlement, but Yahoo will cover legal costs and will also set up a fund to support other political dissidents.

The case alleged Yahoo had provided information to the Chinese government then used to prosecute the dissidents.

Yahoo said it had to comply with Chinese laws to operate in the country. But after settling the lawsuit, Yahoo chief executive Jerry Yang said it was clear to me what we had to do to make this right for them, for Yahoo and for the future.

A statement released by the World Organization for Human Rights USA, which brought the case, said Yahoo had decided to settle the case following criticism at a US Congressional hearing on 6 November.

One journalist cited in the case, Shi Tao, was tracked down and jailed for 10 years for subversion after Yahoo passed on his e-mail and IP address to officials. He was convicted in 2004 of divulging state secrets after posting online a Chinese government order forbidding media organisations from marking the anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre.

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

A court in Spain has convicted Manel Fontdevila, cartoons editor of the popular satirical weekly magazine El Jueves, and cartoonist "Guillermo" of "damaging the prestige of the crown".

Both men received a hefty 3,000-euro (£2,100) fine.

Their offence was to have published a cartoon last July making ribald fun of the heir to the Spanish throne, and of the government's scheme to encourage women to have more babies by giving mothers a special payment for each new birth.

Judge José María Vázquez Honrubia ruled that the two men vilified the Crown in the most gratuitous and unnecessary way. He said that they could serve 10 months house arrest if they refused to pay.

The public prosecutor, Miguel Angel Carballo, had demanded a fine of €6,000 each.

Torres and Fontdevila said the sentence was "unfair and subjective" and they planned to appeal.

Singapore's government has announced a ban on the sale of BioWare's upcoming Mass Effect computer game.

The ban was triggered by the revelation of a scene in the game in which a sexual encounter between a human woman and a female alien is portrayed in a poorly-lit room with brief partial nudity. The depiction of same-sex relations is enough to get the game thrown out of Singapore.

To put this into context, The BBFC kindly published a detailed explanation of their 12 rating (suitable for 12 year olds and over):

Mass Effect is a role playing game and shooter set in the future in space. The player controls either a male or female American soldier through a long and involved story line, making choices along the way. The game has been classified at '12' for moderate violence and one sex scene.

The violence is undetailed and takes place in a futuristic setting. The single sex scene is brief and undetailed, although there is breast nudity in one version of the scene. The sex scene is triggered by the player making a series of choices about becoming more than friends with a colleague. If playing as a male character the scene can take place between him and a human woman or a humanoid female alien. If playing as a female character the scene can take place between her and a male human or a female humanoid alien.

The game also contains use of the word 'bastard' and at least one aggressive use of the word 'bitch'. Both of which are acceptable under BBFC Guidelines at '12'.

Note also that "breast nudity" just refers to one side view of a blue alien breast, no nipple.

RTÉ was embroiled in a storm over political censorship last night as opposition leaders demanded to know if “sinister” pressure forced it to axe a Government critic from The Late Late Show.

Fine Gael questioned whether the last-minute move to drop outspoken cancer specialist Professor John Crown from show is linked to a Cabinet decision this week on a large licence fee increase RTÉ is seeking.

Prof Crown, a respected consultant oncologist and vocal critic of the Government’s cancer strategy, was told the decision to drop him came from “higher-up” in RTÉ, and suggested political interference may have been the reason following the Portlaoise mis-diagnosis scandal.

Prof Crown said he found personalised comments made about him in the Dáil by Taoiseach Bertie Ahern “chilling” and feared a McCarthyite campaign was being conducted against him.

Labour leader Eamon Gilmore said the matter was blatant censorship: It would appear to me that Prof Crown’s removal from the programme was due directly to a fear of what he might say. This is censorship and a denial of free speech. Prof Crown’s removal is especially sinister in the light of the menacing comments made by the Taoiseach.

Prof Crown said there was a telephone call between RTÉ and Health Minister Mary Harney’s office one hour before he was told he would not be appearing.

