From DCE Cinemas

Government revokes Cineworld’s license for airing porn movies. The Indian Information and Broadcasting Ministry has suspended the broadcasting rights of a Mumbai based private television movie channel for airing porn movies.

A government spokesperson also warned others to fall in line or face similar punishment handed down to Cine World network, which has been ordered to switch off for a month for broadcasting movies perceived as obscene.

The issue of content on channels came up during the meeting between the Government and various stakeholders, including cable operators; broadcasters; women and other concerned groups, last month.

CMS, an agency to monitor the activities of the channels, records the tapes, which can be used as evidence against those who violate the provisions of the Cable TV Network Regulation Act. We have tapes to show that the channel had violated the provisions of the Cable TV Network Regulation Act by showing illegal scenes, Information and Broadcasting Secretary Navin Chawla told PTI in New Delhi. The government is serious on this issue and will keep a close watch on channels engaging in such activities.

He said I&B ministry had received many representations from women’s groups, consumer organizations and educationists concerning material being shown on channels.

The government, which is in the process of setting up a separate regulatory body for monitoring content on various TV channels, has warned ‘CineWorld’ that if it engaged in similar activities again its license would be terminated

From The New Zealand Herald

About 200 Nepali journalists defied a ban on protests to march through the Himalayan kingdom's capital demanding restoration of press freedoms curbed since King Gyanendra seized power last month.

In Kathmandu, riot police stood guard as reporters, editors and photographers waved banners seeking the release of 13 journalists held after Gyanendra imposed emergency and suspended civil liberties. We have resolved to continue the struggle until there is complete press freedom in the country, Tara Nath Dahal, head of the Federation of Nepalese Journalists, said in a statement. Nepali journalists have to fight for full democracy, press freedom and human rights, the statement said.

Authorities have crushed small protests, and big anti-king rallies have not been possible because of heavy security across the Himalayan nation.  Political parties and human rights groups say hundreds of politicians, journalists and human rights activists remain under detention since Gyanendra assumed power on Feb. 1. He also banned media criticism of his move, saying it was necessary to crush an increasingly bloody Maoist revolt in which more than 11,000 people have died in nine years.

Dozens of independent radio stations have been barred from broadcasting news and hundreds of journalists have lost jobs, media groups say. Some journalists in Nepal are using the internet to sidestep the tight censorship and many outspoken Web logs, or blogs, have sprung up.

From Spong

Violent video games have been condemned by Hillary Clinton as a “major threat” to moral health. She singled out Rockstar’s Grand Theft Auto series, calling for a study in how violent videogames affect children, and joining Republican voices that are demanding a $90 million survey into these game's effects.

Children are playing a game that encourages them to have sex with prostitutes and then murder them, she said in a statement released from her office in New York. This is a silent epidemic of media desensitisation that teaches kids it's OK to diss people because they are a woman, they're a different colour or they're from a different place, according to the Sunday Times.

The requested report will demand a complete investigation into the …cognitive, social, emotional and physical development… impact of digital entertainment as seen by pundits, and further evidence of Clinton’s rightward swing as she prepares for a nomination from the badly scarred Democrat party in mid-2007.

From The Age

The Spanish Government has launched a campaign to limit what is widely known in Spain as telebasura (telerubbish) - the dominance of gossip programs on television.

Spain's three main broadcasters screen an average of 14 hours a day of "programs of the heart" in which panels of self-appointed experts discuss in intimate detail the private lives of celebrities. Footballers and bullfighters are particular targets.

The broadcasters have said that Government plans to step in would be like a return to the days of censorship under the dictator Francisco Franco. The matter came to a head last week when David Beckham, who plays football with Real Madrid, hinted that he may be forced to leave Spain because of paparazzi following his children to school.

One bullfighter, Francisco Rivera, made a tearful appearance on national television complaining: I can't stand any more of it. Too much rubbish has been said about me, my family and my friends. In a country in which privacy laws are non-existent and where the Hello! magazine phenomenon was born, matadors have called for the kiss-and-tell stories and "persecution" to stop.

