Regarding Brazier's BBFC Accountability bill, I actually emailed the BBFC about this, asking if they were going to respond and take up issue with him over this.

Whilst they didn't go into detail, saying they would be responding "in due course", I did get the impression that they didn't seem too worried. Letting slip that they didn't think the bill had much support (he has tried this once before after all).

The feelings I've been getting from other forums is that as the BBFC is already accountable to the government under the VRA, and that if the government really wanted to they could simply designate a different censorship body for home video and computer games other than the BBFC, then it is not likely this bill will get through as its unnecessary.

Chairperson of the Indian Central Board for Film Certification (CBFC) Sharmila Tagore feels that censorship should not be used for moral policing and preaching.

Though some kind of check was necessary, care should be taken not to stifle entertainment, Sharmila Tagore said.

She said Members of the Board while avoiding to be moral police, should, however, act with great care as they were responsible to the civil society.

India is a multi-cultural, multi-lingual and multi-ethnic country, and majority of the people want some kind of censorship, and the government has to take note of that, she said.

Welcome to the promise of the Internet at 10,000 metres - and the questions of etiquette, openness and free speech that airlines and service providers will have to grapple with as they bring Internet access to the skies in the coming months.

This gets into a ticklish area, said Vint Cerf, one of the Internet's chief inventors and generally a critic of network restrictions. Airlines have to be sensitive to the fact that customers are (seated) close together and may be able to see each other's PC screens. More to the point, young people are often aboard the plane.

Technology providers and airlines are already making decisions. Some will block services like Internet phone calls altogether while others will put limits and install filters on content. And traffic management tools that are frowned upon on terra firma could be commonplace in the air.

Panasonic Avionics Corp., a Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. unit testing airborne services on Australia's Qantas Airways Ltd., is designing its high-speed Internet services to block sites on "an objectionable list," including porn and violence, said David Bruner, executive director for corporate sales and marketing. He said airlines based in more restrictive countries could choose to expand the list.

The company also is recommending that airlines permit Internet-based phone calls only on handsets with wireless Wi-Fi capabilities. Bruner said the company believes Wi-Fi handsets use less bandwidth than telephone software that runs on laptops. Airlines, he said, also could block incoming calls - and the annoying ring tones they produce - or designate periods of quiet time.

U.S. airlines are largely taking the opposite approach. With possible exceptions for crew and federal air marshals, flights on American Airlines and Alaska Airlines won't have access to Internet-based phone services like Skype.

Virgin America is also considering a ban: An airborne environment is a confined environment, said Charles Ogilvie, Virgin's director of in-flight entertainment and partnerships: You don't want 22B yapping away or playing on a boom box.

Meanwhile, American, Alaska and Virgin have no plans to filter sites based on their content. At most, an airline may manage traffic and delay large downloads, or in Virgin's case give passengers the option of enabling controls for their kids.

We think decency and good sense and normal behaviour will prevail, said Jack Blumenstein, chief executive of Aircell which is launching service on some American and Virgin flights in 2008.

In many ways, airlines are facing issues similar to those encountered by Wi-Fi networks on the ground - at airports, coffee shops and other public places.

Glenn Fleishman, editor of the Wi-Fi Networking News site, said operators of public networks generally do not filter because users are conscious that others can see what they surf.

Airplanes, however, are different because customers are in closer quarters and are more likely to include kids.

Allowing porn could subject an airline to harassment complaints much like an employer that refuses to clamp down, said John Palfrey, a Harvard Law School professor: I think they have a right to (filter), but I come up short of saying they have the responsibility. I'd rather have the responsibility in the hands of passengers and require them to be accountable for what they do on laptops and airplanes.

Airborne Internet activities - such as hacking and piracy - could raise new questions about which country's laws apply.

A church and Christian newspaper in Malaysia are suing the government after it decreed that the word "Allah" can only be used by Muslims.

In the Malay language "Allah" is used to mean any god, and Christians say they have used the term for centuries.

A spokesman for the Herald, the newspaper of the Catholic Church in Malaysia, said a legal suit was filed after they received repeated official warnings that the newspaper could have its licence revoked if it continued to use the word.

We are of the view that we have the right to use the word 'Allah', said editor Rev Lawrence Andrew.

The Sabah Evangelical Church of Borneo has also taken legal action after a government ministry moved to ban the import of religious children's books containing the word.

In a statement given to Reuters news agency, the church said the translation of the bible in which the word Allah appears has been used by Christians since the earliest days of the church.

There has been no official government comment but parliamentary opposition leader Lim Kit Siang said the decision to ban the word for non-Muslims on security grounds was "unlawful": The term 'Allah' was used to refer to God by Arabic-speaking Christians before Arabic-speaking Muslims existed.

The Australian censor has banned episodes 2,3,4 of the reality series, Faces of Death.

The distributors had picked up the videos after the first film of the Faces of Death series was passed R18+ earlier in the year (after previously being banned for 27 years).

In the UK, Faces of Death 1,2,3 were passed 18 after cuts and Faces of Death 4 was passed 18 uncut.

One of Germany's most popular television series drew loud protests from a Muslim group over what they consider an unfavourable portrayal in the show's most recent episode.

The Alevi Muslim Community AABF called on its members to hold peaceful protests against the "slander and disparagement" contained in the Dec. 23 broadcast of Tatort, the German word for crime scene.

A criminal complaint has been filed by the group against NDR, the network that produced the program, accusing it of incitement to racial hatred.

It is appalling to us that a public and legitimate broadcaster would revive these centuries' old prejudices, said Ali Ertan Toprak, the secretary general of the Alevi community in Germany.

Members of the Alevi community in Berlin tried to stop the broadcast of the episode but were unsuccessful.

To answer the complaints, the network reiterated in the opening credits that the program was a work of fiction and in no way intended to harm religious feelings or rekindle prejudices against the Alevi community.

About 300 people protested outside the studios of Germany's public broadcaster ARD on Thursday, Dec. 27.

The episode in question is entitled To Whom Honor is Due and dealt with incest and murder within an Alevi family living in Germany.

During the course of the program, investigators discover that a young Alevi girl was murdered by her father after she confronted him about impregnating her sister.

Vietnam needs to control blogs to prevent the spread of subversive and sexually explicit content, communist government officials said.

Weblogs have exploded in Vietnam in recent years, especially among youths, providing a forum for chatting about mostly societal and lifestyle issues and providing an alternative to the state-controlled media.

Recent anti-Chinese protests over the disputed Spratly and Paracel islands, which were halted following rebukes from Beijing, were organised and debated on the Internet but almost completely ignored by the official press.

The ministry responsible for culture and information, which controls traditional media, in July said it was drafting regulations that would fine bloggers who post subversive and sexually explicit content online.

Deputy Information and Communications Minister Do Quy Doan said: Once we have obvious regulations, I think no one will be able to supervise weblogs better than the bloggers themselves.

With little fanfare from local or foreign media, the Japanese government made major moves this month toward legislating extensive regulation over online communication and information exchange within its national borders.

In a series of little-publicized meetings attracting minimal mainstream coverage, two distinct government ministries, that of Internal Affairs and Communications (Somusho) and that of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (Monbukagakusho), pushed ahead with regulation in three major areas of online communication: web content, mobile phone access, and file sharing.

The future of online communication within Japan hinges on attracting attention to these issues and on drawing as wide a range of voices into the debate as possible. While current activism by groups within Japan such as the recently formed Movements for Internet Active Users (MIAU) have made important first steps in this direction, international attention is needed to coordinate support and confront the many pressing issues facing open communication in the Japanese cyberspace.

Web content

Plans for regulation of web content are summarized in two primary documents drawn up by the “Study group on the legal system for communications and broadcasting” under the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (Somusho). The first document is an interim report released on June 19th, setting down basic guidelines for regulating web content through application of the existing Broadcast Law to the sphere of the Internet. The final report, made public on December 6th, sets down steps to move ahead and submit a bill on the proposed regulations to the regular diet session in 2010.

One of the key points of both reports is their emphasis on the blurring line between "information transmission" and "broadcasting", a distinction that becomes less and less meaningful as content-transfer shifts from the realm of traditional media to that of ubiquitous digital communication. The reports deal with this difficult problem in part through the creation of a new category, that of "open communication", broadly described as covering communication content having openness such as homepages and so on.

Online content judged to be "harmful" according to standards set down by an independent body (specifics of which are unclear) will be subject to law-enforced removal and/or correction.

Mobile phone access

The push for protecting young users from potentially dangerous content, such as online dating services and so-called "mobile filth", has gained momentum in recent years within Japan. The government responded to such concerns on December 10th by demanding that mobile carriers NTT Docomo, KDDI, Softbank, and Willcom implement filtering on all mobile phones issued to users under the age of 18. While optional filtering currently exists and can be implemented at the request of the mobile phone owner, few users make use of or even know of this service. The proposed regulation would heavily strengthen earlier policy by making filtering on mobile phones the default setting for minors; only in the case of an explicit request by the user's parent or guardian could such filtering be turned off by the carrier.

According to the new policy proposal, sites would be categorized on two lists, a "blacklist" of sites that would be blocked from mobile access by minors and a "whitelist" of sites that would not. The categorization of sites into each list will reportedly be carried out together with carriers through investigations involving each company targeted. The Telecommunications Carriers Association (TCA) of Japan is indicating that the new policy will be enforced with respect to new users by the end of 2007 and applied to existing users by the summer of 2008.

While it is not yet entirely clear what content will be covered by the new policy, a look at existing filtering services promoted by NTT Docomo reveals the definition of "harmful" content to be very broad indeed. As noted by a number of Japanese bloggers, notably social activist Sakiyama Nobuo, current optional filtering services offered on NTT Docomo phones include categories as sweeping as "lifestyles" (gay, lesbian, etc.), "religion", and "political activity/party", as well as a category termed "communication" covering web forums, chat rooms, bulletin boards, and social networking services. The breadth of this last category in particular threatens to bankrupt youth-oriented services such as "Mobage", a social networking and gaming site for mobile phones, half of whose users are under the age of 18.

File sharing

In a meeting held on December 18th. Authorities and organizations pushed for a ban on the download of copyrighted content for personal use, a category of file transfer previously permitted under Article 30 of Japan's Copyright Law.

The recent arrest of leading human rights activist Hu Jia at his Beijing home is condemned "with the utmost firmness" by Reporters Without Borders. Hu is accused of "subverting state authority," a charge often used by the Chinese government against dissidents.

Reporters Without Borders added: Together with the Fondation de France, we had just awarded Hu and his wife, Zeng Jinyan, a special prize on 5 December for their courageous stance in defence of human rights in the approach to next year’s Olympic Games in Beijing.

We express our solidarity with Hu and Zeng and their six-week-old daughter and we urge the European Union and the rest of the international community to rally to Hu’s defence so that he does not become another victim of China’s pre-Olympics repression.

Hu was at home with his wife, Zeng, who is also a blogger and activist when 20 policemen burst in, disconnected their Internet connection and phone lines to prevent them from telling the outside world, and arrested Hu.

According to Chinese Human Rights Defenders, police officers remained in the house after Hu had been taken away in order to prevent Zeng from telling anyone what had happened. They showed her a warrant for his arrest for "subverting state authority". No one knows where he is now being held.

Both Hu and Zeng are human rights and environmental activists and bloggers. They had been under a form of house arrest in Beijing since 18 May.

Hu participated in a European parliamentary hearing in Brussels on 26 November on the human rights situation in China. He said at one point during the hearing: It is ironic that one of the people in charge of organising the Olympic Games is the head of the Bureau of Public Security, which is responsible for so many human rights violations. It is very serious that the official promises are not being kept before the games.

A European viewers’ survey from UPC has called upon broadcasters to curb the amount of sex and violence on TV.

The survey was carried out for cable giant UPC. Parents not only want to remain in the driving seat when it comes to what their children watch, but they also call for more supervision from the local Media Authority for example, on certain TV content, said the study.

Six thousand parents in thirteen countries were surveyed, and the study included youngsters in age groups of under five, six to 12 and over 12 years old.

When it comes to monitoring the TV habits of their children, 57% of the European parents want more supervision of the content of TV, said the survey. Only 3% of surveyed parents wanted less supervision. Of the parents who believe the supervision of content should be intensified, 79% says this is because there is too much violence on TV and 56% said there was too much sexual content on TV. Violent and sexual content are also the main reasons for forbidding children to watch certain programmes, which is done by two-third of the parents (67%) of those surveyed. The 57% of parents that want more supervision of the content can be found in particular in Austria, Switzerland, Germany, Poland and Romania.

Zhang Hongsen, deputy director-general of China's Film Bureau and a censor himself, gave a rare briefing recently on the inner workings of the country's movie censorship process, which has come under fire from prominent Chinese filmmakers.

We're not only concerned about the political aspect of a movie, said Zhang. A movie's style may be problematic. For example, some movies may poorly portray the customs of ethnic minorities . . . some are problematic in their portrayal of the rights of women and children. There are different problems.

One of the films that required heavy editing this year was director Li Yu's Lost in Beijing (Ping Guo), a powerful story about the fallout after a Beijing foot massage parlour owner rapes one of his employees from the countryside.

Fang Li, the producer of Lost in Beijing, said earlier he was asked to cut scenes depicting sex, dirty streets, gambling, the Chinese national flag, and Beijing's Tiananmen Square.

In a recent interview, Fang accused the movie censorship committee of operating in a black box, saying it doesn't give reasons for the cuts it asks for.

Zhang said censors target sex and violence because China doesn't have a ratings system. All movies must be suitable for viewing by people of all ages.

He said China's movie censorship committee comprises 24 regular members - five Film Bureau officials, including Zhang, and 19 film professionals, including directors, script writers, cinematographers and movie critics and scholars.

The committee, whose two-year term ends in May, also includes 13 "special" members who are brought in on a case-by-case basis for specialized issues like minority affairs, religion, law, foreign relations, and women and children's affairs, he said. Zhang, who is 43, said the youngest censor is 40 and none are older than 65.

The Iranian Embassy in Bucharest criticized the translation into Romanian of the book Satanic Verses, by Salman Rushdie. The Iranian diplomats condemned the publishing as a 'blasphemy' and even demanded the banning of the volume in Romania.

Romanian Patriarchy earlier criticized the publishing of the volume, considering that it wrongs the spiritual values and religious symbols, regardless the official religion that uses it.

Ofcom will launch an inquiry into Catherine Tate’s comedy special after nutter complaints that it was the most offensive programme ever broadcast by the BBC on a Christmas Day.

Nutters complained of excessive use of the “fuck” by Tate’s foul-mouthed character Nan. A sketch depicting a Northern Irish family as terrorists prompted accusations of bigotry.

The sketch show attracted 6.4 million viewers to BBC One at 10:30pm on Christmas night. The BBC defended the show, describing Tate as a comedy genius.

Ofcom's inquiry will ask whether the programme was appropriate for Christmas night, when many children would be watching.

Viewers complained that the programme began with an avalanche of strong language from Nan Taylor. Kathy Burke, playing her daughter, embarked upon a swearing competition with Nan.

The representation of a family in Northern Ireland receiving Christmas presents attracted complaints that Tate was exploiting lazy stereotypes. The grandmother opens her present to find a balaclava, which she puts over her head. Her husband receives a knuckleduster which he excitedly uses to punch a chair. The mother’s gift is an apron with a balaclava-clad terrorist and the words Remember Everything, Forgive Nothing. A gay son is handed a chocolate penis.

Tate admitted that the language might have got out of hand. I don’t know how this Christmas special got so depraved because it isn’t what I set out to do, she told Radio Times. The sketch between Nan and her daughter required a climactic aspect when you’re topping each other with greater feats of swearing.

A spokesman for the BBC said: Catherine Tate creates characters who are so over the top as to be almost cartoon-like and this is where her genius lies. Her comedy is never meant to offend any viewer and is always based on satire and grotesque exaggeration. The Nan character’s foul language was fundamental to what makes her funny and the show was preceded by a warning that it contained strong language.

The BBC received about 100 complaints through telephone and internet message boards.

A spokesman for Ofcom said: We have received complaints about offensive language and content in the Catherine Tate Christmas Show and we will look into the matter.

Update: Fucking MPs

6th January

Nadine Dorries, Member of Parliament for Mid Beds, says many children would have been subjected to foul language in comedian Catherine Tate's Christmas special.

She has lodged a formal complaint with the independent broadcasting regulators Ofcom which is investigating.