Last Sunday in the Syrian capital Damascus, Finnish novelist Leena Lander held a book signing and reading was interviewed by local television. The subject was her 1991 novel The Home of the Dark Butterflies, which was short-listed for the Finlandia Prize and has been made into a film, which premieres in January.

Excerpts of the book were published in a Syrian newspaper. That set off a chain of events that led to the cancellation of Lander's appearance in Syria's second-largest city, Aleppo.

Somebody went and complained to the religious authorities, the religious authorities complained to the mayor of the city and everybody went out against the book before even reading it, explains the book's publisher, Ziad Mouna of Cadmus Press.

It remains unclear what parts of the book worried the mufti in Aleppo. The book is about neglected children and a home for juvenile delinquents, but also includes a brief sexual relationship between a young man and an older woman.

In Syria, as elsewhere in the Arab world, books must be approved before publication by a censorship board.

When we decide to publish a book we would know it advance whether it will be accepted or rejected, says Mouna. In this book there isn't much sex, there's very, very little compared with Arabic books that are published now, it's really harmless.

Lander herself was shocked that a comment by a local mufti would cause cancellation of the rest of her visit to the country.

The short film The Game may be banned from playing in New Zealand by the Office of Film and Literature Classification.

The Australian short film was scheduled to play in the Show Me Shorts Film Festival in Auckland before also traveling to Dunedin, Christchurch and Wellington.

Festival Director Gina Dellabarca is shocked that this film has been “refused” by the Film and Video Labeling Body (FVLB). She says, The incident in the film that has caused the problem is not even actually seen on screen, the characters simply refer to the act of urination in a sexual sense. The person who requests the act is heavily mocked and the film is funny and light. This is a top quality film that the public are missing out on the chance to see. The film has previously screened in Australia, the UK, Germany and Canada with no problems.

The Show Me Shorts Film Festival Trust have sent The Game to the Chief Censor requesting urgent viewing in hope of securing a rating so it can be shown in the other locations.

Director Christopher Johnson, who is currently attending a film festival in Germany, has been made aware of the problem. He was, “surprised” by the refusal because, although the film addresses a form of sexual deviance, it’s done in a comedic vein, because it’s a comedy.

Iran's Supreme Court approved a death sentence for one Kurdish journalist on charges of espionage and revoked the same sentence against his other colleague.

'The supreme court approved the death sentence for Adnan Hassanpour,' his lawyer Saleh Nikbakht was quoted as saying by the agency, adding that 'the death sentence for Hiva Botimar was revoked and referred back to the revolutionary court for reinvestigation.'

The two Kurdish journalists, Adnan Hassanpour and Abdolvahed (Hiva) Botimar, were sentenced to death in July by a revolutionary court in the western province of Kurdistan.

Judiciary spokesman Ali-Reza Jamshidi said the two, from the Kurdish city Sanadaj, were to be executed on charges of 'Moharebeh,' an Islamic term meaning 'enmity with God' and considered a capital crime.

The exact charges brought against the two were not clear, but they reportedly had contacts with foreign and Iranian opposition media.

A teenager armed with a knife hijacks a car and goes on a murderous spree, killing as many as possible.

It's just a scene from the computer game Saints Row, but New South Wales Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione fears this sort of role-playing has the potential to warp the decision-making processes of people who become immersed in it.

Like other nutters before him, his concern is that games such as Saints Row, Street Fighter and Grand Theft Auto desensitise users to reality and to the consequences of violence.

I just find it worrying that we see fighting in the street and we're horrified, yet we go out and buy this game (Street Fighter) and put it in our Christmas stockings for our children, Scipione said: I'm not a psychiatrist . . . but there is potentially some correlation (between violence in computer games and violence in reality).

Scipione has questioned how a young person who spends hours a day living in a fantasy world, often one where killing is involved, can learn to deal effectively with confrontation in real life, particularly if affected by alcohol or drugs.

They spend their time playing a game where you steal a car and shoot people during a bank robbery, and then they step outside (into the real world), he said: We shouldn't be surprised when they walk out and act like (the computer game). The violence is excessive, and I really believe that it is detrimental to people's long-term health.