They also demanded that politicians change the laws to accept privacy rulings made by the European Court of Human Rights. Many Spaniards, it would seem, agree. A recent poll found that despite the programs in question enjoying high ratings, television is the institution least trusted by Spaniards, ranking behind the church, unions and politicians.

In response, the Government of Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero met recently the main broadcasters to discuss a code of conduct on what can be shown on television during children's hours, 6am to 10pm.

The Government has also promised to set up an official television monitoring body - Spain is the only major European country without one.

From CNET News

Political bloggers and other online commentators narrowly avoided being slammed with a sweeping set of Internet regulations this week.

When the Federal Election Commission kicked off the process of extending campaign finance rules to the Internet on Thursday, the public document was substantially altered from one prepared just two weeks earlier and reviewed by CNET News.com.

The 44-page document, prepared by the FEC general counsel's office and dated March 10, took a radically different approach and would have imposed decades-old rules designed for federal campaigns on many political Web sites and bloggers.

According to the March 10 document, political Web sites would be regulated by default unless they were password-protected and read by fewer than 500 people in a 30-day period. Many of those Web sites would have been required to post government-mandated notices or risk violating campaign finance laws.

The explanation for the dramatic changes during the last two weeks, according to one FEC official familiar with the events, is the unusual public outcry that followed a public alarm that Commissioner Bradley Smith sounded about a pending government crackdown on bloggers. After Smith's warning, an army of bloggers mobilized to oppose intrusive regulations and prominent members of Congress warned the commission not to be overly aggressive.

Brad Deutsch, the FEC's assistant general counsel, declined to discuss the differences between the two documents in a brief conversation Wednesday.

From Kuensel Online

The decision to slash about a dozen TV channels such as Fashion TV was based on general public concerns, reports from a media impact study, and in preparation for the Media Act which would specify putting limits to channels, according to regulating authorities.

The rationale, according to the Bhutan Communication Authority (BCA), was that many foreign channels were a bad influence on the Bhutanese social and cultural values. The 2003-2004 media impact study showed that there were a lot of bad effects on our social and culture standards from the many foreign channels, BCA’s officiating director, Phub Tshering, said. The report also pointed out that we lack our own production, which means that we were not trying to develop our own local programmes.

There was no study or research done on what basis the channels were selected, but the Association of Private cable Operators, BCA, and the media department decided to do away with channels that are not necessarily desirable to be viewed in general public. We heard a lot of public concerns of children not performing well in studies because of TV, concerns of cultural degradation, and other problems TV brought along, Phub Tshering said. We decided to reduce the channels.

The fashion TV channel is not available in many countries as an open channel, Phub Tshering said. Bhutan is one country with many foreign programmes coming through open channels. This is why we are initiating a process to regulate the channels. In future, we will phase out the soaps, but we also need to develop our own production. If need be, we have to replace them by Bhutanese soaps and serials.

According to the director of department information and media, Tshering Yonten, the influence of cable TV was devastating: especially when TV bombarded us on daily basis. We cannot out-right condemn TV, but what our society is absorbing from TV is a big concern to the society.

The regulation should have been in place a long time back, says Dawa Penjo, a media relations officer: While social activities are fast changing, there is a dominant influence from Indian and western culture

There is much more violence and vulgarity in Hindi films than on FTV and Tensports, said an observer, John Chiramal. It is a bit ridiculous to do away with these channels. I don’t think watching FTV would corrupt your morals.

From CNET News

Utah's governor signed a bill on Monday that would require Internet providers to block Web sites deemed pornographic and could also target e-mail providers and search engines.

The controversial legislation will create an official list of Web sites with publicly available material deemed "harmful to minors." Internet providers in Utah must provide their customers with a way to disable access to sites on the list or face felony charges.

Technology companies had urged Republican Gov. Jon Huntsman not to sign the bill saying it was constitutionally suspect and worded so vaguely its full impact is still unclear.

The measure, Upon request by a consumer, a service provider may not transmit material from a content provider site listed on the adult content registry. A service provider is defined as any person or company who provides an Internet access service to a consumer, which could include everything from cable companies to universities, coffee shops, and homes with open 802.11 wireless connections.