Nadine Dorries is unsurprisingly one of the nutter MPs supporting Julian Braziers BBFC Accountability bill.

The government is well on its way to criminalise possession of 'extreme pornography' without proper research into its effects.

Call me naïve but I am surprised and aghast: in particular, that this Bill will go through with no proper public debate. Tucked away in Section 6 is the nasty piece of legislation which will define many kinds of sexual behaviour as inherently deviant and criminal. You won't need to have actually indulged in these acts yourself to be brought within the ambit of the law - possessing an image of it will do, and could get you three years in jail.

The Justice Ministry claims that "increasing public concern about extreme pornography" makes this legislation necessary. But it seems that only a few members of the public actually know about or have seen the kinds of material that will fall under the legislation. A further claim is made, that were it not for the availability of "extreme pornography", Graham Coutts would not have murdered the schoolteacher Jane Longhurst -a claim that attempts to silence any objection to the Bill as evidence of not caring about the tragic death of a young woman.

There are a number of problems with this reactionary Bill. As Rabinder Singh QC concluded, the legislation is probably incompatible with the European Convention on Human Rights. But of particular concern to me is the enthusiastic pushing through of this Bill with no public debate and no examination of the government's central claim that merely looking at pornography causes aberrant behaviour.

It is in the promulgation of this particular claim that the ministry has effected a sleight of hand, first in refusing to engage with any of the objections to the original consultation document offered by researchers and academics whose careers and reputations have been built on the examination of taboo media forms and their audiences. Thus the Bill has no intellectual or evidential base for its claims.

Secondly, in order to present some semblance of substantiation rather than the rhetoric of the moral crusader, a "rapid evidence assessment" was commissioned. Again, academics with expertise in the study of media were overlooked in favour of three professors known for their anti-porn views and their PhD students who have produced an entirely one-sided account focusing on some of the most discredited lab-based studies as ad hoc justification for the legislation. As a colleague puts, it "You might as well ask Esso to investigate the role of the oil industry in global warming." Academic research which might undermine the central premise that pornography causes harm was completely ignored and now, in parliamentary debates, this document is quoted and used as if it represented a comprehensive review of the current state of research.

The government has no evidential base for the legislation and has been entirely careless in its drafting of the particular provisions relating to pornography - its definitions of what constitutes porn are so loose that there are real dangers that all kinds of material currently available will fall under the watchful gaze of the police and moral entrepreneurs. Indeed, this is precisely what supporters of the provisions hope for: that in succeeding against "extreme" materials, they will be able to move forward to ensure that no one has access to sexually explicit materials, hard or soft. The particular problem with this legislation is that it sows the tendentious belief that pornography does things to people, that it is a form of "heroin for the eyes", creating monsters of its viewers. Once it is enshrined in law, there will be no need to understand tastes and pleasures or to research people's use of porn, it will simply be identified as criminal behaviour. The government has not and cannot make a compelling case for this legislation; we should be calling the ministry to account.

Comment: A call for campaign support

From freeworld on the Melon Farmers Forum

Can I suggest as many people as possible write to the Ministry of Injustice, asking for the prompt release of the legal advice saying the measures are compatible with the Human Rights Act/European Convention of Human Rights

This in the light of HR barrister Rabinder Singh's conclusion that said measures give cause for real concerns about their compatibility.

Personally, I doubt the existence of any advice at all (or maybe they are hiding advice which says the measures aren't compatible?) Legal advice like this is probably only covered by a qualified exemption to its release-dependent on public interest. There is obviously a strong case for public interest over advice as to the compatibility of this proposed law, which the Ministry of Injustice themselves admit interferes with Article 8 (Private family life) and 10 (freedom of expression) of the HRA/ECHR .

Governments in the Middle East are stepping up a campaign of censorship and surveillance in order to block their citizens from viewing websites whose topics range from adult entertainment to human rights.

As a result, millions of Middle Easterners are being blocked from accessing news and entertainment sites like Facebook, MySpace, YouTube and Flickr.

The prohibitions have led to an explosion in "circumventors," proxy servers that allow Internet users to bypass workplace or government filters. In cyber cafes throughout the Middle East, patrons still can browse blocked sites and swap web addresses for the latest "proxies."

Five of the Top 13 Internet censors worldwide are in the Middle East, according to Reporters Without Borders, a Paris-based journalism advocacy group that lobbies against web censorship.

Only four Arab countries have little or no filtering: Lebanon, Morocco, Jordan and Egypt. On the other side of the web censorship gap are Saudi Arabia and Syria, which have consistently been described by human rights groups as the most hostile toward the Internet.

Authorities in Syria continue to ban websites, including Amazon.com last month. The government reportedly uses a filtering system called Thundercache to block content from sites such as Blogspot, Hotmail, Skype and YouTube, as well as any Arabic-language news sites.

In Iraq and the Palestinian territories, the Internet is policed mainly by the owners of Internet cafes and by Internet users themselves. Islamist militants have reportedly attacked Internet cafes in both places, accusing patrons of looking at adult material or chatting with members of the opposite sex.

Tunisian authorities block several sites, human rights workers said, but the authorities also have started holding the owners of Internet cafes liable if political activists use their establishments to post critical news about the government.

In Egypt the authorities do little or no filtering but police have rounded up at least three bloggers and harassed many more in recent years, according to Reporters Without Borders.

Iran's hard-line Shiite Muslim leadership also is a zealous censor of the Internet. The government boasts of filtering 10 million "immoral" websites, in addition to all the major social-networking outfits and dozens of pages about religion or politics.

Additionally, the ultraconservative Saudi government blocks thousands of adult websites

A group of nutter MPs has tabled an amendment designed to ensure that homophobic Christians can continue to express their views on gay people.

Devout Roman Catholics Ann Widdecombe and Jim Dobbin are among the MPs attempting to amend the government's proposal to make incitement to hatred on the grounds of sexual orientation a criminal offence.

Christian Concern for our Nation, a pressure group which attempts to stand up against a tide of unChristian legal and political changes in the United Kingdom, is urging its supporters to pressure MPs into supporting the new amendment.

Stonewall, the gay equality organisation, have been giving evidence to parliament's  scrutinising committee about the sort of incitement to homophobic murder and hatred that goes unchallenged. Chief executive Ben Summerskill quoted extensively from the homophobic lyrics of dancehall star Beenie Man and others to demonstrate the nature of their comments about gay men and lesbians.

Summerskill rejected concerns that a law banning incitement to religious hatred would be used to silence the voices of religious people who regard homosexuality as a sin: We are crystal clear that people are perfectly entitled to express their religious views. We are also crystal clear that the temperate expression of religious views should not be covered by the legislation. One might also want to look at the context in which any expression is made that people should be killed or put to death because they are homosexual.

The homophobic incitement provisions were later passed by the whole committee, and none of the Tory MPs voted against them.

The new amendment from Christian MPs reads:

Nothing in this part shall be read or given effect in a way which prohibits or restricts discussion of, criticism of or expressions of antipathy towards, conduct relating to a particular sexual orientation, or urging persons of a particular sexual orientation to refrain from or modify conduct relating to that orientation.

Among the MPs asking for the right to show antipathy towards their gay constituents are: Lib Dems Colin Breed (South East Cornwall) and Alan Beith (Berwick Upon Tweed); Conservatives Philip Hollobone (Kettering) and Ann Widdecombe (Maidstone and the Weald); and Labour MPs David Taylor (North West Leicestershire) and Jim Dobbin (Heywood and Middleton).

Five candidates for the position of America's 44th president, including Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and Mitt Romney, were recently quizzed on their feelings regarding violent gaming legislation.

Specifically, the candidates were asked: To date, nearly 10 states have considered legislation to keep violent video games out of kids' hands. Would you support this type of legislation at the federal level? What other strategies would you support to keep the video game industry and other media companies from marketing and selling inappropriate content to children?

Hillary Clinton cited her Family Entertainment Protection Act which would punish retailers with, a fine of $1,000 or 100 hours of community service for the first offense and $5,000 or 500 hours of community service for each subsequent offense.

John Edwards stated that while parents must ultimately decide what games their kids play, he thoroughly supports the efforts of industry associations such as the ESRB saying, The Entertainment Software Rating Board is a good example of industry responsibility.

Similarly, media-darling Barack Obama stated that parents must be the driving force behind what children see, but that it's up to the government and gaming industry to provide comprehensive tools to aid parents.

Bill Richardson's concurred with Edwards and Obama

On the other side of the aisle, Republican Mitt Romney feels that the true issue here is a lack of morality in society. His stated goal is, to restore values so children are protected from a societal cesspool of filth, pornography, violence, sex, and perversion.

The most striking thing about the entire Q&A is the similarity presented by each candidate. Even across party lines, the similarities presented in each candidate's arguments seem almost rehearsed.

Dutch government firework safety ads featuring a spoof Islamist terrorist group have been criticised as insensitive and depicting a negative stereotype of the Muslim community.

The online ads, made for the Dutch government's consumer safety institute, have been made to look like a video message filmed by an Islamist military organisation called the Liberation Army Against Freedom.

Featuring a group led by an Osama bin Laden lookalike figure at their camp, the viral ads are dubbed into Iraqi-accented Arabic and have versions with subtitles in Dutch and English.

The tone is intended to be humorous, with the terrorist group seen receiving a shipment of fireworks like an arms cache, wearing suicide vests made of firecrackers, and bungling efforts to demonstrate to you our true power by blowing themselves up.

However, the light treatment of such a serious issue has angered some industry insiders.

What is the campaign hoping to achieve by depicting a negative stereotype of the Muslim community in a fireworks advert? said Saad Saraf, the chief executive of multicultural marketing specialists Media Reach Advertising.

Saraf, an Iraqi, was particularly offended by images in one ad that show one person strap fireworks around him in a style similar to a suicide belt, which later explodes.

This is insensitive to society as a whole. Suicide bombings have destroyed many thousands of lives - using them in a humorous way is totally inappropriate. Are these adverts then for people who have not been affected by terrorism, suicide bombings and the invasion of Iraq in some way? said Saraf.

However, Inayat Bunglawala, the assistant secretary general of the Muslim Council of Britain, did not think the ads were particularly offensive: I thought they were very humorous public safety films, he responded by email after being sent several links to the ads: Obviously there will always be some who find it to be in bad taste, but I thought it was done light-heartedly and funny and with clear educational value.

Brighton council is trying to ban anti-gay music in clubs yet is loaning CDs from its libraries of artists who have penned homophobic lyrics.

Pubs and clubs which play or allow artists to perform songs inciting homophobic acts face having their licence taken away in Brighton and Hove.

But it has emerged that work by Buju Banton, who recorded a song called Boom Bye Bye which advocates the shooting of gay men, and an album of songs by rapper Eminem, which includes homophobic lyrics, are available for loan at Brighton and Hove City Council libraries.

The CDs were initially withdrawn yesterday after The Argus contacted the council but tonight a spokesman for the authority said: We've not banned any acts from nightclubs and it's not our role to provide artistic taste police in our cultural facilities either.

The council last week voted to tackle so-called "murder music" with a new section to its licensing policy. Although the new council policy cannot legally ban any form of music, it was specifically designed to discourage murder music acts and allows licences to be reviewed if performances include incitement to violence.

The council spokesman said: A small section in the council's new licensing policy is aimed at preventing crime and antisocial behaviour in licensed premises. There is no ban or censorship on any particular artist or song and this section of the policy is not there to prevent people being offended - its sole purpose is to prevent crime and disorder.

This is a separate issue to the library service, which also does not aim to censor material which is legally available to the public. The library service sets out to maintain a balanced stock of material, offering a wide range of materials reflecting a broad spectrum of views and opinions. The Eminem Marshall Mathers LP was released over seven years ago, the lyrics are controversial and the CD is labelled with an explicit content warning."

11 websites have so far been blocked in Malaysia for having obscene materials and seditious messages, Science, Technology and Innovation Ministry parliamentary secretary Datuk Dr Mohd Ruddin Abdul Ghani said.

Besides blocking the websites and blogs, he said the ministry has also drawn up long-term programmes in collaboration with CyberSecurity Malaysia to boost awareness on cyber security.

Dr Mohd Ruddin said it was not difficult to block websites and blogs compared with emails featuring advertisements and pornography.

He said there was no proper mechanism to check such material spreading through e-mails, but the authorities could control and halt blogs.

However, the Cabinet will not obstruct the movement of information in the Internet because of the Bill of Guarantee, which promised free-flow of information when the Multimedia Super Corridor was first set up, he said. [...I think blocking websites is surely obstructing the movement of information]

A member of the House of Representatives has filed a bill seeking to impose stiffer penalties for perpetrators of highly scandalous crimes against decency.

Aside from longer jail sentences, House Bill 2856 filed by Cebu Representative Antonio Cuenco also seeks to increase the fines provided for in the Revised Penal Code for such offenses as grave scandal, indecency and pornography, among others, to between P100,000 to P2,000,000, among others. Currently, such offenses carry sentences of only six months or less.

The current law seems to be taken lightly by offenders since its penalties are minimal compared to the gravity of crime, Cuenco said There is no justice if we let the criminals responsible for the grim days ahead of these victims walk away unscathed -- only to be incarcerated be for a mere six months or less.

The lawmaker also said there is a need to amend some provisions in the law to curtail, if not totally eradicate the conduct of inappropriate and obscene behavior.

The Philippines censor board has provoked two militant lawmakers by banning three films for purportedly casting the Arroyo administration in a negative light.

Gabriela Representatives filed a resolution seeking a congressional inquiry into the ban. They alleged that the Movie and Television Review and Classification Board (MTRCB) was being used “for political repression.”

The complaint referred to the short films Mendiola and A Day in the Life of Gloria Arrovo, and Rights, a compilation of public service announcements on human rights, extrajudicial killings and disappearances.

They said in a statement that The MTRCB, banning these movies  has proven itself to be an effective tool for the suppression of free speech and expression.

National Artist for Literature Bienvenido Lumbera, a founding member of the critics’ group, Manunuri ng Pelikulang Pilipino, has joined the two legislators’ protest, along with filmmakers Carlitos Siguion Reyna, Anna Isabelle Matutina, Kiri Dalena, Chytz Jimenez and RJ Mabilin.

The group said they were disputing the censors’ ruling that Rights contained scenes that undermine faith and confidence [in] the government and duly constituted authorities.

It wasn’t true, either, that Mendiola had a tendency to incite rebellion and sedition, the protesters insisted.

Neither was the board’s claim, they said, that A Day in the Life of Gloria was libelous and defamatory to the good name and reputation of the President of the Philippines.

Meanwhile the ban of the film, Banal, has now been rescinded and it is now rated R-13

London Underground has banned an ad campaign by bookmaker Paddy Power that features a man who appears to be breastfeeding a baby.

The poster ad has been banned by LU operator Transport for London's compliance committee.

A spokesman for Paddy Power said that the poster, which uses the strapline Where have all the women gone?, was banned on the grounds that it had the "potential to offend public decency".

The Irish bookmaker said: We are completely astonished by the reaction of the London Underground to our advert. Fun is central to the Paddy Power brand and we strive to communicate this in all of our advertising.

Authorities in Malaysia have threatened not to renew the publishing license of a Catholic weekly newspaper if it continues to use the word "Allah" in its Malay language section, Catholic and government officials said.

The Herald, the organ of Malaysia's Catholic Church, has translated the word God as "Allah" but it is erroneous because Allah refers to the Muslim god, said Che Din Yusoff, a senior official at the Internal Security Ministry's publications control department, in remarks monitored by BosNewsLife. Christians cannot use the word Allah. It is only applicable to Muslims. Allah is only for the Muslim god. This is a design to confuse the Muslim people, Che Din added.

However church sources say the Malay-language Bible uses Allah for God. We follow the Bible. The Malay-language Bible uses Allah for God and Tuhan for Lord. In our prayers and in
church during Malay mass, we use the word Allah, Reverend Lawrence Andrew, editor of the Herald, told reporters.

Yet, Che Din said there are four Malay words that must not be used by other religions, he said: Allah for God, "solat" for prayers, "kaabah" for the place of Muslim worship in Mecca and "baitula" the house of Allah. The weekly should instead, use the word "Tuhan" which is the general term for God, he reportedly said.

The Herald's permit will only be renewed in two weeks if they stop using Allah in their publication.

The rules are meant to protect children from online content, but what the Communications Legislation Amendment (Content Services) Act of 2007 actually does is put a serious burden on adults to self-police, while making it much harder for online publishers to freely share their work. Worse yet, it's another misguided attempt to make the Internet into a playground for children where they won't need supervision.