Let the finger-pointing begin…

Pekka-Eric Auvinen, the 18-year-old gunman who killed eight people and himself at Jokela High School in Tuusula, Finland, was apparently a fan of first-person shooters Counter-strike and Battlefield 2.

According to Battlefield 2 game stats available online, a Finnish BF2 player with the screen name NaturalSelector89 played his last match yesterday at 8:47 AM. That is, shortly before the shooting occurred. Auvinen, who posted a series of YouTube videos under the name Sturmgeist89, referred to himself in his YouTube profile as a “natural selector”.

Battlefield 2 is a popular, Teen-rated military shooter.

Auvinen’s YouTube videos, including one that apparently stated his intent to attack the school are receiving enormous media attention. His YouTube profile reads in part: …Don’t blame the movies I see, the music I hear, the games I play or the books I read. No, they had nothing to do with this. This is my war: one man war against humanity, governments and weak-minded masses of the world! No mercy for the scum of the earth!

ITV has received complaints after a programme in which presenters Trinny and Susannah persuaded women to bare their breasts was screened before the 9pm watershed.

The first in a new series of Trinny and Susannah Undress the Nation featured topless women - including the two presenters - from the outset of its broadcast at 8pm.

Trinny Woodall and Susannah Constantine became notorious for their hands- on approach while fronting What Not To Wear. On the BBC fashion series they had women stripped to their bras to demonstrate their ill-fitting undergarments. Their series for ITV went a step further on Wednesday - and provoked complaints to Internet messageboards.

One viewer described the programme as nasty, leaving a bad taste in the mouth while another said: This is primetime family viewing. I switched on with young children present and was deeply disturbed by the level of nudity at that time. It made for extremely uncomfortable and gratuitous television, particularly when I had to explain it to my children. Another wrote: They belittle and embarrass their victims.

The episode aimed to highlight how many women wear ill-fitting bras.

John Beyer, of Mediawatch-UK, said: I have had a lot of calls from people who were surprised by the level of nudity in the programme. The number of topless women in a programme is likely to be very offensive to a lot of people. Ofcom has a duty to protect young people from this kind of thing.

An ITV spokesman said: The context of this programme fully justified the use of footage of women topless and in bras. The presenters were pursuing a serious subject in an engaging and entertaining way.

An explicit novel by Selin Tamtekin has caused 'outrage' in Turkey after the British publication of her debut novel. The Turkish Diplomat’s Daughter is a racy roman à clef, chronicling sexual affairs with a Bangladeshi landlord, a sailor and a Freddie Mercury-obsessed fantasist.

When Turkish newspapers got hold of the book, Tamtekin admitted her identity (it is written under the pseudonym Deniz Goran) and was so roundly pilloried that worried friends dubbed her “the female Salman Rushdie”. Splashed on the front pages of at least four national newspapers, she was derided as a “high-class Mayfair prostitute” who was writing about her own thinly veiled sexual experiences. The media were astonished that not only a Turkish woman but one from the highest echelons of society had written so frankly about her sexuality.

A public witch-hunt went on to name and shame members of the Turkish elite whose sexual peccadilloes were supposedly outlined by the novel. Tamtekin went into hiding for three weeks, horrified by the uproar.

Despite the title, she insists that the novel is not about her experiences: It’s not an autobiography, although there are people and situations in it that have inspired me. In society, women are expected to play the game according to the rules. Well, I wanted to create a character who does as she pleases. It’s not common for women in Turkey to be so overtly sexual, admits Tamtekin.

Although she concedes she has not received death threats, the examples of not only Rushdie, but also Theo van Gogh, the Dutch film-maker murdered for Submission, his transgressive film about women and sex in Islamic society, are a reminder that artistic expression as social critique is not easily accepted in some Muslim countries, even the secular ones.

Tamtekin is unbowed and is furious about the hypocrisy. It’s not as if no one has sex in Turkey. Of course women have sexually active lives, but they always make sure that no one hears about them. Women aren’t able to stand out as individuals and talk openly about sex or fancying men, she says.