I am having a hard time seeing how this law will survive a constitutional challenge, given the track record of state anti-Internet porn laws--which are routinely struck down as violating the First Amendment and the dormant Commerce Clause, Eric Goldman, a professor at the Marquette University Law School wrote in a critique of the law.

Also targeted are content providers, defined as any company that creates, collects, acquires or organizes electronic data for profit. Any content provider that the Utah attorney general claims hosts material that's harmful to minors must rate it or face third-degree felony charges.

Lobbying group NetCoalition, whose members include Google, Yahoo and News.com publisher CNET Networks, had written a letter to the Utah Senate saying the legislation could affect search engines, e-mail providers and Web hosting companies. A search engine that links to a Web site in Utah might be required...to 'properly rate' the Web site, the letter warned.

A federal judge struck down a similar law in Pennsylvania last year.

From AVN

Senator Sam Brownback convened a hearing today before the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Property Rights. The hearing was titled “Obscenity Prosecution and the Constitution,”

The witnesses who appeared were professor Robert A. Destro, attorney Patrick A. Trueman, a former Justice Department prosecutor, and Prof. Frederick Schauer, none of whom were particularly friendly to the adult industry.

Destro is a professor of law at the Catholic University of America's Columbus School of Law and Schauer is a Frank Stanton Professor of the First Amendment at Harvard University. Both have strong conservative credentials, and Destro has ties to right-wing religious groups as well.

Sen. Brownback said in his opening remarks:Government has a compelling and real-life interest in the matter because of porn’s adverse effects on individuals, families and communities in the form of criminality and addiction. The editor and publisher of AVN, a journal of the pornography trade, recently stated that ‘it’s scary’ how much is made on porn, about this there can be little debate. The porn industry has grown rapidly in the last decade. Part of the reason for this growth is that the nature of, and access to, sexually explicit material in the marketplace has been radically transformed and expanded.”

Brownback then launched into an attack on Judge Gary Lancaster’s decision in the case of the United States vs. Extreme Associates, claiming, according to many legal scholars, another reason for the industry’s growth is a legal regime that has undermined the whole notion that illegal obscenity can be prosecuted.

Brownback also claimed that half of all pay-per-view movies in hotels are pornographic and that pornography is now the cause of nearly half the divorces in America. But he added that “porn had an almost non-existent role in divorce just seven or eight years ago.”

The first witness to testify was Prof. Destro, who began by noting the importance of name-calling in Constitutional law. If you call it pornography, it’s not protected,” he said.

Prof. Destro called the U.S. vs. Extreme Associates “an interesting case,” where Judge Lancaster “ignored the Constitution” and “created a right to privacy…that would legalize prostitution.”

Prof. Destro suggested that the best method of regulating sexually explicit material would be to regulate “specific behavior that’s easy to define and is not Constitutionally protected.” He cited the exploitation of women and sexual battery committed during the production of a porn video as examples of conduct that the government could regulate.

The next speaker was Trueman, who trumpeted the fact that while he was a prosecutor the government collected $24 million in fines as a result of prosecuting pornography.

Trueman believes that it should be the juries in various jurisdictions around the country who should decide what is considered obscene in their areas, not the dictates of the Department of Justice. He noted that he was encouraged by the firm stance taken by new Attorney General Alberto Gonzales against pornography and he would encourage increased prosecutions of sexual material.

Prof. Schauer said that, unlike some of his colleagues, he did not believe that obscenity prosecution is unconstitutional. However, he felt that the Justice Department should take several issues into consideration when deciding to mount obscenity prosecutions in the future.

For example, while he said that judges should not ignore the law, he also felt that prosecutors should also adhere as closely to the law as possible. Prof. Schauer testified that he does not believe that America needs any new obscenity laws, and that all material that should be prosecuted, could be prosecuted under the standard enunciated in the seminal case, Miller v. California. He noted that the Miller case divided pornography into three categories: violent pornography, degrading pornography and material which was neither violent nor degrading, and he suggested that the latter category should not be dealt with under the law in the same way as the violent and degrading kinds – a stance that he claimed was supported by the Meese Commission Report.

At one point, Sen. Brownback asked Trueman, if the Extreme decision stands, What will happen to pornography prosecution? Trueman responded, The ruling itself is so extreme, prosecutions will go by the wayside.