Beginning January 20, anyone who publishes commercial content online or for mobile phones in Australia will be required to make sure that adult-oriented content isn't seen by minors. This isn't just porn we're talking about, either: the new rules essentially port Australia's movie ratings over to online content.

Once the new rules are enforced, content producers in Australia as well as Australian web surfers will have to live by these categories:

• Sexually explicit content is prohibited (X18+, and Refused Classification content); this was already the case.
• Softcore R18+ content must be hidden behind a verification service that checks for ages 18 and up.
• So-called "mature audience" (MA15+) content must also be hidden behind a verification service that checks for ages 15 and up.
• The ACMA will use "take down," "service cessation" and "link deletion" notices to force publishers to remove content or access to content that is the subject of a complaint.

One reader who contacted Ars lamented the fact that adults will have to give up a little privacy to be in compliance, too. Users will prove their age by supplying their full names and either a credit card or digital signature approved for online use. Content publishers are even required by law to keep records of who accessed R18+ content and with what credentials for a period of two years.

While the law targets commercial content providers, the rules also apply to "live content" services, aka, IRC services and chatrooms. It's also not clear what counts as commercial content: bloggers who turn a buck would seem to qualify. According to documents from the ACMA, the rules apply to hosting service providers, live content service providers, links service providers and commercial content service providers who provide a content service that has an Australian connection.

One wonders if the rules aren't a complete waste of time, however. Australia cannot enforce the rules in other countries, which in the long run seems to only give Australians an incentive to hosting their businesses somewhere else.

A Khartoum court has sentenced two Egyptians to six months in prison for marketing a book that is deemed offensive to Aisha, one of Prophet Mohammed’s wives.

Abdel Fattah Abdel Raouf and Mahrous Mohammed Abdel Aziz were sentenced under article 125 of Sudan’s penal code, the same section under which U.K. teacher Gillian Gibbons was convicted after allowing her class to name a teddy bear Mohammed.

Justice Minister Mohammed Ali al-Mardhi said Dec. 11 following the pair’s arrest that they were guilty of bringing over the book entitled Aisha, mother of believers, devoured her sons from bookseller and publisher Madbouli in Egypt and selling it in Sudan.

The book contains blasphemous passages and particularly despicable offenses to the prophet and to the mother of believers, as Aisha is often called, Mardhi said at the time.

The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (HRinfo) said the book was titled Aisha: The Wife of Prophet Mohamed and that: The arrest is a flagrant violation of freedom of opinion and expression.

HRinfo said the Egyptians found themselves in danger when a radical islamist had bought the book and in turn informed the authorities about its contents.

Madbouly had already received permission from the Sudanese censorship authoritie s to distribute the book, written by London-based Syrian writer Nabil Fayyad, before arriving in Khartoum for the festival.

Another book confiscated at the book fair was about the Shiites, a book called Darfur, the history of war and genocide, published by Horizons House.

Egypt requested an explanation from the Sudanese authorities.

Sky Sports News has escaped censure from Ofcom after it broadcast strong language during a live press conference with boxers Ricky Hatton and Floyd Mayweather.

The BSkyB channel aired live coverage of the conference, which was held in Manchester in September as part of a world tour to promote last week's welterweight title fight.

During the press conference, Hatton said his American rival Mayweather had fucking no chance. He later told his opponent to: Stop touching my dick, you poof.

Ofcom received one complaint about the broadcast, which aired at 11 o'clock on a Thursday morning..

Responding to the complaint, BSkyB said previous Hatton press conferences in New York, Los Angeles and London had been broadcast without any offensive language, and the boxer had conducted 20 live interviews with the channel in the past without incident.

The transmission of live sports programming brings with it particular difficulties, Ofcom said. The broadcaster did its best to limit offence. Ofcom said it considered the complaint resolved.

Iranian police have closed down 24 Internet cafes and other coffee shops in as many hours, detaining 23 people, as part of a broad crackdown on immoral behavior in the Islamic state.

The action in Tehran province was the latest move in a campaign against fashion and other practices deemed incompatible with Islamic values, including women wearing high boots and barber shops offering men Western hair styles.

Using immoral computer games, storing obscene photos ... and the presence of women wearing improper hijab were among the reasons why they have been closed down, Colonel Nader Sarkari, a provincial police commander, said.

Sarkari told the official IRNA news agency that police had inspected 435 coffee shops in the past 24 hours, and 170 had been warned.

Many young Iranians are avid users of the Internet, some using chat rooms to socialise with the opposite sex. Mingling between sexes outside marriage is banned and many Web sites considered unIslamic are blocked by the authorities.

In a separate campaign, IRNA said police had inspected 275 restaurants in the capital to check compliance with a new ban on smoking in public places. The ban includes water pipes, known in Iran as qalyan, offered in some outlets. Of those, 138 received a warning and 17 were shut down, police official Mohammad Reza Alipour said.

Fudoh: The Next Generation is 1996 Japanese martial arts/Yakuza film by Takashi Miike

Cut when submitted in 2002 by Artsmagic with the BBFC comment: Compulsory cut required to remove elements of sadistic violence and humiliation in scene where woman is brutally beaten by man.

The uncut region 1 DVD is available at US Amazon

From a review on US Amazon:

A Takashi Miike is always worth looking out for, and this one was highly anticipated. It's one of his earlier Yakuza movies, but still very Miike in approach.

Riki (Shosuke Tanihara) is the smartest, best-looking kid in his high school. He also runs the place with the aid of his own gang comprised of fellow students. With the aid of eight-year-old hit men and schoolgirl strippers and assassins, it looks like Riki could have his revenge on the 10th anniversary of his brother's death.

Shock value and native Japanese weirdness aside, this is a great movie. It looks great. Whatever the content, each shot is carefully composed and the action is often so manic it can be had to keep up with.

As unemotional as the Japanese can be, Fudoh turns into the nastiest family squabble since Medea. Just when you think the film can't get any weirder, it's just getting started. Murders are often accompanied by rivers of blood. The scenes in the children's assassin training camp are hysterical. I lost count on the number of decapitations.

The latest campaign to clean up cyberspace has been launched by the Chinese government.

According to a notice jointly released by 12 ministries taking part in the scheme, the campaign aims to curb the growing number of illegal advertisements for sex-related health supplements, STD drugs and clinics, and sex toys.

It is scheduled to run through to next February.

Tough punishments will be meted out to medical institutions and clinics for advertising unapproved or unlicensed cures for STDs

Companies that use sexually suggestive advertisements to promote sex drugs face having their businesses suspended, the notice said.

In addition, agencies that design, make and release "vulgar" advertisements will be dealt with in accordance with the law on advertising, it said.

Those that are found to have seriously violated the law or the new regulation could be stripped of their right to operate in the advertising business, the notice said.

Websites that host illegal advertisements must remove them immediately once they are told to do so by the authorities. Those that do not do so will be closed down, the notice said.

The Toronto Sun reports that an advocate for sex workers believes that pop culture influences, including the popular Grand Theft Auto series, help legitimize violence against prostitutes. Anastasia Kuzyk of the Sex Workers’ Alliance of Toronto told the newspaper:

Sex work is a job, and violence isn’t in the job description… There’s a video game out there where you can run down prostitutes and kill them and beat them up and take their money. It feeds into the whole subculture of allowing the violence to continue. Violence against sex workers should not be normalized, but it is.

Casualty
BBC1, 8 September 2007, 20:25

Casualty is a long-running hospital drama. In this episode, a junior doctor is confronted by the effects of a bomb explosion at a coach station on his first day at work. The doctor gives medical attention to several badly injured people, including a man whose stomach has been ripped open exposing his intestines, and another requiring an arm amputation.

Four viewers complained about the graphic and repeated imagery of the injuries sustained by the victims in view of the programme’s pre-watershed start.

Three complainants noted there was no specific warning about this content in advance of the programme.

The BBC responded that Casualty has been a staple of the BBC1 schedule for some time and has covered major incidents causing severe injuries in the past.

It considered that the pre-transmission announcement and clear build up to the scenes would have sufficiently prepared viewers for such images. In particular, it pointed out that the process of the arm amputation was explained to the junior doctor before it began, so giving the audience an opportunity to look away if they wished.

The broadcaster argued that the storyline warranted showing these injuries, as they were repeated in a series of flashbacks illustrating how the self-belief of the junior doctor had nearly collapsed.

Decision

Rule 1.3 requires that children must be protected by appropriate scheduling from material that is unsuitable for them.

Rule 1.11 states that violence, its after-effects and descriptions of violence...must be appropriately limited in programmes before the watershed…and must also be justified by the context.

Ofcom was concerned by the graphic nature of the images broadcast of two particular injuries (the exposed intestines and arm amputation), given that children may have been watching at this time on a Saturday evening. We recognise that Casualty is a well-established drama regularly shown before the watershed and that it often contains scenes of surgery. However, even taking into account these expectations of the audience, Ofcom considered this material to be unsuitable for children.

While appreciating the experiences of the junior doctor were integral to the storyline, Ofcom does not accept that the repeated images of injury were sufficiently brief and limited. Images were shown of the intestinal injuries of one victim in four separate shots all within one minute, with one shot depicting the injuries in close-up. In view of the duration and graphic nature of the injuries shown, the information provided before the programme was not, in Ofcom’s opinion, adequate to warn viewers about the images of the aftereffects of violence broadcast in the programme.

Breach of Rules 1.3 and 1.11

Die Hard with a Vengeance is a 1995 US film by John McTiernan (Released by Buena Vista)

12s of cuts are down to the BBFC but the film was also pre-cut by 20th Century Fox in America before it's release on DVD and VHS, and it was this cut that was released worldwide.

Thanks to Andrew

Here is a very detailed an very extensive list of cuts, compiled by Gav Salkeld, to Die Hard with a Vengeance. I knew it had suffered from cuts to violent content, but never thought it was this bad though.

If you are  considering buying it, may I recommend the Aussie region 4 2007 release, it might not be the 2 disk, but its a PAL format, digitally re-mastered sound and visual, and uncut. stay away from the region 1, I implore you, which has problems.

Australian nutters have branded a television commercial depicting the baby Jesus tossing gifts back at the three wise men as tacky and offensive.

The ad for electronic goods retailers Betta Electrical recreates the Christian nativity scene, showing three wise men offering gifts to baby Jesus as he lies in the manger.

The commercial, which has angered Anglican and Catholic leaders, shows Jesus throwing gifts out of the manger as the words Give a better gift flash on the TV screen.

Christian leaders criticised the ad, calling it a tacky and offensive exploitation of religious imagery which perverts the true meaning of Christmas.

This ad comes within the orbit of tacky Christmas things, senior Sydney Anglican bishop Glenn Davies told The Daily Telegraph: The gifts that the wise men were giving were appropriate for a king, so the notion that Jesus would reject them is absurd.

A spokesman for Catholic Archbishop of Sydney Cardinal George Pell said the use of Christ was inappropriate: The advertisement is interesting because it shows how commercialised Christmas has become.

But Julieanne Worchurst, marketing manager at BSR Group which operates more than 170 Betta Electrical stores, said the ad was intended to be a tongue-in-cheek and humorous approach to the gift giving season. We accept that this could have been seen as offensive, but that was not the intention at all. The ad was never intended to upset or disrupt people's Christmas.

Worchurst said while the company had received just two complaints from viewers.

The BBC has provoked controversy over a Christmas Day Doctor Who special that uses religious imagery to depict the Time Lord as a “messiah”. Voyage of the Damned, starring Kylie Minogue, is expected to be the holiday viewing highlight.

However, Christian groups expressed concern that the imagery employed was inappropriate for a BBC One Christmas evening show.

The Doctor (David Tennant) must save a group of passengers after the Titanic, now a futuristic space vessel, is holed by a meteorite storm.

He convinces the despairing survivors to believe in his powers after ascending through the ship’s decks, carried by a pair of robotic angels. Russell T. Davies, the writer and executive producer of the revived series, said: The series lends itself to religious iconography because the Doctor is a proper saviour. He saves the world through the power of his mind and his passion.

Stephen Green, of the evangelical group Christian Voice, said: The Doctor would have to do a lot more than the usual prancing around to be a messiah. He has to save people from their sins.

But Malcolm Brown, director of mission and public affairs for the Church of England, said: Science fiction at its best helps to illuminate eternal themes, and that’s something the Church can happily work with.

New restrictions on online chatrooms, websites and mobile phone content will be introduced within a month to stop children viewing unsuitable material.

From January 20 new laws will be in effect, imposing tougher rules for companies that sell entertainment-related content on subscription internet sites and mobile phones.

It is the first time content service providers will have to check that people accessing MA15-plus content are aged over 15 years and those accessing R18-plus and X18-plus content are over 18.

The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) will be able to force content providers to take down offensive material and issue notices for live content to be stopped and links to the content deleted.

But ACMA chairman Chris Chapman said adults will not be affected by the new laws: In developing these new content rules, ACMA was guided by its disposition to allow adults to continue to read, hear and see what they want, while protecting children from exposure to inappropriate content, regardless of the delivery mechanism.

Providers of live services, such as chatrooms, must have their service professionally assessed to determine whether its "likely content" should be restricted.

Personal emails and other private communications would be excluded from the new laws and so would news or current affairs services.

British censors have won the right to fight the UK release of video game Manhunt 2 in the High Court.

A judge accepted the BBFC's argument that the game had been approved for release on a misinterpretation of the law.

The game was banned in June but the Video Appeals Committee said the game could be classified and released.

The BBFC said that the VAC had been guilty of "a very serious misdirection of law" on the question of harm.

The judge said: I have taken into account the high public interest in the possibility of harm to children.

Justice Wyn Williams ruled the Board had an arguable case that should go to a full hearing.

Both sides agreed that the game was not suitable for children, but the BBFC argued that if given a certificate for release, it could still end up in the hands of minors.

The judge also suspended the VAC's decision that the game should be classified, halting any possibility of it going on sale until after the High Court challenge, due to take place before 31 January next year.

The BBFC said it would pay any damages that developer Rockstar might suffer as a result of the stay, if the Board loses its legal challenge.

The Board had warned that if the VAC decision had stood, it would have fundamental implications for all of its decisions, including those about unacceptable levels of violence.

Rockstar Games said that Manhunt 2 was well within the bounds established by other 18+ rated entertainment.

Re Judicial Review of Manhunt 2 appeal

So Mr. Justice Hooper's legal judgement back in 2000 means nothing to you people?

Mr Justice Hooper made a legal ruling after a case back in 2000 in which your outright censorship of certain content in R18 videos was appealed, and the BBFC lost that appeal. It was an appeal I attended myself, because for many years I have been interested in the censorship aspect of the work of the BBFC and how it has restricted our rights unnecessarily.

Please remember that Mr Justice Hooper said that a reasonable decision maker could come to the conclusion the Appeals Committee did, regarding the content of R18 videos.

Doesn't this legal precedent also apply in the latest case, involving RockStar Games?

This game may not be your cup of tea, but that is not any reason to stop FREEBORN ADULTS from playing the games they want to play.

I hope Rockstar games TAKE YOU to court for unreasonable restrictions of their right to freedom of expression causing them loss of revenue. Every day this game is not allowed to be released will cost them money, because of piracy etc. You surely aren't so naive as to believe that your BANNING it will actually prevent people who want it getting hold of a copy do you? Probably by piracy, on download sites, which will cost RockStar money, perhaps money which they may seek to recover from you. After all, you are a business yourselves aren't you?

I have just signed a petition asking the Prime Minister to leave you people alone:

http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/lettheBBFCbe

I think I made a grave mistake. The BBFC should be disbanded, as an insult to freedom of expression of adults. We don't have people reading our books before we can buy them. Why do we need them to read our videos and play our games?

To keep censoring and banning people's video games is surely the easiest way to ensure the future demise of the BBFC as a censor.

The decision has been made by the VAC. You lost the case. Now you should abide by that decision. The judge in a previous appeal case clearly told you that, when you took it to judicial review before. To abide by the committee's decision rather than anything else, is the law. Mr Justice Hooper told you that, and clarified the position.

You people, along with the politicians who clearly RULE YOU, seem to be more frightened of the likes of John Beyer of Media Watch, and politicians such as Julian Brazier and Keith Vaz who firmly believe in a Spirit in the Sky who no one has ever seen, who rules over us, whilst letting little children starve to death or get horrendous illnesses. They might as well believe in Santa Clause, The Tooth Fairy, or the Easter Bunny, but it is clear they are trying to use their religious beliefs to set the censorship agenda Perhaps they should show real proof of widespread manifest and proportionate harm, which no one has EVER done in these cases.