Turkey might pride itself on its secularity, but it seems as if the notion of a sexually active woman is as utterly taboo there as it is in far more fundamentalist Muslim countries.

A major report by Irene Moss, commissioned by Australia's Right to Know media coalition, has found serious flaws in Australia's ability to enjoy free speech.

The coalition commented on the report:

The Moss Report is a comprehensive, independent, compelling and deeply troubling study of the limitations on free speech that now confront all Australians. It confirms Australians are not allowed to know enough about how governments at all levels of our society function and how their courts dispense justice.

Without this information, Australians are hampered in their ability to make properly informed judgements about government policy, legislation or the effectiveness of courts. The report confirms our suspicions that there is a serious slide into censorship and secrecy in government and by the judiciary in Australia.

Australia ranks behind other democracies like New Zealand, the UK and Canada when it comes to the level of information citizens can get. This is not acceptable. We should be second to none. Why is it that the people of these countries can be trusted with information that Australian governments and courts don't want us to know?

As a new, independent study, it is therefore a highly valuable basis for renewed public interest in the issues and further consultation with decision makers about the need for reform. The media coalition has already begun consultations with state and federal governments, the judiciary and our public service, to urge them to be more forthcoming with information that is relevant and important to the public they serve.

A Christian website editor who was sentenced to two months in prison for inciting hatred against homosexuals has been cleared by the Supreme Court in Sweden.

Leif Liljeström, who had already had his sentence cut to one month by the Court of Appeal, was cleared after the court ruled that he may not have been aware that anti-gay comments posted by visitors to his website, Bibeltemplet or The Bible Temple, consituted incitement to hatred.

Liljeström said: I actually had a feeling that it would turn out like this. I did what Christians do and asked God. I then got a feeling that it was going to work out well.

Liljeström told the court that he had thought long and hard about removing the offending posts before eventually allowing them to remain on the site where they could serve to generate further discussion.

One of the more extreme comments was posted by a visitor to a discussion forum thread entitled "Sodomy". The commenter stated that men who cannot summon up the energy to abstain from intercourse with other men should be sentenced to death and hanged from posts in the town square. Although he did not remove it, Leifström did in fact criticise this statement and several others on the site's discussion forum.

According to the first court to hear the case, Stenungsund District Court, as website administrator he was guilty of incitement against a group of people for statements he himself had written, and for crime against the law on electronic bulletin boards for guest-messages which he neglected to delete.

The editor-in-chief of a pro-government daily paper in Azerbaijan has been sentenced to prison on criminal defamation and insult charges, making him the eighth journalist in the country currently serving jail time. This imprisonment propels Azerbaijan to the top of the list of countries jailing journalists in Europe and Central Asia.

Nazim Guliyev, head of Ideal, was given a sentence of two-and-a-half years in jail

State regulators have summarily pulled off the air Malawi’s first private television station, citing an alleged regulatory violation. The ruling, targeting a fledgling station close to opposition leader Bakili Muluzi in the lead-up to presidential polls in 2009, appeared to violate Malawi’s media laws, according to CPJ research.

Joy Television has remained off the air since receiving a letter from the Malawi Communications Regulatory Authority ordering the station to cease all operations on grounds that its license expired on May 31, 2007. The station must remain closed until it applies for an “appropriate radio and broadcasting license,”

 The station had been running test transmissions and entertainment programming in recent weeks ahead of a launch, according to Peter Chisale, director of sister station Joy Radio.

Yet Joy TV’s license—granted in 2002, according to Chisale, was not set to expire until 2009 under Malawi’s 1998 Communications Act, which grants licenses for a period of seven years, according to CPJ research.

This ruling, which does not appear to have a basis under Malawi’s laws, amounts to censorship and threatens to undermine the democratic credentials of Malawi as the country prepares for elections in 2009, said CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon.

Jerry Yang, Yahoo's US boss, and Michael Callahan, the company's top lawyer, were lambasted as moral "pygmies" by a top House Bay Area Democrat for the firm's role in helping China identify and jail a journalist in 2004.