Trueman also claimed that if the Justice Department began prosecutions of mainstream companies such as General Motors that are involved in sending adult material to the public via cable and satellite that the companies would stop distributing the material.

In an answer to another of Sen. Brownback’s inquiries, Trueman said that the porn defense bar is rather small, just nine or 10 attorneys in the country, and that the federal government should give aid to local prosecutors when possible to help them fight the defense attorneys’ expertise. However, he said, Prosecutions {of obscene material} should primarily be done by the Department of Justice.

The Free Speech Coalition had already submitted a statement by board members/attorneys Reed Lee and Jeffrey Douglas but that was not mentioned during the hearing.

From The Jakarta Post

Already the subject of widespread criticism from liberals, the draft revision of the Criminal Code has sparked further protests for being too harsh on crimes committed by citizens but failing to deter the state from practicing violence.

The Institute for Policy Research and Advocacy (ELSAM), a non-governmental organization, said the draft poses the danger of overcriminalization, which could lead to the misuse of criminal sanctions.
The Criminal Code is no longer perceived as an ultimate response to crime but as a repressive instrument at the disposal of the state. Instead of emphasizing the protection of individual rights, it preserves the political interests of the state and certain majority groups, ELSAM director Ifdhal Kasim told a recent media conference.

While being excessively accommodating to the interests of the state, the new draft failed to recognize crimes committed by the state or government. Ifdhal said there should, for instance, be provisions criminalizing state officials who intentionally abused their power or facilities to commit crimes. It also needed to impose penalties for human rights violations committed by the government, he added.

Other articles that have been criticized include those on public morality, especially the proposed sanctions for possessing pornography, kissing in public places, adultery and unmarried couples living together. These articles set up victimless crimes. These things are connected with ethics, manners and norms and should not be categorized as crimes, Ifdhal said.

Examples of overcriminalized articles in the draft revision of the Criminal Code

Article 209: Any person who violates the law by spreading or promoting through the media, verbally or in writing the principles of communism or Marxism-Leninism, with the intention of changing or replacing the state ideology Pancasila, faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in jail.

Article 212: Any person who violates the law by demonstrating the intention verbally, in writing or through the media of abolishing or changing Pancasila in such a way as to create public disorder, loss of life or material losses may be sentenced to up to 15 years in prison.

Article 308: Any person found to have disseminated uncertain, exaggerated or incomplete news that could cause social disorder may be fined up to Rp 30 million (US$3,300) or jailed for up to one year.

Article 400: Anybody who verbally or in writing mocks the state authorities and institutions so as to result in social chaos may be imprisoned for up to two years and fined Rp 30 million.

Article 476: A maximum penalty of 10 years imprisonment and a fine up to Rp 300 million may be imposed on any adult who in a public place reveals any private part of the body, goes naked, locks lips, dances erotically, masturbates or simulates masturbation, or has intercourse or simulates acts of sexual intercourse.

From The Sydney Morning Herald

Video game classifications categories must be updated to prevent games not suitable for children being banned altogether, a civil liberties watchdog has urged. Australia's video game classification laws stop at MA, restricting sales to children above 15 years old. With no adult classification, any games considered unsuitable for 15-year-olds are therefore banned from sale.

The request coincides with the expected release later this year of Narc, a game in which players shoot rivals and take drugs such as crack cocaine and speed.

Australia executive director Irene Graham said There is a desperate need for an R (restricted) classification for computer games in Australia, It's obviously a concern if children are getting access to material that's really only suitable for adults, but to us it's the same as the R(-rated) film situation.

Dr Jeffrey Brand, an associate professor of communications and media at Queensland's Bond University, said Australia was the only Western country which did not allow adult classification of video games.

According to the Interactive Entertainment Association of Australia, 70 per cent of video game players in Australia are over 18, challenging a stereotype that most video game players are small children and teenagers.

The Office of Film and Literature Classification, which administers all censorship laws in Australia, commissioned a report into video games in 1999. Among other findings, the report, Computer Games and Australians Today, found that the type of violent or explicit content in some banned games was allowed in films. It appears anomalous, and without scientific basis, to treat one medium as different from others in this respect.