You people, and the politicians who control you, should be more afraid of the younger generation, who I am sure, given the sentiments expressed in various discussions on this issue, will not tolerate such censorship of their videos and games in times to come.

It isn't 1984 any more. The video material which caused all this censorship in the first place has for the vast majority of cases, now been classified for adult viewing. This shows that the censorship we've had to put up with, , and the role of the BBFC in that, was never needed in the first place. All such censorship really does these days, is to make it difficult or uneconomic for small video producers to enter the market because of the "classification" fees.

Believe it or not, there ARE RARE censorship decisions you have made that I have personally agreed with. BumFights was one of them. Even then I would trade the loss of our freedom of expression in other areas, for such material being allowed, even if I personally don't agree with it. Otherwise where will it end, and who sets the limits? Politicians such as Brazier and Vaz with their clear religious agendas? John Beyer of MediaWatch with his expressed desire to throw people in prison for years on end, just for simple POSSESSION of an R18 video?

No thanks.

What amazes me, is the amount of credence and credibility you appear to give to such people as this, and how you appear to be fearful of them.

With respect,
Shaun

A parent, aged 50 with two children aged 13 and 16

Thailand's National Legislative Assembly passed the controversial Film Act in a last gasp flurry of bills before a new government is elected.

An eight-month-long campaign by local film professionals to end censorship went unheeded. The new law stipulates a rating system which still gives the state the right to ban a movie and prevent its release in the kingdom.

The rating system is made up of "P" (films that are of educational value, "G" (suitable for all age groups), and age restricted categories 13,15,18,20.

The previously mooted  25 age category did not make the final bill.

Notably, the Film Act authorizes the state to forbid the release of movies that undermine or disrupt social order and moral decency, or that might impact national security or the pride of the nation.

Another controversial point is the article that sees the country's chief of police join the National Film and Video Committee. Previous drafts of the law did not include the police as members of the rating committee, though historically the police have chaired the film censorship board.

To implement the rating system, a supplementary law will have to be written to cover operational aspects. But it's not clear when the system will actually be implemented in Thai theaters.

The Vatican has condemned the film The Golden Compass, which some have called anti-Christian, saying it promotes a cold and hopeless world without God.

In a long editorial, the Vatican newspaper l'Osservatore Romano, also slammed Philip Pullman, the bestselling author of the book on which the family fantasy movie is based.

It was the Vatican's most stinging broadside against an author and a film since it roundly condemned The Da Vinci Code in 2005 and 2006.

In Pullman's world, hope simply does not exist, because there is no salvation but only personal, individualistic capacity to control the situation and dominate events, the editorial said.

In the fantasy world created by Pullman's trilogy, His Dark Materials, the Church and its governing body the Magisterium, are linked to cruel experiments on children aimed at discovering the nature of sin and attempts to suppress facts that would undermine the Church's legitimacy and power.

In the film version all references to the Church have been stripped out, with director Chris Weitz keen to avoid offending religious cinema goers.

Still, some Catholic groups in the United States have called for a boycott, fearing even a diluted version of the book might draw people to read the bestselling trilogy.

Prosecutors in Russia say they are studying a complaint accusing Coca-Cola of insulting Orthodox Christian beliefs in an advertising campaign.

They say the complaint was lodged by 440 residents of the Russian city of Nizhny Novgorod earlier this month.

It accuses Coca-Cola of blasphemy through using adverts with images of Orthodox churches and crosses, some of which were even put upside down.

"Coca-Cola uses all these Orthodox symbols in a blasphemous way by placing images of Coca-Cola bottles inside the pictures," the complaint said: Some images are deliberately turned upside down, including the crosses.

Coca-Cola officials have defended the company's marketing approach, saying it was promoting Russia's cultural heritage.

The BBFC has recently started providing consumer advice for R18s. All that I have looked at so far seem to have the same advice (if advice is provided):

Contains strong images of real sex, or fetish material, intended for sexual stimulation

It doesn't seem to make any difference whether the film contains fetish material or not (or conversely real sex).

Harry Cohen has re-submitted his amendments to the Criminal Justice & Immigration Bill Part 7 Criminal Law:

Page 65, line 17 [Clause 94], leave out ‘appears to have’ and insert ‘has’.
Page 65, line 20 [Clause 94], leave out ‘appears to have’ and insert ‘has’.
Page 65, line 27 [Clause 94], leave out ‘it appears that’.
Page 65, line 33 [Clause 94], leave out from ‘which’ to end and insert ‘results in a person’s death or a life-threatening injury,’.
Page 65, line 34 [Clause 94], leave out from first ‘in’ to end of line.
Page 65, line 36 [Clause 94], leave out ‘or appears to involve’.
Page 65, line 38 [Clause 94], leave out ‘or appearing to perform’.
Page 65, line 40 [Clause 94], leave out ‘or appears to be’.

Write to your own MP and ask them to support these amendments

These amendments would ensure that people wouldn't be prosecuted for possessing legally produced images with staged violence.

Forum members have commented that hopefully these amendments may have been accepted by bill sponsors after some heavyweight opposition and concerns about human rights compatibility

Celebrated author Mark Steyn has been summoned to appear before two Canadian judicial panels on charges linked to his book America Alone.

The book, a No. 1 bestseller in Canada, argues that Western nations are succumbing to an Islamist imperialist threat. The fact that charges based on it are proceeding apace proves his point.

After the Canadian general-interest magazine Maclean's reprinted a chapter from the book, five Muslim law-school students, acting through the auspices of the Canadian Islamic Congress, demanded that the magazine be punished for spreading “hatred and contempt" for Muslims.

The plaintiffs allege that Maclean's advocated, among other things, the notion that Islamic culture is incompatible with Canada's liberalized, Western civilization. They insist such a notion is untrue and, in effect, want opinions like that banned from publication.

Two separate panels, the British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal and the Canadian Human Rights Commission, have agreed to hear the case. These bodies are empowered to hear and rule on cases of purported “hate speech."

ThinkFilm is preparing an appeal to the MPAA about a poster. The poster art for Taxi to the Dark Side, a documentary about the pattern of torture practice, is causing a stir due to its depiction of a hooded man being led by American soldiers.

Variety is reporting that the MPAA has officially rejected the poster, and if ThinkFilm goes forward with the marketing, they could have their "R" rating revoked. Taxi to the Dark Side is due for US release on January 11th.

An MPAA spokesman says Ads will be seen by all audiences, including children. If the advertising is not suitable for all audiences it will not be approved by the advertising administration.

Alex Gibney, the film's writer, producer, and director says, Not permitting us to use an image of a hooded man that comes from a documentary photograph is censorship, pure and simple. Intentional or not, the MPAA's disapproval of the poster is a political act, undermining legitimate criticism of the Bush administration. I agree that the image is offensive; it's also real.

A Lubbock city official has banned two drawings from an art show in a city-run facility.

The predominantly pencil-sketched images of a nearly fully clothed mother who is breast-feeding and a nude pregnant woman were banned from the Buddy Holly Center.

Vince Gonzales, president of the Lubbock chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union said  that a “nurse-in,” a gathering of nursing mothers at a public place, is being planned for a date in the near future “mostly as a way of supporting Lahib Jaddo and her artwork: I think it also is a response to how breast-feeding mothers are treated in Lubbock. They have to put up with thinly veiled comments from people seated at the next table at a restaurant, and rude and inappropriate remarks from people walking by them at the mall.

Update: Still Censored

16th January 2009

More than a year after two sketches by Lahib Jaddo were banned at the Buddy Holly Center in Lubbock, the artist still has not seen her works grace the walls of a city-governed gallery.

And she may not, even though she has an exhibit on the center's calendar for December.

BBC Radio 1 has bowed to mounting pressure to play the uncensored version of Fairytale of New York after a flood of complaints from listeners and the mother of the singer Kirsty MacColl.

Andy Parfitt, the station controller, admitted that the decision to bleep the word “faggot” from the iconic Christmas song had been “wrong” and said the uncut version would from now on be broadcast. He backed down, saying that the singers did not use the word with any “negative intent”.

The station’s head of music, George Ergatoudis, had ordered the word to be removed from the single, which is in the running to be this year’s Christmas number one, for fear of upsetting homosexuals.

MacColl’s mother, Jean, had dismissed the move as “pathetic and ridiculous”, saying that some of the world’s most famous writers used bawdy language: Shane has written the most beautiful song and these characters live, they really live, and you have such sympathy for them.

Radio 1 listeners also inundated the station’s website with complaints about the decision. Even gay rights campaigners had criticised the decision as “misguided”.

Andrew Gilliver, spokesman for the Lesbian and Gay Foundation, said: I have spent hours ringing around and trawling the internet and I can’t find anyone in the gay community who is offended by this song, in fact it is well loved.

GamePolitics has learned that a New Mexico judge today dismissed Jack Thompson’s wrongful death suit against Take Two Interactive and Sony.

The case, filed in 2006 by Thompson and a New Mexico attorney, claimed that Grand Theft Auto Vice City played a role in 14-year-old Cody Posey’s 2004 murder of his father, stepmother and stepsister.

In disposing of the case, Judge Huling ruled that the Court did not have jurisdiction over Take Two and Sony, since neither corporation has offices in New Mexico. Judge Huling also ruled that New Mexico laws did not support Thompson’s wrongful death claim in the case.

Take Two chairman, the fabulously named Strauss Zelnick has made an official statement to the world regarding the British Board of Film Censors' decision to take the Manhunt 2 banning saga to the High Court.

We are disappointed that the BBFC has decided to appeal its own Video Appeals Committee's judgement in favour of an 18-plus certificate for Manhunt 2. We believe the VAC decision was correct and do not understand the BBFC's decision to expend further public resources to censor a game that contains content well within the bounds established by the BBFC's 18-plus ratings certification, says Strauss in an antiseptic statement.

The Pakistan government's intolerance of public dissent is not easing ahead of the Jan. 8 parliamentary elections, with television executives being warned they could be imprisoned and fined for giving critics of President Pervez Musharraf a live forum.

Pakistan's regulators ordered all satellite television channels to stop airing such live programs, talk shows and contents immediately, according to a copy of a letter Tuesday obtained by the Associated Press.

In the letter, the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority said some channels still were airing live coverage and taking live telephone calls from [the] public, which contain baseless propaganda against Pakistan and incite people to violence.

The regulators warned that the channels could be taken off the air and that those responsible - the network's license-holder or its representative - could face up to three years in prison and fines of up to $170,000.

Journalists yesterday accused the state media regulator of trying to restrict their coverage of the elections. The Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists called it an attempt to silence the free media.

The BBFC is applying for a judicial review of the decision by the Video Appeals Committee to overturn the Board’s rejection of the video game Manhunt 2. The Board’s challenge also seeks suspension of the Committee’s decision that the game should be classified.

The BBFC is contesting the VAC judgement because in the Board's view, it is based on an approach to harm which is an incorrect interpretation of the Video Recordings Act. The VAC judgement, if allowed to stand, would have fundamental implications with regard to all the Board’s decisions, including those turning upon questions of unacceptable levels of violence. If the VAC’s decision is suspended, then the game will not be classified before the outcome of the Judicial Review.

Background: What is a Judicial Review?

Thanks to Harvey on the Melon Farmers Forum

The answer to that is that it's a High Court Judge, sitting in the Administstrative Court. And if a Judicial Review is allowed, any "interpretation" will be of the LAW as it relates to the PROCESS by which the VAC came to it's judgement in respect of the Manhunt 2 game.

A lawer explains: A Judicial Review is a type of court proceeding in which a judge reviews the lawfulness of a decision or action made by a public body.

In other words, judicial reviews are a challenge to the way in which a decision has been made, rather than the rights and wrongs of the conclusion reached.

It is not really concerned with the conclusions of that process and whether those were 'right', as long as the right procedures have been followed. The court will not substitute what it thinks is the 'correct' decision.

This may mean that the public body will be able to make the same decision again, so long as it does so in a lawful way."

This is exactly the process which the BBFC followed when they tried (and failed) to get a VAC judgement ruled unlawful in the case of R18 in 2000.

Comment: Proof of Harm

Thanks to IanG on the Melon Farmers Forum

The BBFC were found to be WRONG in their 'interpretation' of the law with regard to R18 content. PROOF of HARM was the bottom line according to the High Court ruling.

Similarly, PROOF of HARM will be the bottom line (the letter of the law) with regard to violent games. And I predict the BBFC will loose this battle too because there is NO EVIDENCE to suggest people who play violent games go on to commit violent acts. Indeed, it is those who are not at home playing violent games or watching violent videos, who tend to roam the streets aimlessly looking for 'reespekt' by terrorising little old ladies, or selling hard drugs to kids (or mugging/stabbing/shooting them).

Fairytale of New York, by The Pogues featuring Kirsty MacColl, has been re-released for the festive period and is a contender for the coveted Christmas number one slot.

It tells the story of two lovers who trade insults on Christmas Eve and one verse ends with the memorable line: You scumbag, you maggot you cheap lousy faggot, Happy Christmas your arse I pray God It's our last.

Radio 1 bosses have bleeped out the word faggot from the song, for fear it will offend homosexuals, but have provoked the ire of one of their own leading DJs as well as listeners.

The decision was criticised as "ridiculous" by Chris Moyles, the Radio 1 DJ, who is leading a campaign to make the 1987 song the Christmas number one.

The BBC said: This is not a blanket ban but a station by station decision.

To modern listeners, it's about as scandalous as a saucy seaside postcard. But when George Formby sang With My Little Stick Of Blackpool Rock in 1937, it sent shockwaves through the BBC - and led to a run in with the censors, research has revealed.

At worst, it could be called cheeky, with lines such as: With my little stick of Blackpool Rock, along the promenade I stroll/ In my pocket it got stuck I could tell / Cos when I pulled it out I pulled my shirt off as well.

But the corporation's moral guardians were so concerned by the song's content that they banned certain parts of it from being aired on the radio.

It is just one of many examples discovered by a trawl of the BBC's archives which has shed fascinating new light on a bygone era of censorship.

Read full article

Close on the heels of Aaja Nachle controversy, Censor Board authorities have decided to set up more regional centres to address local differences and diversity in the country.

Regional offices of Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) will soon come up in Guwahati, Cuttack and New Delhi.

Films are now widely watched and a lot of controversies tend to crop up due to regional differences in the country. The regional centres will take care to solve the differences before public screening, CBFC chairperson Sharmila Tagore said.

A large flag showing the Olympic rings transformed into handcuffs was unfurled outside the Liaison Office of the central people’s government of China in Hong Kong today by five Reporters Without Borders representatives, including secretary-general Robert Ménard, in a protest to mark Human Rights Day. Two days before Chinese authorities refused to give visas to members of the press freedom organisation.

We had initially planned to stage this demonstration in Beijing, but the authorities refused to give us visas, Reporters Without Borders said. We know that some of us are blacklisted by the Chinese immigration services (photo below). At a time when the government is compiling files on foreign journalists and human rights activists in advance of the Olympic Games, this refusal is evidence of its determination to keep critics at a distance.

The Chinese authorities are clearly not prepared to let people remind them of the undertakings they gave to improve the situation of human rights and, in particular, press freedom when they were awarded the 2008 Olympics in 2001.

It appears that YouTube really did cooperate with Thai authorities as was claimed in a selective blocking of clips deemed offensive to the monarchy.

For instance one of the disputed videos is still available to view outside Thailand but within Thailand page shows: "This video is unavailable".

The Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) are developing their three year strategic plan for 2008-10:

As we look ahead to manage current and emerging demands and we are inviting comments on our draft goals and key priorities which will form the basis of our plan.

We are consulting key stakeholders in the successful UK partnership for tackling potentially illegal content online, especially child sexual abuse content, and inviting your comments and contributions.

Here is a draft which sets out our role, our perception of our key priorities and our key three-year goals, together with some early ideas of the activities we might embark on to achieve our goals. Linking from the plan is a consultation document containing some questions and we would be pleased to receive your feedback.

We would appreciate your comments by close of business on Monday 14th January 2008 and we look forward to hearing from you.

As the IWF move from child protection into censorship of adult pornography there plans are surely of interest to all. In particular they are suggesting the analysis of: The (potential) inclusion or exclusion of content in its remit such as child sexual abuse cartoons, extreme pornography but seeking to drop incitement to racial hatred.