Lawmakers of both parties accused the Sunnyvale Internet giant of prioritizing its profits in a booming China market over human rights by turning over secret data that enabled Chinese officials to track down and punish dissidents.

While technologically and financially you are giants, morally you are pygmies, House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Tom Lantos, D-San Mateo, said at the end of the three-hour hearing.

Yang defended his company's efforts to operate in a country with severe free speech restrictions, but was criticized by lawmakers who were furious that Yahoo didn't resist China's efforts to censor its citizens.

Yahoo bosses argued that it was better to try to expand the Internet in China, even if it meant agreeing to live under its repressive rules.

But most lawmakers complained that Yahoo appeared more focused on making money in China - with more than 150 million Internet users - than boosting the freedoms of its people. Smith compared Yahoo to IBM, whose punch card technology helped the Nazis accelerate their campaign to exterminate Jews in Europe.

Callahan noted that Yahoo had little choice about whether to agree to Beijing's orders because Yahoo employees would have been jailed for refusing to comply: I cannot ask our local employees to resist lawful demands and put their own freedom at risk, even if in my personal view the local laws are overbroad.

Congress is considering legislation that would ban U.S. Internet companies from providing information on its customers to repressive regimes.

Lawmakers also complained that Yahoo has done little to help the families of the jailed dissidents: You're one of the richest companies in the country and you don't know if you can meet the humanitarian needs of a couple of families? asked Brad Sherman, D-Los Angeles.

Roberta Combs, president of the 2.5 million strong Christian Coalition of America, said she was disappointed that the Harry Potter author, JK Rowling, chose to label Albus Dumbledore, the headmaster of fictional Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, as gay.

It's not a good example for our children, who really like the books and the movies. I think it encourages homosexuality, said Combs, who has called for a ban on the seven-book series.

I would never allow my own children or grandchildren to read the books or watch the movies, and other parents should do so too, she added, according to the Daily Mail newspaper.

Earlier this month at a book tour stop in New York City, Rowling was asked: Did Dumbledore, who believed in the prevailing power of love, ever fall in love himself?

In response, the British author said, My truthful answer to you... I always thought of Dumbledore as gay.

Ranbir Kapoor's female fans are in for a disappointment - the towel dropping shot in the number Jab se tere naina has been deleted by the Indian censor board.

Sanjay Leela Bhansali is not complaining because it neither obstructs the flow nor makes a mess of his film Saawariya.

The director Sanjay Leela Bhansali was offered the choice of keeping the nude shot with an adult certificate. But the filmmaker didn't want to lose an extremely large and crucial portion of the potential audience for one shot.

In fact, several members of the censor board who loved the film suggested I take the cut and go with the 'U' certificate. Though in principle I'm against any cuts, this one time I agreed. The shot doesn't really make any difference to the flow of my story, Bhansali told IANS.

The film is all set for release Nov 9.

Channel 4 has been cleared over this summer's Big Brother race row, in which a contestant used the word "nigger".

The media watchdog Ofcom ruled the broadcaster was right to show student Emily Parr using the term because the programme made clear that her comment was offensive and unacceptable.

The regulator also rejected viewer accusations of double standards over Channel 4's decision to evict Ms Parr while keeping in a housemate who used "homophobic" language.

Laura Williams twice used the term 'poof' on the show - but the first comment went unchallenged and the second earned her only a reprimand in the Diary Room.

Ms Parr's comment and subsequent departure prompted 450 complaints to Ofcom, while Ms Williams attracted 200.

A number of viewers complained the phrase Ms Williams used is just as offensive to gay people as Ms Parr's remark is to black people. But in a ruling published yesterday, Ofcom cleared the programme of discrimination and double standards.

In our view, it is not possible to establish definitively the degree of offence that use of the word 'poof'' can cause in all contexts, the watchdog said. For example, it is clear that within the gay community itself, the word can be used in a playful, affectionate or self-deprecating way. There is insufficient or no evidence to suggest that Laura Williams used the word complained of in a [derogatory] way.

Back in August TheFeed reported on the Piss-Screen urine stream-powered racing videogame.