I was going to make a quip about being "fair & balanced like the Daily Mail" only that would be horribly unfair to the Daily Mail.

From Twin Cities

A journalism study shows that Murdoch's Fox News is more opinionated and 'more deeply sourced' than rivals.

In covering the Iraq war last year, 73 percent of the stories on Fox News included the opinions of the anchors and journalists reporting them, a new study says. By contrast, 29 percent of the war reports on MSNBC and 2 percent of those on CNN included the journalists' own views.

These findings — the figures were similar for coverage of other stories — "seem to challenge" Fox's slogan of "we report, you decide," says the Project for Excellence in Journalism.

In a 617-page report, the group also found that "Fox is more deeply sourced than its rivals," while CNN is the least transparent about its sources of the three cable channels, but more likely to present multiple points of view.

CNN spokeswoman Christa Robinson says the study "reaffirms what anyone watching CNN already knows. CNN's reporting is driven by news, not opinion."

The Project for Excellence in Journalism, a Washington-based research group, offers a three-part breakdown of cable journalists voicing their opinions. From 11 a.m. to noon, this happened on 52 percent of the stories on Fox, 50 percent on MSNBC and 2.3 percent on CNN. Among news-oriented evening shows, journalist opinions were voiced on 70 percent of the stories on Fox's "Special Report With Brit Hume," due in part to its regular analysts panel at the show's end; 9 percent on MSNBC's "Countdown With Keith Olbermann"; and 9 percent on CNN's "NewsNight With Aaron Brown."

As for the most popular prime-time shows, nearly every story — 97 percent — contained opinion on Fox's "O'Reilly Factor"; 24 percent on MSNBC's "Hardball With Chris Matthews"; and 0.9 percent on CNN's "Larry King Live." King devoted nearly half his time to entertainment and lifestyle topics.

The project describes cable news reporting as thin compared with the ABC, NBC and CBS evening newscasts. Only a quarter of the cable stories examined contained two or more identifiable sources, compared with 49 percent of network evening news stories and 81 percent of newspaper front-page stories.

This, says the study, is in part because cable leans heavily on live reports, 60 percent of which are based on only a single identifiable source ("the White House said today," etc.). What's more, cable news is far more one-sided than other media outlets, with only a quarter of the stories involving controversy making more than a passing reference to a second point of view. By contrast, says the report, the network morning shows, PBS and newspaper front pages were more than three times as likely to contain a mix of views.

Cable networks have gravitated, particularly as Fox has surged in the ratings, toward programs and somewhat less toward reporting, says Tom Rosenstiel, the group's director. He says opinion-laden journalism probably is part of Fox's identity, but it's not true of all the programs.

From The Taipei Times

A Taipei bookstore specializing in gay and lesbian literature was slapped with indecency charges, sparking a heated debate over the meaning of morality on issues of pornography and homosexuality.

Lai Jeng-jer, proprietor of Gin Gin's, a Taipei store specializing in gay and lesbian literature, was charged in 2003 with violating Article 235 of the Criminal Code, which states: A person who distributes, sells, publicly displays, or by other means shows to another person in an indecent writing, drawing, or other [work] shall be punished.

Customs officers confiscated more than 200 magazines imported by the bookstore in 2003. Later the same year, the Keelung District prosecutors went to the bookstore and took away more than 500 magazines, including some that are legally published in Hong Kong as well as His, a local publication.

The matter proceeded to a second hearing. The judge and Lai, accompanied by his lawyer, had a fierce debate on the issue of indecency over the photos in 101 magazines that contain what the Publication Appraisal Foundation defined as indecent pictures and content.

The judge and the foundation said that the erect penises shown in the magazines are unnatural, and words like sperm are indecent, which I found ridiculous, Lai said. According to health education textbooks, an erect penis is a natural response any normal man has. It is wrong to demonize human body parts with terms such as indecency.

Unable to reach any conclusion, the Keelung District decided to continue the hearing and reach a verdict in April.

Gay-rights advocates and gender issues experts have questioned the judgment of both the Keelung District judge and the Publication Appraisal Foundation for defining the photos as indecent and an offense against morality. They call the case an example of the demonisation and dehumanization of gay and lesbian groups.