A new report, published in part by Article 19, has found that freedom of expression continues to be repressed in Turkey.

Article 19 worked with the Kurdish Human Rights Project, Index on Censorship, the Bar Human Rights Committee of England and Wales and the Centre for European Studies in Limerick, Ireland to produce the report.

The report indicates that despite reforms in 2003 and 2004, restriction on media freedom has increased. It also indicates a rising hostility toward opposition journalists, especially Kurdish and pro-Kurdish journalists, who are labeled as writers for terrorist publications.

The BBFC has warned it will take legal action to stop the release of the Manhunt 2.

Despite Rockstar winning its right to appeal, the BBFC has said it will go to court to ensure the game never goes on sale.

BBFC spokesperson Sue Clark said: We need to see the judgement papers from the VAC case before we even consider giving Manhunt 2 a rating.

If we spot anything problematic, we may decide to take our case to the High Court as a judicial review, which would lead to Manhunt 2’s release being frozen in the UK.

Our main concern is to ensure a lawful outcome. It needs to be the right decision within the UK’s legal framework – which will be the right decision in the public interest.”

An opinion piece has been posted on Canada's National Post website yesterday from a Roman Catholic priest, The crack cocaine of the electronic world reads the strap line. Father Raymond J. De Souza - the author of the piece - is, of course, talking about games.

The nutter goes beyond simple criticism, however, openly agitating against free choice at this time of spending by stating: This Christmas, do the poor kids of all economic levels a favour: Don't buy them video games.

He then goes on ...assuaged my conscience with the fact that video games are not intrinsically evil. But they are close.

Apparently, the classic puzzler , Tetris, contributed to De Souza's struggles with further education. My capacity to waste time with Tetris was prodigious; how many hours were lost is unknown, he says. There was only one way out. He went cold turkey and deleted the game.

So Tetris was gone. Life improved immediately. Since that hard-disk-deleting day back in 1991", he waxes fondly, I have never played another video game. It's too dangerous. Video games take what is most precious -- time and thought. And they are making kids fat.

Video games are like a black hole into which time disappear. Students today often confess to wasting a couple of hours a day on them. Corporate Canada likely loses whole weeks of productive work to those who are playing games at work. Video games have some kind of addictive allure that means any number of hours is not enough. It is always possible to play again -- to rise to that 'next level' which somehow acquires near-mystical importance. They are the crack cocaine of the electronic world.

Executives from Singapore's censors, the Media Development Authority have stirred up an online controversy for appearing in a rap video.

Yes, yes y'all. We don't stop. Get creative, can do, rock on! the mostly middle-aged executives rap. Dressed in suits, they twirl in time to the beat and make gangster-style hand gestures. The deputy censor is shown in full rap regalia including gold chains, shades and a backwards baseball cap. Another executive appears in red briefs and a caped-crusader-style costume.

Since it was posted on the You Tube video-sharing website two weeks ago, the film, which lasts almost five minutes, has generated 60,648 hits and more than 300 comments, many of them negative and filled with expletives.

"They call me CEO. Hear me out, everyone," sings the agency's chief executive, Christopher Chia. "My aim: a vibrant media hub for the city."

Cassandra Tay, MDA's director of communications, said Wednesday the video was originally prepared for a staff conference, where it was well-received by staff who had not seen their senior management in this light.

The Culture, Media and Sport Committee has announced a new inquiry into the potential risks from harmful material on the Internet and in video games, with the following terms of reference:

The benefits and opportunities offered to consumers, including children and young people, and the economy by technologies such as the Internet, video games and mobile phones.

The potential risks to consumers, including children and young people, from exposure to harmful content on the Internet or in video games. The Committee is particularly interested in the potential risks posed by:

• Cyber bullying
• user generated content, including content that glorifies guns and gang violence
• the availability of personal information on social networking sites
• content that incites racial hatred, extremism or terrorism
• content that exhibits extreme pornography or violence

The tools available to consumers and industry to protect people from potentially harmful content on the Internet and in video games.

The effectiveness of the existing regulatory regime in helping to manage the potential risks from harmful content on the Internet and in video games.


The Committee will accept as submissions (or as part of submissions) responses to the Byron Review of children and new technology.

The Committee, however, intends that its inquiry be broader in scope than the Byron Review as the Committee will examine the impact of content on consumers in general, rather than focusing solely on the impact on children and young people.

It is expected that oral evidence sessions will be held in February and March 2008.

Written submissions are invited from interested parties; these should be sent to Daniel Dyball, Committee Specialist, at the address below by Wednesday 30 January 2008.

Our strong preference is for submissions to be in Word or rich text format (not as a PDF document) and sent by e-mail to cmscom@parliament.uk, although letters will also be accepted. Submissions sent by post should be sent to Daniel Dyball, Committee Specialist, Culture, Media and Sport Committee, House of Commons, 7 Millbank, London SW1P 3JA. Please include a contact name, postal address and telephone number in the body of the e-mail or in the letter.

The MD of Rising Star Games, Martin Defries, has responded to criticism levelled at the company following the announcement that forthcoming title No More Heroes would be toned down from the US edition.

Defries has told GamesIndustry.biz that those claims are wide of the mark, because the European edition will be identical to the one just released in Japan, localisation notwithstanding.

There are two versions of No More Heroes that are going to be published in the West, he said.

Ours [Europe], which will be drawn down from our parent company, Marvelous Interactive, which is directly from the Japanese iteration of the game, and there will be a version in the US that is a full-on gore, beheadings, dismemberment…and it seems some confusion has come to the fore in the past few days as to which version Rising Star Games will publish.

Why the decision [to add in additional gory detail to the US release] has been made is a difficult one for me to comment on - that's a Ubisoft decision for the North American market.

Jackass 2.5, the third in the series of stunt movies featuring Johnny Knoxville and copious amounts of nudity, is to become the first studio-backed feature film to receive its premiere on the web.

Paramount Pictures is hoping that it can open up a new stream of web-based revenue when it makes the one-hour plus film available free of charge on December 19.

Customers will have to watch several 15 or 30-second advertisements before being able to watch the movie, which will be streamed rather than downloaded. Viacom, Paramount's parent company, is also aiming to attract traffic to the jackassworld.com site, which offers archival episodes of the MTV 'Jackass' series from five years ago.

The new film will feature new material, as well as previously unseen outtakes from the second Jackass film.

The film is not rated and the online version will only sold with 'age verification technology' that attempts to ensure viewers are 17 or older.

Movie industry experts said that the film reflected a new desire on the studios' part to embrace the idea of releasing free, ad-supported content - partly as a consequence of their failure to prevent films being circulated on illegal file-sharing sites.

On December 26, the 'download to own' version of film will go on sale on iTunes and Amazon for between $10-15 and a DVD featuring 45 minutes of extras will also be available for $30.

In January other ad-supported streaming sites, such as Joost, will start showing the film, followed by a broader release through the video-on-demand services of cable and satellite networks in February.

Venus in Furs is a 1969 West Germany/Switzerland/Italy erotic film by Massimo Dallamano

It was cut by 1:05s when submitted in 2007 as specified by the BBFC: Remove all sight of woman's tearful screams turning to pleasure as man continues to rape her (this pleasure being indicated by her making moaning sounds and winding her arms around his neck). Intervening shots of other people may remain.

This cut version will be released on 31st December 2007 on the Shameless label

Malaysia's government has told the mainstream media not to sensationalize a crackdown on ethnic Indians following an unprecedented rally against racial discrimination in Muslim-majority Malaysia, officials said.

Che Din Yusoh, a senior official with the Internal Security Ministry, said newspaper editors had been given "verbal advice" not to highlight sensitive issues related to the Nov. 25 rally by at least 20,000 ethnic Indians that police broke up by force: Don't sensationalize what police are doing. Don't give a very negative picture ... We have guidelines on publication, and they have to implement (self) censorship.

Malaysiakini, an independent Internet news portal, reported Wednesday that top editors of all dailies were summoned by the government for a meeting, and were told not to give prominence to Hindu Rights Action Force, or Hindraf, the group that is leading the Indian unrest.

Malays control the government and the Chinese dominate the business. The Indians complain they are at the bottom of the society with little wealth, education or job opportunities because of government policies that give preferential treatment to Malays.

The Pan-European Game Information (PEGI) age rating system has published its latest annual report.

The chief purpose of the report is to show the PEGI system to be as transparent as possible so as to have this self-regulation fully appreciated by European policy makers and put to the best use by the general public, whether this should be parents, teachers, academics, or any other interested party, said Patrice Chazerand, secretary general of ISFE.

A Nielsen survey showed that the number of consumers relying upon PEGI icons across ten countries to identify appropriate products increased from 72% in 2004 to 94% in 2007

At a recent meeting of the Viennese provincial government, the Viennese Youth Protection Act was amended to make the PEGI age rating system mandatory for videogames sold in that city in what is hoped to be a first step towards a pan-Austrian agreement.

Matthew Murray, who killed four people and wounded several others during a pair of horrific church shootings over the weekend, apparently wasn’t permitted to play video games while growing up.

The Denver Post reports: A poster named nghtmrchld26, believed by police to be Murray, said he rebelled against an upbringing that forbade him from buying rock music, video games and popular DVDs.

Games Politics said: It’s always difficult to know whether to even raise this issue in the aftermath of a shooting rampage. However, since the Denver Post gives it a mention, I believe it is appropriate for discussion. And, of course, we know that certain critics will be pushing a video game connection, however tenuous, in any tragedy like this.

In the final analysis, Murray seems like a very depressed, very angry, very disturbed young man who had access to weapons.

Culture Minister Khaisri Sri-aroon

Webboards at the Culture Ministry's website have been bombarded with hundreds of supposedly lewd web links, the Culture Watch Centre has found.

The centre found more than 500 sexually-explicit web links put up on webboards run by the ministry, which has been campaigning against obscene websites. The website, www.m-culture.go.th, could not be accessed last night.

The attack on the website comes a few days after the ministry said it was contemplating censoring novels.

Culture Minister Khunying Khaisri Sri-aroon yesterday admitted that inappropriate web links had been posted on the website. She had ordered Thongchai Masattana, director of the IT centre, to explain why webmasters had failed to detect and screen out the saucy content.

Khunying Khaisri said the ministry is mulling rating various novels, particularly adult romances and translated novels.

Many complaints had come in about the ministry's bid to censor sex and erotic scenes. Romance readers argued the erotic scenes were written in beautiful language and are not morally incorrect.

Khunying Khaisri said she personally agreed that censorship would spoil the novels.

In deciding on a rating system for romance novels, the ministry would invite artists, academics, writers, publishers and distributors to give their views. The attempt to impose a ratings system is prompted in part by the arrest of two traders selling romance novels with erotic content at a book fair in October.

A research panel made recommendations to the Japanese Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications for stricter regulations on “harmful material” displayed on the Internet, a move that closely follows the passage of the Securing Adolescents From Exploitation Online Act or "SAFE Act" by the US last week.

The act could potentially have a significant effect on adult-oriented manga and anime content. Currently, child pornography laws in Japan do not regulate manga and art that depict children who are not real or "virtual child pornography."

In Japan, a report was submitted to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIAC) Thursday recommending that a bill be submitted to the Diet (the Japanese governing body) by 2010, imposing stricter regulations on “harmful materials” online, as well as unifying the laws on telecommunications and broadcasting.

Another panel is expected to convene between 2008-2009 in order to draft specific proposals, after which the MIAC is expected to propose a bill for regulation to the Diet.

The report cited the need to protect children from being exposed to inappropriate Internet content and pointed out that the laws currently do not allow for the government to filter online materials.

The panel’s recommendations were prompted, in part, by a survey conducted in October. Called the Special Opinion Poll on Harmful Materials, the study was conducted on 1,767 participants who were interviewed by researchers.

Survey results indicated that 86.5% of the respondents thought that manga and anime content should be subject to regulations for child pornography, and 90.9% said that “harmful materials” on the Internet should be regulated.

The Competitive Enterprise Institute, a US think tank with a free market orientation, has issued a detailed position paper on media content ratings, including those of the ESRB.

Authored by Cord Blomquist and Eli Lehrer, Politically Determined Ratings and How to Avoid Them holds that the ESRB system, while complex, works better than most other rating schemes for media content. Ratings systems alone, however, cannot, over the long haul, influence the type of content produced.

From the report:

The best rating systems have three attributes: They attempt to describe, rather than prescribe, what entertainment media should contain; they are particularly suited to their particular media forms; and they were created with little or no direct input from government.

The [ESRB] system for evaluating computer games works better than most… Parents can tell, at a glance, exactly what they might find objectionable… Congress has held hearings on the video game industry and threatened to regulate content, but the system emerged almost entirely as a result of voluntary private action, and has worked well…

The authors also conclude that politics and media content ratings are a bad mix:

The best ratings systems have evolved in response to market forces. The First Amendment, correctly we believe, has long been interpreted to limit political control over entertainment media, anyway. Ratings systems that avoid government involvement will do a better job giving people the information they need.

With so many mass murders by individuals, perhaps there is a common explanation, like popular culture, says Morality in Media President Robert Peters. He comments in response to latest mass murder in Omaha:

What might be called ‘mass murder by individuals’ is, of course, not a new phenomena in human history. What is new in the United States is the regularity with which it now takes place.

Many place the primary blame on the availability of guns, and there is no doubt that guns are the weapon of choice of most individual mass murderers. But in many parts of our nation, guns have always been readily available, unaccompanied by mass murder by anyone.

Guns are also the weapon of choice in the entertainment media, which includes films, TV programs, rap lyrics and video games. A week never goes by that I don’t see at least one advertisement for a film or TV program or videogame that prominently depicts one or more individuals who are carrying, pointing or shooting one or more guns.

Use of guns in the media, of course, is not a new phenomena. In the 1950s and 1960s, guns were popular in both films and TV programs that depicted war, the Wild West, police work and a wide variety of heinous crimes, including organized crime.

Back then, however, there were standards that guided how violence was depicted in the media. For example, among the film industry Hays Code provisions was one that regulated the depiction of murder. Murder was to be presented in a way that would not inspire imitation. Brutal killings were not to be presented in detail. Revenge was not to be justified.

America also had what some call a ‘civil religion’ that taught and reinforced at all levels of society a simple commandment, ‘You shall not commit murder.’ “Today, films and other media glamorize murder and revenge and present it in the most detailed, sadistic manner possible. More often than not, media also portrays religion in a negative light.

Parents, schools, religious institutions and government have all changed over the decades, but none are saying that it is OK to kill because you have been wronged or are unhappy. Only in the entertainment media is the worst of human behavior depicted ‘non-judgmentally’ or even worse, glamorized and promoted.

There is a saying, ‘You reap what you sow,’ and the American people are reaping what the entertainment media have sowed and we have bought for more than forty years.”

For the past two years, conservative Islamic parties in Indonesia, often supported by paramilitary religious groups known for their intolerance have been periodically pushing to have elements of Islamic Law become the law of the land.

This time, social critics are pushing back. On 3 December, a diverse group of activists—including many from mainstream Islamic groups—urged the country’s legislative branch to reject the proposed legislation.

What makes the debate noteworthy is the way that the Islamic hardliners have been able to disguise their end-game. In a brilliant political move, they penned a so-called “Anti-Pornography Bill” that would ostensibly protect women and children from the scourges associated with pornography.

In fact, the anti-pornography angle was just a veil. According to the authors of the document, pornography is vaguely defined to include just about anything that would offend their hyper-caffeinated moral sensitivities. Many forms of women’s bathing suits, for example, would suddenly become illegal. Any publications or works of art that showed all but a fully-dressed female form, too, would conceivably be off limits. So would many cultural events, such as those in tourist destinations like Bali.

Worse, the bill calls on “all parties” to protect morality. This has been seen as a call to arms for the Islamic Defenders Front and their ilk, which have made a name for themselves raiding nightspots during the Ramadhan fasting month.

Secular political groups oppose this shift, which they correctly note would undermine the nation’s cultural diversity. But because of the name of the bill, they are often left having to explain why they are defending “pornography.”

No date has been set for the final debate on the Anti-Pornography Bill. But with presidential campaigning set to unofficially start next year (the election is not until 2009), hard-line Islamic parties will probably try to flex their muscles—and make another push for passage of the bill—within the next two quarters.