Well, it took a few months, but Belgian police have cracked down on this Galileo of the gaming age, banning a version of the game entitled Place To Pee from the GamePower Expo in Gent, Belgium.

It seems the Flemish flatfoots consider the game, which allows players to control the direction of their on-screen cars by aiming their streams of liquid waste at a censor placed in a urinal, an “indecency offense.”

Major US retailer Target is reported to have removed copies of Rockstar's Manhunt 2 from the shelves in response to the ongoing negative publicity swirling around the game.

Contacts at Target stores have confirmed the circulation of an internal memo calling for the game to be pulled from store shelves. The stores are no longer allowed to sell the game, and managers have been told to refuse to accept shipments of the game if any arrive. Take Two, the game's publisher, has apparently agreed to take back unopened copies of the game.

The move comes not as a result of the game's violence, the sources say, but because of the continuing ucontroversy.

Despite no longer offering the game in stores, Manhunt 2 is still available for order at Target.com. Immediately following the withdrawal of the game, the company's website was modified to state that the game "is not available in stores."

John Beyer Suffering from emotional maltreatment

In a letter to the Sunday Express Beyer more or less says that we shouldn't be allowed to decide for ourselves what we watch and rather be told what is and is not healthy for us to watch.

From John Beyer

Nothing artistic in film violence

Clare Heal (Sunday Express, 28/10/2007, page 71) asks if we are adult enough to decide what to watch for ourselves. This is the wrong question. The fact is that what we watch at the cinema or on TV is determined by those who make films and programmes and by those who control public access to them. The public can only choose from what they make available.

It is easy to suggest that people vote with their feet and wallets but again this is the wrong emphasis. We all ought to be asking what impact violence on the screen has on our society? We all know of the very serious crisis of violent crime with shootings and knifings becoming almost a daily occurrence. It would be unreasonable and irrational to suppose that the violence portrayed on our screens has no socially adverse influence whatsoever. The truth is that violence is easy for people to understand and is a lazy option for film and programme makers who cannot be bothered with discretion or inventiveness.

Nearly three years ago it was proposed by academics that a public health approach be adopted to violence in entertainment so that those caught up in the culture of knives and guns could be rescued from this emotional maltreatment. To reduce the question to one of personal taste patently fails to do this global problem justice.

As the latest "slasher" movie, Saw IV, enjoys box office success in America, how many more people must be shot or stabbed before the entertainment industry accepts some responsibility for glamorising and celebrating such actions in their productions on the basis that they alone say it is "artistically justified"?

Comment: Emotional Crap

From Dan

"The fact is that what we watch at the cinema or on TV is determined by those who make films and programmes and by those who control public access to them. The public can only choose from what they make available."

So is Beyer saying that there is nothing available to the public at the cinema and on TV than violence? If people do not wish to watch violence they can choose films and TV programmes which have no violence in them.

Beyer talks about choice but he does not want people to be able to choose to watch films and TV programmes which he disapproves of and believes are not healthy for people to watch.

"It is easy to suggest that people vote with their feet and wallets but again this is the wrong emphasis."

So the emphasis should not on people making the choice over what they do and do not watch but on what they should and should not be ALLOWED to watch. That would be totally the wrong emphasis.

"As the latest "slasher" movie, Saw IV, enjoys box office success in America, how many more people must be shot or stabbed before the entertainment industry accepts some responsibility for glamorising and celebrating such actions in their productions on the basis that they alone say it is "artistically justified"?

This is the kind of emotional crap from people like John Beyer that adds nothing to the argument. How many more people must be shot or stabbed before the entertainments industry takes responsibility for people being shot and stabbed is what he's actually asking.

Beyer wants the entire entertainments industry to hold it's hands up and say it's "our fault" for violence on our streets and for people (mainly children) being shot and stabbed. But they are never ever going to and nor should they ever do!

It's always been obvious that both John Beyer and Mediawatch UK believe we aren't adult enough to decide for ourselves what we watch and we need an all powerful regulator (preferably run by the government) to decide for us in order to stop us being "corrupted" by on screen violence and sex. This letter confirms this!