Update: Definitions

16th December 2007

The definition of pornography according to the bill says: "Pornography is any man-made work that includes sexual materials in the form of drawings, sketches, illustrations, photographs, text, sound, moving pictures, animation, cartoons, poetry, conversation, or any other form of communicative messages; it also may be shown through the media in front of the public; it can arouse lust and lead to the violation of normative values within society; and it can also cause the development of pornographic acts within society".

The Federal Government has ordered an investigation into a Telstra website that sold amateur porn videos for $1.

It came after revelations that Telstra's WotNext site had become a marketplace for smut peddlers who went halves with the telco on the takings from downloads on to mobile phones.

Telstra, still part-government owned, was forced to take the site down after intense backlash from family groups. The site was back online by the afternoon with restrictions.

Communications Minister Stephen Conroy ordered internet watchdog Australian Communications and Media Authority to investigate.

Before the site was taken down almost all the most popular videos featured women in various states of undress.

Albuquerque's Guild Cinema's independent erotic film festival will not be fined for showing pornographic movies despite its violation of local zoning statutes, partially due to help from the American Civil Liberties Union and 1st Amendment arguments.

Late last week, city authorities threatened to fine the theater for every pornographic movie it showed as part of the festival, but representatives of the American Civil Liberties Union got involved on 1st Amendment grounds.

Molly Adler, co-owner of adult store Self Serve and one of the festival's organizers, said attendance was high all weekend, perhaps because of the publicity. She said the show of support drowned out the small number of complaints from neighbors.

The theater will receive a notice of violation, Albuquerque City Attorney Bob White said, but there will be no penalties. The city also is seeking a meeting with the Guild to avoid further problems.

Guild co-owner Peter Conheim told reporters that he was looking forward to meeting with city officials: My hope is that when we have this meeting ... we will be able to be granted a variance to do this kind of program, without a hassle, on an extremely rare basis. I hope it would mean we could work on the language of the zoning code so it takes more accurately into account art.

The advertising regulator is considering investigating Des Lynam's Setanta Claus TV ad after complaints that it degrades women by referring to breasts as "puppies".

Setanta's ad features Des Lynam dressed in a yellow Santa suit in a grotto, while his scantily clad helper "Tinseltoes" flashes a large amount of cleavage.

This prompts a male visitor to the Setanta grotto to grin, stare and absentmindedly mention a "couple of puppies".

The Advertising Standards Authority has received 23 complaints about the TV ad and is considering launching an investigation to see if it breaks the advertising standards code.

Complainants have objected that the ad is offensive and degrading to women because of the use of the word "puppies" as a reference to breasts. Others argued that the ad is sexist, objectifies women and is running at inappropriate times of the day for such content to be shown.

A German adult website operator has filed in the district court in Frankfurt to force the German ISP Arcor to block Google.de and Google.com in order to prevent the display of adult images without age verification, which is prohibited under German law.

The request was filed by Huch Medien GmbH, the company that owns and operates AmateurStar.de.

In its filing, Huch Medien reportedly said it would not simply sit back and watch as Google’s image search displayed pornographic images to users of all ages, including “clearly prohibited animal pornography.”

Huch Medien Executive Director Tobias Huch said that he’s merely trying to get the German legal system to clarify the scope of the liability exemptions offered to ISPs under the German Telemedia Act.

Huch asserted that since Germany blocks sites like YouPorn.com — as the court ordered Arcor to do in October — then the country theoretically should block all websites that violate relevant German and/or European Union law.

If Germany is going to maintain such a legal posture and engage in blocking sites in widespread fashion, then we should not complain when China blocks a large number of websites, Huch said.

According to German attorney Daniel Koetz the German law requiring age verification applies to all websites that can be accessed from Germany.

Koetz told XBIZ that the Telemedia Act requires all sites bearing content presumably harmful to minors such as pornography to have an age-verification system. Such an age-verification system has to ‘secure that minors cannot access the site. Koetz said that under the law, German authorities and courts only deem an age-verification system to be secure if the system forces end users to have personal contact with a third party who verifies their age.

One of the problems with that system, Koetz said, is who wants to go through all that hassle to enter a porn site, and who wants postal clerks to know you’re a pervert watching porn?Koetz said that as a result of the law, traffic to German porn sites is low because everybody goes to other countries’ sites.

Those foreign sites, however, are subject to being blocked by German ISPs by order of the courts, Koetz said — as Huch has requested that the Frankfurt court to Arcor to do with Google.

Koetz said that Huch’s request was filed in order to demonstrate the perversion of all this.

Culture Minister Khaisri Sri-aroon

Culture Minister Khaisri Sri-aroon yesterday said she disagreed with a proposal to cut "romantic" scenes from translated novels.

She said it would ruin the taste for readers and affirmed that she would invite national artists, academics and publishers to formulate a rating criteria.

Following the ministry's plan for book ratings - especially for romantic and translated novels - as proposed by the Publishers and Booksellers Association of Thailand (PUBAT), many public members posted their concerns that love scenes in books might be cut.

They argued that romantic scenes were not obscene as the translators and publishers used "sensitive descriptions" and urged the ministry to hear the opinions of the public and related parties before making a decision.

Khaisri said most of those who expressed opinions on the ministry's website agreed to the book rating according to readers' age but disagreed with the content cutting.

An Indian judge has ruled that obscenity charges may be prosecuted without requiring the court to actually review the materials in question.

The case stems from allegations by a local cyber cafe owner that Sanjay Gupta was playing a pornographic CD, potentially within view of other patrons.

The court ruled that the magistrate was not required to view the CD in order to verify its contents as being "obscene" as a prerequisite for proceeding with the obscenity charges against the defendant.

Gupta challenged the order, claiming that the magistrate was wrong for proceeding with charges against him without knowing what was actually contained on the CD he was charged with viewing at the time of his arrest — allegedly the only incriminating evidence against him.

Additional Sessions Judge A.K. Chawla dismissed Gupta's petition, claiming that the court was not required to watch the CD before preferring charges against the accused.

There are specific allegations of the CD containing obscene material, Chawla said. When this is so, it is not necessarily required that the trial court should have got the CD run and then come to the prima facie conclusion of the same containing obscene material.

An angry Italian priest has persuaded soft drinks company Red Bull to withdraw an advertisement setting its product in a nativity scene on the grounds it is disrespectful to Christianity.

Father Marco Damanti, from Sicily, wrote to the makers of the drink denouncing their commercial as "a blasphemous act" and said he had received a prompt reply promising to remove it from Italian television.

The advert depicted four wise men, instead of three, visiting Mary and the Baby Jesus in Bethlehem. The fourth wise man bore a carton of Red Bull.

The image of the sacred family has been represented in a sacrilegious way, Father Damanti told Corriere della Sera. Whatever the ironic intentions of Red Bull, the advert pokes fun at the nativity, and at Christian sensitivity.

The priest also objected to the company's slogan, "Red Bull gives you wings", said by angels in the animated advert.

The great breast-feeding debate raged after YouTube removed a breast-feeding video.

YouTube is the latest new media site to ban nursing images, following actions at MySpace and Facebook, according to the League of Maternal Justice. Bill Maher stoked the breast-feeding fire when he compared public nursing to masturbation earlier this year.

The folks at the League of Maternal Justice weren't totally surprised that YouTube banned the clip, which was viewed at least 68,000 times before disappearing, but they were upset.

The league asked why YouTube didn't just flag the video as explicit. YouTube stated is doesn't comment on specific videos.

BBFC Considers Position On Manhunt 2

Following the decision by the Video Appeals Committee to allow the appeal by Rockstar against the BBFC’s rejection of the game by a majority of four to three, David Cooke, Director of the BBFC said: The BBFC will carefully study the judgement by the Video Appeals Committee when it becomes available.

The BBFC exercises great vigilance and care in ensuring that all violent games which are submitted to us are correctly classified. Our decisions are based on published guidelines, which are the result of very wide public consultation. The Board also provides very full content information to the public, including parents, about the videogames which it classifies. We recently launched a new website for parents, PBBFC, in addition to the main website and our websites for children and students.

The BBFC twice rejected Manhunt 2 for its focus on varied and cumulative killings. We recognize that rejection is a very serious step, in which the desire of publishers to market their games, and that of gamers to buy them, must be balanced against the public interest, including the full range of possible harm risks to vulnerable individuals and to any children who may be wrongly exposed to such games. Such balancing judgements are inevitably complex and multi-faceted, and are made only after very careful consideration of the contents of a work. We played Manhunt 2 for well over 30 hours prior to our decision.

The Board recognizes that the available research findings on the effects of video games (including positive as well as harmful effects) are varied and contested. But we continue to believe that a broad approach to the possible risks is needed, which goes beyond purely behavioural harm, and which also takes account of other possible effects on the sensibilities and attitudes of individuals.

Video-on-demand providers are to face a tougher regulatory regime when media minister James Purnell unveils a new code of conduct on 12 December.

At present, the Association of Television on Demand (ATVOD) self-regulates the industry.

But following MEPs’ May agreement over the new Audiovisual Media Services Directive, “television-like” non-linear TV services will now be regulated.

Wary of over-burdening an industry in its infancy, communications regulator Ofcom has decided not to regulate the sector itself.

Instead it has pushed for a system of co-regulation where ATVOD oversees the sector and Ofcom has so-called “backstop” powers to step in should serious breaches occur.

Now ATVOD has overhauled its code of conduct to incorporate new rules, which have been agreed by Ofcom and the DCMS.

Steve Middleton, senior ATVOD consultant, said: We don’t want to be too prescriptive. We have tried to bring about a code that can change with technological developments.

However, not all VoD players will be covered by ATVOD’s code, including online VoD players such as YouTube, which are not covered by the Audiovisual Media Services Directive.

The Children's secretary Ed Balls is poised call for a 9pm watershed for drinks advertising.

The move will be seen as the strongest indication yet that the Government intends to push through the restrictive measure.

Balls is understood to have been influenced by a report by Alcohol Concern that claims there is a spike in alcohol ads between 3pm and 5pm.

According to insiders, he has briefed national Sunday newspaper political editors in a bid to get maximum coverage of his views on the subject.

The drinks industry has maintained that a 9pm watershed is an unnecessary measure as the scheduling rules around already prevents them appearing during or around children's programmes. They cannot be shown at other times if the percentage of child viewers rises to 20% above the proportion of children in the general population.

Bullfighting in Spain has taken another step towards its demise after the state broadcaster cut it from its advanced schedules.

RTVE, the state radio and television network, failed for the first time yesterday to include la corrida in its budget for "obligatory programming".

The schedule, which dictates what type of programmes RTVE must spend its money on over the next nine years, will be debated in the Spanish parliament next week.

There was conspicuously no mention of bullfighting – the first programme that RTVE showed when it started in 1948.

Regional state broadcasters can show bullfighting and transmit programmes from other channels – and private channels are still free to show la corrida – but animal rights campaigners hailed the development as the beginning of the end for this controversial national pastime. It could see the steady demise of what has been a traditional sight in Spain, as the family gathered around the television at 5pm on a Sunday to thrill to the sight of a man in a gold-sequined suit dispatching a blood-soaked 400kg bull.

Theo Oberhuber, a co-ordinator of Ecologists in Action, which has been campaigning for a total ban, said: This is not a total victory but it opens the door to the beginning of the end. We are very pleased.

In August, RTVE dropped afternoon broadcasts of los toros after it was judged too violent for an audience of children.

The popularity of bullfighting peaked in the early-1970s as prosperity grew and attending los toros was seen as a sign of wealth after years of hardship. Today some bullfighting promoters say only tourists attend las corridas and in some parts of the Spain they are facing financial ruin.

The popular Sex Gore Mutants website was under threat of closure as a result of legal action over a defamation claim.

Thankfully things have been sorted and Al posted the following note

Well four days of stress later and I'm informed that now no action will be taken to close down the site and that the legal folk consider that this matter is now fully closed as confirmed by the complainant.

However the entire affair has shown how easily sites can be threatened. It has also shown how little effort was made to either defend the site or even to see if the problem could be readily resolved without recourse to draconian measures.

Earlier in the year, the Australian censors banned 7 films. They were submitted for screening at this years Melbourne Underground Film Festival.

The films in question were:

• 60 Second Relief (2007)
• 70K (2006)
• >Ashley & Kisha: Finding the Right Fit (2007)
• The Farmer’s Daughter (1976)
• The Schoolgirls' Report (1970)
• Sex Wish (1976)
• Whore (2007)

Ragip Zarakolu is facing up to three years in prison for publishing a book - promoting reconciliation between Turks and Armenians - by George Jerjian, a writer living in London.

Jerjian's book, The Truth Will Set Us Free, which was translated into Turkish in 2005, chronicles the life of his Armenian grandmother who survived the early 20th century massacres of Armenians thanks to an Ottoman soldier. The historical account has prompted as much controversy among the Armenian diaspora, not least in the US, as it has in Turkey.

Mr Jerjian ... is a highly credible author with very moderate views, said the Labour MEP Richard Howitt, who will attend the hearing at Istanbul's Asliye Ceze courthouse. If even he falls foul of Turkish law it shows how far they still have to go on freedom of expression.

The MEP, who is in Turkey in his role as vice-president of the human rights sub-committee of the European parliament, said Jerjian was too scared to visit Turkey for fear he might be shot.

Zarakolu is being tried under Turkey's 301 article of law, the same legislation that was used against Pamuk, a Nobel prize winner, as well as 60 other local writers and journalists.

In February this year, six months before he went on to become head of state, Turkey's foreign minister, Abdullah Gul, declared the need for article 301 to be revised, saying: There are certain problems with [it]. We see there are changes which must be made to this law. Yesterday the Turkish justice minister, Mehmet Ali Sahin, reiterated the sentiment, telling Howitt that freely expressed views that neither promote terrorism nor violence should be protected.

But while Turkish diplomats admit the contentious law has probably done more damage to Ankara's efforts to join the EU than any other single piece of legislation, observers say there has been little headway made over reforming the spirit and letter of the law.

Update: Adjourned

The trial was adjourned until 31st January 2008

For several years, now the National Institute on Media and the Family has published their annual Video Games Report Card, a sort of "state of the union" address, whose purpose is to rate the various social and political agencies in the gaming world on their overall success in keeping the industry a socially progressive and "well adjusted" environment.

As you might expect, the NIMF places great emphasis on issues which relate directly to the issues surrounding gaming and children, like the violent content debate and parental/retailer responsibilities relating to it. Last year, the gaming industry did pretty well for itself, with big retailers and console manufacturers netting high praise for their efforts in promoting ratings awareness and parental controls in consoles.

In 2008 however, the NIMF's tone has turned decidedly icy towards the industry. "Complacency," reads the report's introduction, especially on the part of retailers and parents, appears to have caused a backslide in ratings awareness and enforcement. At the same time ... several shocking incidents have inadvertently revealed dangerous loopholes in the [ESRB's] ratings process. Simply put, some of the hard-won progress seen in previous years has been lost, and now, too many children are spending too much time playing inappropriate video games that can harm their health and development.

Central to the NIMF's annoyances is the fact parents seem to be telling lies about their own awareness of the ratings system. While more than 50% of adults interviewed were eager to claim awareness of the game ratings system, more than 70% could not actually identify or define what simple terms such as "Rated M" or "AO" meant.

Additionally, the NIMF is still upset more parents are not actively playing games with their children. 38% of moms and 31% of dads take no interest in what games junior has on the go, a situation which has apparently resulted in widespread instances of "M rated" content in the hands of the young'uns. More than 50% of 8-12 year olds for example admit to playing something inappropriate when mom and dad aren't watching. Maybe that's why instances of games causing family friction and infighting is discussed at length in the NIMF's report.

Of course, the Institute is also happy to point the finger at retailers for this occurrence, citing that kids are still able to buy M-Rated material at stores roughly 50% of the time. A select few retailers (Kmart, Hollywood Video and EB Games) managed to dodge the bullet of blame, with a startling 100% compliance figure in the NIMF's enforcement survey.

The report accuses the industry of continuing to dredge the well of poor taste through its promotional and marketing efforts, citing examples like the blood-spatterd Manhunt 2 Wii giveaway and the recent Kane and Lynch: Dead Men Playboy ad campaign, which featured prominently over MySpace. The NIMF dubs these tactics creative new ways to market adult games to kids" and "disgustingly familiar practices in the report.

Interestingly the NIMF does not contain its ire uniquely to the games industry, lashing out also at at religious institutions for the recent (and apparently bizarrely commonplace) trend of attracting youngsters to Sunday School with promises of Halo.

Perhaps the hardest hit party however in the 2008 survey was the ESRB, who took it on the chin multiple times in the report for what is obviously perceived as a severe case of falling down on the job. The Manhunt 2 controversy in particular was not kind to the ratings agency, and the report is full of rebuke for the agency's handling of the situation.

Ireland's state broadcaster, RTÉ, has enraged the Catholic church by axing a Christmas advertisement because of a mention of the word "crib", which was deemed to have religious undertones.

The advert was plugging a charity Christmas card for Veritas, the church's publishing arm. Under Irish broadcasting rules broadcasters must not permit advertising directed towards a religious end. An RTÉ spokesman said that an issue might arise in relation to promoting the sale of cribs and that the station could have broken the rules if it broadcast ads directed towards religious ends.

Yesterday the Irish Catholic Bishops' Conference expressed concern at the axing of the ad, saying it highlighted a trend to remove Christ from Christmas.

It has been confirmed that the latest and greatest Wii game from Suda 51, No More Heroes, will not have blood in it in the European version.

Rising Star Games, the European publisher of the title, was asked if this was due to the response of the BBFC to Manhunt 2, the company gave only this one word response, "Maybe."

More than 75% of parents are concerned about the content of video games played by their children, a survey found. [surely it is good to be concerned! Doesn't necessarily imply everything is out of hand]

Almost half of the 4,000 parents surveyed across the UK, France, Italy and Germany said that one hour of gaming each day should be the limit.

Some 43% of the surveyed parents said they were not aware of ratings systems for games to determine suitability.

The survey was carried on behalf of Microsoft.

The survey found that more than half of children played games on consoles, 32% on PCs, 9% played games online and 4% played on a mobile phone.

It also revealed that for the majority of children, playing games was a solitary activity.

64% of children played games alone, less than 1 in 10 children play video games with family members and 12% played with friends, the survey found.

The online space is a growing sector of the games industry but the survey found only 5% played mainly online.

Parents saw themselves as the key decision makers for which games should be played by their children, rather than regulators or the video games industry, according to the survey.

The U.S. House of Representatives have overwhelmingly approved a bill saying that anyone offering an open Wi-Fi connection to the public must report illegal images including "obscene" cartoons and drawings--or face fines of up to $300,000.

That broad definition would cover individuals, coffee shops, libraries, hotels, and even some government agencies that provide Wi-Fi. It also sweeps in social-networking sites, domain name registrars, Internet service providers, and e-mail service providers such as Hotmail and Gmail, and it may require that the complete contents of the user's account be retained for subsequent police inspection.

Before the House vote, which was a lopsided 409 to 2, Rep. Nick Lampson (D-Texas) held a press conference on Capitol Hill with Ernie Allen, head of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

Allen said the legislation, called the Securing Adolescents From Exploitation-Online Act, or SAFE Act, will ensure better reporting, investigation, and prosecution of those who use the Internet to distribute images of illegal child pornography.

Wednesday's vote caught Internet companies by surprise: the Democratic leadership rushed the SAFE Act to the floor under a procedure that's supposed to be reserved for noncontroversial legislation. It was introduced October 10, but has never received even one hearing or committee vote. In addition, the legislation approved this week has changed substantially since the earlier version and was not available for public review.

This is what the SAFE Act requires: Anyone providing an "electronic communication service" or "remote computing service" to the public who learns about the transmission or storage of information about certain illegal activities or an illegal image must:

(a) register their name, mailing address, phone number, and fax number with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children's "CyberTipline"
(b) "make a report" to the CyberTipline that
(c) must include any information about the person or Internet address behind the suspect activity
(d) the illegal images themselves.

The definition of which images qualify as illegal is expansive. It includes obvious child pornography, meaning photographs and videos of children being molested. But it also includes photographs of fully clothed minors in overly "lascivious" poses, and certain obscene visual depictions including a "drawing, cartoon, sculpture, or painting." (Yes, that covers the subset of anime called hentai).

Someone providing a Wi-Fi connection probably won't have to worry about the SAFE Act's additional requirement of retaining all the suspect's personal files if the illegal images are "commingled or interspersed" with other data. But that retention requirement does concern Internet service providers, which would be in a position to comply. So would e-mail service providers, including both Web-based ones and companies that offer POP or IMAP services.

Failure to comply with the SAFE Act would result in an initial fine of up to $150,000, and fines of up to $300,000 for subsequent offenses. That's the stick. There's a carrot as well: anyone who does comply is immune from civil lawsuits and criminal prosecutions.

The vote on the SAFE Act seems unusually rushed. It's not entirely clear that the House Democratic leadership really meant this legislation to slap new restrictions on hundreds of thousands of Americans and small businesses who offer public wireless connections. But they'll nevertheless have to abide by the new rules if senators go along with this idea (and it's been a popular one in the Senate).

Braziers bill was presented Wednesday:

British Board of Film Classification (Accountability to Parliament and Appeals)

Mr. Julian Brazier, supported by Mr. John Gummer, Keith Vaz, Miss Ann Widdecombe, Mr. Jim Hood, Stephen Pound, Mr. John Hayes, Mr. Lindsay Hoyle, Mrs. Nadine Dorries, Jim Dobbin, Mr. David Burrowes and Mr. Greg Hands, presented a Bill to make provision for parliamentary scrutiny of senior appointments to the British Board of Film Classification and of guidelines produced by it; to establish a body with powers to hear appeals against the release of videos and DVDs and the classification of works in prescribed circumstances; to make provision about penalties for the distribution of illegal works; and for connected purposes: And the same was read the First time; and ordered to be read a Second time on Friday 29 February, and to be printed.

Now might be the time to start speaking out against this.

A High Court verdict to refuse a private prosecution for blasphemy in the case of Jerry Springer the Opera will be appealed, it was announced today.

Stephen Green, National Director of Christian Voice, is seeking to prosecute Mark Thompson, Director General of the BBC, and Jonathan Thoday of producers Avalon, following a theatre tour of the show from January to July 2006 and its transmission on BBC2 in January 2005.

Stephen Green, National Director of Christian Voice, said today: We must appeal this disappointing decision. The law as the Court has interpreted it now gives carte blanche to broadcasters and theatre companies to blaspheme, while the press still may not. That cannot be logical, let alone right. In effect the guts of the law against blasphemy have been torn out, and not even by Parliament, but by judicial decree. I believe the judges have wrongly interpreted

So we have one High Court judge say there was an arguable case in our favour, and now two have gone the other way. I hope and pray the House of Lords will uphold the totality of the law against blasphemy and allow the prosecution to proceed. If they do not, then a bit more common decency, courtesy and respect, which is part of what it means to be civilised, let alone British, will have been thrown away.'

lndex on Censorship and ARTICLE 19 are alarmed by the continuing assault on press freedom in Egypt. This week, no less than three cases will come to trial. All three represent a serious infringement of the right to free expression. It is the culmination of a year-long campaign of intimidation against journalists and bloggers

Howaida Taha, al Jazeera journalist, was detained in January 2007, while making a documentary on torture in Egypt. Her case comes up on 3 December. The documentary was broadcast on al Jazeera in April and has become a significant testimony of the violations committed by the country’s security apparatus. Ms Taha was sentenced in absentia on the 2 May by al Nozha Felonies Court in Egypt to six months in prison and hard labour under Article 80 and 178 of the penal code, which prohibit ‘acts that intend to harm national interests’ and ‘possessing and giving pictures and recorded material that undermine the image of the country by presenting material contrary to the reality or presenting inappropriate scenes’.

On 5 December, Ibrahim Issa, editor-in-chief of al Dustour, will face trial in Algalaa’ Court. In September 2007, Issa was charged with publishing reports ‘likely to disturb public security and damage the public interest’ in respect of articles published in al Dustour about President Mubarak’s state of health.

The third case will be heard on 8 December and threatens the existence of a number of blogs, news websites, and the websites of local and international human rights organizations – including Ifex, Index on Censorship, and the Arabic Network for Human Rights. Earlier this year, Judge Abd al-Fattah Mourad filed a lawsuit against a number of human rights NGOs and blogs, describing them as terrorist and accusing them of harming the reputation of Egypt and Arab rulers and of posting information which insult the President. He called for those websites to be blocked.

All airlines may be spending a fortune on selecting the right mix for their in-flight entertainment (IFE) system, but national carrier Air India is taking a step backward. The airline is showing censored versions of movies, which already have been censored by the already strict Censor Board. Not only is the airline clipping scenes of movies but also blurring any romantic sequences, including songs.

In fact, at a time when most foreign and Indian players are busy upgrading their IFE product mix so as to make the journey more exciting and pleasurable, it’s a retrograde step for the national carrier. Foreign airlines, for the matter of fact, are now localising their in-flight content for Indian travellers and strengthening their movie library.

When SundayET contacted Air India, this is what a senior official had to say: You can’t compare Air India with other private operators. There are children on-board and you cannot permit showing anything which is sensitive in nature. In the past, questions have been raised in Parliament on the same subject.

This is in stark contrast to the fact that other airlines are showing the same movies on-board sans any censor.

The MTRCB will never allow the propagation of films which carries dissenting views to the current administration, said an independent filmmaker whose work has been banned.

The Philippines Movie and Television Review and Classification Board (MTRCB) was criticized anew for censoring two short films created by independent film makers.

A Day in the Life of Gloria Arrovo and Sine Patriyotiko’s Mendiola have been rated “X” or banned from public exhibition by the MTRCB. The films are part of an eight-film compilation scheduled to be shown at the Kontra Agos Resistance Film Festival on December 5-11, Indie Sine, Robinson’s Galleria.

In an interview, RJ Mabilin, director of A Day in the Life of Gloria Arrovo, said that the MTRCB justified the rating by saying that the films undermine the faith of the people in government.

An animation, which got an honorable mention award from this year’s Gawad Cultural Center of the Philippines, A Day in the Life of Gloria ArroVo is a political satire.

Mendiola, on the other hand, is a short documentary critical of the Arroyo government’s calibrated preemptive response (CPR).

Another short film, Holy Bingo, was initially rated “X” but later got a PG-13 classification. The film, Mabilin said, is critical of the Catholic Church.

Mabilin said, It goes to show that there exists institutionalized repression. The MTRCB has the final say whether a film should be viewed or not. It will never allow the propagation of films which carries dissenting views to the current administration.

IA Day in the Life of Gloria Arrovo can be viewed via the Youtube since 2005 (www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_x6m_LDryE&feature=related).

Public relations and public affairs consultancy Hill & Knowlton has released the results of a survey, conducted online by Opinion Research Corporation

It found that 60% of 1,147 adult U.S. consumers agree that the government should regulate the sale of violent or mature content.

Additionally, a slight majority, or 51%, of respondents said that the government should be responsible for regulating the content itself, while 54% of those with children in the home concurred that violent or mature content will affect a child's behavior.

As for current gamers surveyed, they split evenly on whether the government should regulate violent content specifically in games, with 44% agreeing it should and 47% responding it should not. Additionally, 55% of gamers also believe that the government should regulate only the sale of games with violent or mature content.

The Entertainment Software Association has responded vehemently to the newly released Hill & Knowlton research on game regulation, revealing it was part of a proposal to the ESA and claiming that the "unprofessional and unethical" release only selectively quotes the full findings.

However the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) has responded vehemently to the Hill & Knowlton research on game regulation, revealing it was part of a proposal to the ESA and claiming that the "unprofessional and unethical" release only selectively quotes the full findings.

The official statement from the ESA on the announcement is as follows:

Today, Hill & Knowlton released the findings of research it conducted on the American public's views about the computer and video game industry. According to the agency's findings, a majority of respondents believe that the government should regulate the sale of mature content video games.

We understand that parents have concerns about mature content getting into the hands of children and we are working to help make sure that does not happen. To achieve this important goal, the ESA strongly supports a variety of efforts aimed at educating parents and retailers and allowing them to control mature content.

We support the ESRB, which is the nation's leading rating system working to educate and empower parents with game information. We have also worked within the industry to ensure that password protected, robust parental controls are included in all new video game consoles sold. In addition, we work with retailers to encourage the enforcement of policies that prohibit the sale of mature games to minors.

The research released today was conducted by Hill & Knowlton for a proposal the agency made to the ESA this summer, but only a portion of it was released publicly now. Hill & Knowlton's decision to release these findings was both unprofessional and unethical and its timing is questionable. The research was done this summer and only performed in an effort to help Hill & Knowlton win our business.

In addition, the release of only part of the findings paints an inaccurate picture of the entertainment software industry. The other research conducted by agency but not released showed:

• More than two-thirds of 18-34 year olds currently play video games
• Less than 1 in 5 Americans think playing video games is a negative way to spend time with friends and family
• More than half of families think that video games are a positive way to spend time together
• Educational video games are perceived to provide more learning than TV or DVDs.

Provocative radio ads for Uwe Boll's new horror film Postal have been banned by stations in his native Germany - because he jokes profits from the movie will help to fund Osama Bin Laden's terrorism plans.

Radio bosses are afraid that listeners will take the satirical promotions in a literal context. In one commercial an actor parodies Bin Laden and informs the audience that 5% of the box-office receipts will be used to support Al-Qaeda.

But angry Boll has lashed out at the radio executives, alleging they think listeners are dumb. He rages, No German would be so naive and stupid as to believe that Bin Laden is talking in German via a German radio station. "This is a huge scandal and definitely the wrong signal as this self-censorship only helps these religious fanatics gain control. Tolerance as well as art, freedom of speech and freedom of expression has always been one of the strong pillars of strong democracies.

The computer games trade group, Entertainment and Leisure Software Publisher's Association (ELSPA) has responded to a private member's bill presented by Julian Brazier MP.

This Bill highlights the importance of the classification of the visual entertainment industry, ELSPA said in a statement: The correct classification of computer games made for adult consumption - covered by the BBFC - is of the utmost importance to the computer games industry.

ELSPA is requesting a meeting with Brazier to ensure that the bill takes their concerns into account.

The UK parliament's Culture, Media and Sport Committee has announced a new inquiry into the potential risks from harmful material on the Internet and in videogames.

The CMS Committee wants to consider the benefits and opportunities offered to consumers, including children and young people, and the economy by technologies such as the Internet, videogames and mobile phones.

At the same time, it will look at potential risks to consumers from exposure to harmful content on the Internet or in videogames, considering the "effectiveness of the existing regulatory regime" in helping to manage the potential risks.

The committee is particularly interested in the potential risks posed by "cyberbullying" according to a statement calling for written submissions from interested parties.

While the CMS Committee will accept responses to the Byron Review, it intends that its inquiry be broader in scope as it will examine the impact of content on consumers in general, rather than focusing solely on the impact on children and young people.

Submissions are due by the end of January, with oral evidence sessions planned for February and March of 2008.

The inquiry was first mentioned in August 2007 after a series of YouTube videos highlighting youth violence:

John Whittingdale, the chairman of the cross-party Commons culture, media and sport select committee said he was "very interested" in an investigation into how to limit access to unsuitable material across the "new media".

Concern about the way gangs promote themselves by placing violent video clips - including scenes with guns -on the internet has grown since the shooting of Rhys Jones in Croxteth.

And again the inquiry was mentioned in the Telegraph today:

A teenager who boasted of his criminal exploits on Bebo has been handed an anti-social behaviour order. The 17-year-old, from Norfolk, posted comments and photographs on the social networking site glorifying his criminal exploits including drug-taking, according to the police.

Appearing at Norwich Youth Court, district judge Philip Browning banned the youth from using the internet to publish material that is "threatening or abusive" and "promotes criminal activity".

The court heard a police investigation found the boy had also made offensive comments against officers on his web page.

Fears that criminal gangs use internet sites to recruit members, organise fights and glorify their activities prompted MPs to launch an investigation into how to shield young people from such material.

The Hepatitis B site, at www.hbvhbv.com, had been running for six years without any interference from the authorities—until now.

Authorities in Shanghai have raided the home of a Chinese blogger after he posted a detailed account of the closure of his magazine earlier in the year.

The move comes as part of what many see as a tightening of control over China’s netizens. It also follows a doubling in the number of those detained under state security laws last year.

Five people came to see me at about 10 this morning, former journalist and editor of the nonprofit Minjian magazine Zhai Minglei told RFA’s Mandarin service: Three of them showed ID that confirmed they were from the Shanghai cultural business bureau. They said that I was involved in the illegal publication and distribution of materials, and acting as a freelance editor. They took away 41 copies of Minjian magazine.

Minjian is published under the auspices of the social and citizenship development research center of Zhongshan University in Guangzhou. Its publication license was revoked by the news publishing bureau of the Guangzhou municipal government on July 6.

More than 5,000 copies of the summer edition were confiscated at that time. The online edition of Minjian was closed by the city’s Internet police on Aug. 20. An edition hosted on an overseas server was blocked inside China in October.

Zhai said he was sure the investigations were linked to a highly detailed account of the closure of Minjian magazine that he posted on his blog, Yibao, drawing dozens of messages of support.

Thanks to DarkAngel

Julian Brazier had something like the BBFC Parliamentary Accountability and Appeals Bill planned for a while now...

From 11th July 2006...

Brazier Slams Film Censors For Letting Down Public

Julian Brazier, in a letter to Conservative Policy Coordinator Oliver Letwin, has urged that an incoming Conservative Government shall take action on the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC). He is concerned that the BBFC is unreliable in preventing scenes of violence from reaching our screens at a suitable rating.

The letter read: In light of David Cameron’s recent comment: “Protection of childhood innocence against premature sexualisation is something worth fighting for I would like to make a submission to policy review. I recently had a look at the annual report of the British Board of Film Classification - I believe that it is time to shake them up. The failure to rate films suitably can lead to the portrayal of topics and themes in a way that may encourage their wider use.

The BBFC is good at controlling scenes of drug use. They allow only scenes of drug use that put a negative spin on recreational drug taking. Their stance on the portrayal of violence is pretty weak, however. Examples are films such as Green Street and The Football Factory, both rated ‘18’ and containing strong violence in the context of a popular past time. The BBFC says of The Football Factory: passed ‘18’ for the strong violence … that featured in its tale of violent men attempting to profit from criminal activities Is this a theme that we want anyone, let alone 18 year olds to be watching? With the hooligan culture already wrecking some British football matches, do we need such films?

I believe in a free country but incitement to violence is unacceptable. House of Wax, a ‘stalk and slash’ film, rated ‘15’, contains occasional moments of strong gore and violence but was limited to a ‘15’ rating due to the formulaic and predictable story, its fantastical setting, and its generally restrained treatment of the violence. Should the fact that it is in a fantastical setting be a reason for keeping any film as a ‘15’? Just because a film is not set in the current world does not mean that 15 and 16 year olds will not attempt to copy dangerous action sequences.

In some cases, previously cut material is being reinstated. For example: American Gothic which was originally cut in 1987; Not of this Earth, 1988; and the 1994 film Dracula’s Widow, all had scenes of sexualised violence reinstated. The reason given was, a lack of sufficient eroticised detail to raise concerns under either the current BBFC Guidelines or contemporary understanding of the relevant research and policy.

The BBFC should be reformed and its guidelines strengthened. In too many cases its censors appear to have been lacking the mettle to deal robustly with the film industry’s nastier output. Only one recent chairman has stood up to the film industry – Andreas Whittam Smith – and he lost some bad cases under the appeal arrangements. Surely there is scope for reform here.

Also.. it seems he's tried this once before, remember the controversy surrounding the film Crash in the late 90's? He tried to do the same thing then, but was dealt a suitable rebuttal by then chief censor James Ferman.

Thanks to IanG:

We are failing
All hope is fading
For our liberal democracy
Do we have Nazis
And religious halfwits
Filling all our Parliamentary seats?

Six hundred 'visions'
But no sound decisions
Just pass a new law every week
Try 'hate' prevention
Ninety day detention
Ban demonstrations and end Free Speech!

Five million spy cams
All up and down the land
But they can't stop kids shooting kids
I thoughthttp://economictimes.indiatimes.come
Nasty Handguns?
Now they blame games and films for all our 'sins'

The banks are empty
Lost all our pennies
In Brown's 'wonder' economy
Looks like its over
In mortgage foreclosure
For all that Sub Prime economic greed

So look ahead guys
And watch the headlines
For their next big knee-jerk thing
It could be Pros. on crack
Or school truants on smack
Whatever, its all just Spin!

Yeah we are sailing
With no bearing
On an ocean made of spin
You know the statute
Is in total disrepute
When Judges can't tell if you broke the thing!

Now where's our Rights gone
From that Constitution?
They were there before the 'Hand of Blair'
Don't we NEED them?
No Rights or Freedoms?
For the People, our Politicians don't care...!

For the People, our Politicians don't care...!
For the People, our Politicians don't care...!

Telstra has been caught out supplying supposedly porn videos through its website WotNext.com.au. Telstra is charging $1 to download "amateur porn" video clips of naked women sunbathing and wrestling, Daily Telegraph has reported.

Telstra launched WotNext in January this year as a site for young bands to promote their music. However, eight of the 10 most-viewed clips hosted on the site involve women in states of undress.

Nutter  groups have accused the carrier of exploiting young internet users and demanded the Rudd government intervene.

Women's Forum of Australia director Melinda Tankard Reist told the paper: The film clips on the site treat young women as sex objects ... all delivered through a part-owned government communications provider.

The Australian Family Association said that by running the site Telstra was rotting the minds of young men as well as women. Telstra are commercially exploiting young people," association spokeswoman Angela Conway told The Daily Telegraph: They're deliberately sexualising young people in the most worrying way purely for commercial exploitation.

However, Telstra said the website was not supposed to show porn and had ordered a review into its content guidelines. Some of the current videos and the descriptions on WotNext are an unintended consequence of the user generated site and fall short of community expectations, Telstra spokesman Peter Taylor said: But the clips themselves, they didn't show nudity, they didn't show sex, they were in no way soft porn. It's all material that would be classified M or below which is the industry standard.

Homophobic rap music has been banned in Brighton in case it offends the city's large gay population.

Music venues in the city have been ordered not to play certain tracks by artists such as Eminem and 50 Cent.

If pubs and clubs flout the ban, they can be stripped of their licence and closed down.

All music - whether played live or from a recording - that "incites hatred towards minorities" on religious, racial or sexuality grounds is affected.

The move follows an outcry last year over a scheduled performance by the notorious Jamaican artist Buju Banton.

Brighton and Hove's head of licensing, Dee Simson, said: We have a good record on equality and we felt it was important to include this in the licensing policy.

But Trevor Madison, production co-ordinator at Concorde 2, said: Who knows where these things are going?

Christian Voice has lost its High Court battle to prosecute the BBC's director general over the screening of Jerry Springer - The Opera, in 2005.

Christian Voice director, Stephen Green, had hoped to overturn a previous ruling which forbade him from prosecuting Mark Thompson. Green said the show "clearly crossed the blasphemy threshold".

Two judges ruled it was reasonable to conclude the play "in context" could not be considered as blasphemous. They said the production as a whole was not and could not reasonably be regarded as aimed at, or an attack on, Christianity or what Christians held sacred.

The play had been performed regularly in major theatres in London for
a period of nearly two years without any sign of it undermining
society or occasioning civil strife or unrest, said Judge Anthony Hughes. There
had been no violence or even demonstrations.

The Gemeentemuseum (Municipal Museum) in The Hague denies that it has allowed itself to be influenced by threats from Muslims. It was a voluntary choice to drop a work of art concerning the prophet Mohammed, a spokesman claims.

The museum decided last weekend to withdraw a number of items by the Iranian artist Sooreh Hera from an exhibition, because "certain sections of society found these offensive." A spokesman explained that museums have the freedom to choose for themselves what they display.

The Gemeentemuseum was to exhibit pictures of two gay men wearing masks of the Islamic prophet Mohammed and his son-in-law Ali. As museum director, I do not maintain any political criteria. I am not stopped by possible security risks. I simply found it exceptional work, director Van Krimpen said last Friday. But he changed his mind over the weekend and banned the pictures.

Muslims have threatened the museum, Hera claimed. But the museum is not willing to admit that this is the reason why they do not wish to exhibit the works. The Iranian artist is convinced that fear is behind the rejection.

The Socialist Party (SP) on the city council of The Hague wants Hera's controversial photos displayed as planned from 15 December. SP councillor Hiek van Driel has asked the city executive to discuss with Van Krimpen what security conditions must be satisfied in order for the photos to be exhibited after all.

Hera said yesterday that she is considering withdrawing all her work in protest. The decision by the Gemeentemuseum was "censorship", in her view. The only conclusion I can draw is that Allah is indeed very great in the Netherlands and that fear rules.

A British children's author who called one of his characters Mohammed the Mole to promote multiculturalism has renamed him Morgan so as not to offend Muslims.

Kes Gray said the case of British teacher Gillian Gibbons, who has been jailed in Sudan for allowing her class of primary school children to name a teddy bear Mohammed, had prompted him to postpone a reprint of his book, Who's Poorly Too, and change the name.

“I had no idea at all of the sensitivities of the name Mohammed until seeing this case in Sudan, Gray told The Sunday Times: As soon as I saw the news I thought, 'Oh gosh, I've got a mole called Mohammed - this is not good'.

Gray's book, which has sold 40,000 copies in Britain and overseas, also featured the characters Dipak Dalmatian and Pedro Penguin in an effort to be “inclusive”.

The Federal Communications Commission on Tuesday backed away from a proposal by the agency's chairman that would open the door to broader regulation of cable TV operators.

The FCC balked at a finding proposed by FCC Chairman Kevin Martin that cable companies' subscribership levels had risen enough to justify broad regulation of the industry, agreeing instead to postpone a decision and approve more limited restrictions on the industry, Martin said.

Martin said a majority of the FCC's five commissioners were in agreement on the compromise. Martin said the agreement includes a measure that would limit the rates that cable operators can charge to lease spare channels to independent programmers.

The agreement came after a day of tough negotiations that began after Martin was unable to get a majority of the five commissioners to support the proposed finding.

The idea ran into resistance from Martin's two fellow Republicans on the commission. They questioned the way Martin had arrived at the 70% figure about the reach of cable TV, saying it conflicted with previous reports on the issue. The FCC's two Democratic commissioners also had reservations.

Heavily armed and gun tottering Malawi security forces stormed Joy TV transmission station in the commercial city of Blantyre and confiscated TV transmitters.

Armed police, according to journalists at the media house who witnessed the whole scenario, came with a search warrant from Blantyre Magistrate court obtained by Malawi Communications Regulatory Authority (MACRA).

Station Manager, Peter Chisale confirmed to Nyasa Times about the development: This is continued harassment that Joy TV has been facing from the regulator for quite some time now. This is despite the fact that the matter is in the High Court of Malawi for a Judicial Review to determine the validity of the Joy TV license.

Sources say Macra were acting on orders from the Head of State to paralyse Joy TV which would have become the second terrestrial station after state controlled TVM.

Government is believed to be targeting the station because of its links to former president Dr Bakili Muluzi in the lead-up to presidential polls in 2009, which opposition United Democratic Front is hawking his name for return to power.

Joy TV remained off the air since receiving a gagging order from the regulator after it had been running test transmissions and entertainment programming ahead of a launch.

Committee for the Protection of Journalists (CPJ) executive director Joel Simon is on record to have said that the actions by the state on Joy TV amount to censorship and undermines the democratic credentials of the country in the run-up to 2009 polls.

Ang Lee's Lust Caution was noticed in the US when its sex scenes were rated as NC-17. An adults only rating that is usually commercial suicide in the US.

But don't bother seeing it on the big screen in Thailand. The board of morality cut out 10 minutes of the film which makes it not worth watching.

I saw the uncut version in California a few weeks ago and while viewing it thought of the censors in Thailand and how they would snip away so much of the good parts, really essential to the story.

Ofcom have fined a free-to-air adult channel £25,000 for transmitting sexually explicit material 15 minutes after the 9pm watershed.

The regulator ruled that Babeworld TV, an unencrypted channel available in the adult section of the Sky Digital satellite service, had committed "serious and repeated" breaches of broadcasting rules aimed at protecting under-18s from unsuitable material.

Babeworld TV also fell foul of Ofcom's code by inviting viewers to contact "off-screen" girls through premium-rate phone services that strayed outside the editorial content of programming.

Describing this programme, on February 12 this year, Ofcom said: The presenters were dressed provocatively in underwear and behaved in an extremely sexual manner, for example thrusting their breasts and buttocks directly at the camera and appearing to masturbate. They encouraged viewers to call them using explicit sexual language.

Just after 10pm, Ofcom noted, the presenters removed their tops and continued to act in a sexually explicit manner"

Ofcom said that the explicit sexual content ... both language and visuals was in breach of rules protecting under-18s.

The content was so explicit, and in particular the language, it was considered to be 'adult-sex' material, Ofcom said. This meant it should have been broadcast under encryption.

In deciding on a £25,000 fine, Ofcom's content sanctions committee - chaired by former Trinity Mirror chief executive Philip Graf - said it had taken into account that Connection Makers had a "record of poor compliance". Last year Ofcom twice reminded the company of its obligations to restrict the degree of sexual content on Babeworld and to separate advertising from programme content.

The European Parliament yesterday passed the Audiovisual Directive, which aims to modernise and consolidate laws governing video content however it is transmitted.

The Audiovisual Media Services Without Frontiers Directive covers all media services and grants citizens certain rights to access extracts of important events for new purposes and better access for hearing or visually-impaired people. It aims to provide converged regulation for an increasingly converged media world.

Under the new laws, broadcasters will have to make clear when and where product placement is taking place.

EU member states now have 24 months to move the provisions into national law so they will apply by 2009. The law keeps the country of origin rule - that you must obey the laws of the country where the broadcaster is based not all the countries in which programmes are subsequently broadcast.

Viviane Reding, EU Commissioner for Information Society and Media, said: With these modernised rules that improve legal certainty and reaffirm the country of establishment principle... There will be less regulation, better financing for content and greater visibility to cultural diversity and the protection of minors.

The popular Sex Gore Mutants website is under threat of closure as a result of legal action over a defamation claim.

From Sex Gore Mutants:

I am very saddened to inform you that I have been contacted this afternoon and informed SGM will be forcibly taken offline this coming Monday afternoon after legal complaint was made in reference to our article on The DarkSide magazine.

I was contacted yesterday (Friday) at 4pm with an extensive Defamation notice, the basic core as follows...

Re: www.sexgoremutants.co.uk

We write (following) our investigations and further complaint from the solicitors acting on behalf of the complainant; we have noticed that the site above contains defamatory allegations against the complainant. In accordance with the jurisdiction of the English Courts this publication is deemed to be defamatory in accordance with the common law provisions of the Defamation Act 1996; on the basis that the statement "would tend to lower the party in the estimation of right-thinking members of society." This is not only against our terms and conditions but is also in breach of UK Law and various sections of the associated statute(s)

...and so it goes on, frustratingly there was no advance notice of this legal challenge nor no prior contact from the complainant. The Defamation notice only referred to SGM (as a whole entity online publication) with no clue whatsoever as to what the allegation referred to and worryingly only notice that they plan to 'take action (on myself and SGM) without any further notice' from this coming Monday at noon (and as I received the notice at 4pm on a Friday I only had one hour that day and three hours on Monday morning to try address this).

Obviously alarmed I made some calls to try find out what exactly the complaint was. Having clarified what the issue was my first step was to remove that page from our server immediately as I do not wish SGM to be forcibly removed from the net due to something as simple as an old critical review piece. Worryingly though, I also tried to clarify if this would stop further action taking place but have not been given any assurances nor will I receive any till Monday at the earliest as the issue is now in the hands of various solicitors and legal department (as they say, once a ball starts rolling it can be hard to stop).

Fingers crossed we can try stop SGM being pulled on Monday (I had been planning to run a massive update tomorrow but have put this on hold till we sort this out) - worst case scenario (at this point) is we find another server provider.

Either way, between legal costs and personal stress this is not a good day for myself or online journalism as a whole.

From Starz Forum see full article

The Darkside contributor in question, Calum explains his case in comments on the Starz forum:

I have since emailed the server, who emailed me to say they were dealing with this, to state that - as Alan has kindly taken the piece down (which, again, I didn't ask for) I would be extremely upset if they did anything to censor his views of my work or to close down his site. If anything happens to the contrary I will happily fight with him to have the site restored.

I wouldn't have bothered complaining about one bleeding sentence if I knew the server were going to start going crazy!!

Hopefully all will be resolved shortly but it does rather show that a few ill judged words can cause sufficient hurt to get lawyers involved. And this may then create expensive legal juggernauts that  may escalate action way beyond that intended.

And of cause it is always a bit of background concern to the Melon Farmers website that surely contains more than its fair share of ill judged words.