Wu Ming-hsuan, spokesperson for the Coalition Against Pseudo-Rating Regulations, said: The need for sexual information will never stop, and the definition of pornography remains a debatable issue. However, the government and conservative groups should stop playing the role of regulator and banning pornography, It is important for a democratic society to respect the freedom to read, and accept the existence of exotic and different voices or ideologies.

Lai said the recent release of the original cut of noted director Tsai Ming-liang's  latest film, The Wayward Cloud, contains explicit nude scenes and "deviant" sexual behaviors, and shows the need for the public to tolerate and also accept the various representation of human bodies and sexual orientations. If the government and the public recognized the film's artistry, they should be able to accept the photo display or written words of human body parts or sexual behaviors, such as penis, oral sex, or sperm, which are natural and nothing to be ashamed of.

I wonder if removing tits from TV will reduce the US appetite for war-mongering, torture and killing 

From The Hollywood Reporter

The chairman of the powerful Senate Commerce Committee wants to alter the indecency legislation his panel will soon consider so that pay TV and broadcast TV come under a similar legal rules.

Republican Senator Ted Stevens said he intended to have a committee vote soon as possible on the bill: I intend to try and level the playing field. I take the position that at the time the Supreme Court made its decision about cable, cable was just one of the ways for public access to television products. Today 85% of the television that is brought to American homes is brought by cable, and I believe that the playing field should be leveled.

Stevens told a broadcaster conference this month that he intended to bring cable and satellite TV, including such programming as HBO and Showtime, under the same indecency regulations broadcasters face, but this is the first time he's said he wants to include it in the Broadcast Decency Act. In February, the House approved legislation that would boost the maximum fine for indecency from $32,500 to $500,000 for a company and from $11,000 to $500,000 for an individual entertainer. The bill also removes an FCC provision that gave individuals a warning before issuing a fine.

Although Stevens said he wants to harmonize the rules of the road, he also said,We're not going to censor cable. We ought to find some way to say, here is a block of channels, whether it's delivered by broadband, by VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol), by whatever it is, to a home, that is clear of the stuff you don't want your children to see. And, were not saying you can't, you know, you can buy anything you want, I don't care how they package it.

Surely the Bahraini regime is also guilty of inciting hatred against itself by its own actions.

From Index on Censorship

The Bahraini moderator of an online discussion forum and two web technicians detained on charges of defaming King Hamad have been freed after two weeks in custody, Middle East Online has reported.

"They released us last night, but the investigation is continuing," Ali Abdel Imam, editor of the Bahrain Online website who had been in detention since February 27, said. The three were detained on charges of "defaming the king, inciting hatred against the regime and spreading rumors and lies that could cause disorder," lawyer Ahmed al-Arayedh said after their arrest. He said the trio were accused of running a website that made it possible to publish such material, not of writing the material themselves. The two web technicians, Hussein Yussef and Mohammad al-Musawi, were arrested on 1 March. The three were released after refusing an earlier offer to pay the equivalent of 2,660 dollars bail.

From Seven

An Australian man who allegedly had three Playboy magazines in his apartment could spend six months in a Papua New Guinea jail. The 59-year-old, from Melbourne, faced a court in the Papua New Guinea capital Port Moresby this week, charged with possession of pornography.

A Papua New Guinea police spokesman said officers had earlier raided his home in the suburb of Koki, finding the magazines in a box.

The man, who had been working as a workshop manager for a construction company in Port Moresby, denied any knowledge of the magazines and denied the charges, the spokesman said. He said officers had searched the man's apartment, acting on a warrant following complaints he had committed an assault and illegally discharged a pistol. No firearms were found, but the three Playboy magazines were found in a box during the search, he said.

The man was granted bail when he faced Boroko District Court this week. He will reappear in court again on a date to be set, the spokesman said.

The pornography possession charge carries a fine of up to 500 kina ($A203) or six months in jail.

From ColumbiaMissourian

With little debate, the Senate gave first-round approval Monday to legislation aiming to make it tough for the adult entertainment industry to operate in Missouri.

The bill, SB 32, would impose a charge of $5 per customer for sexually oriented businesses, from strip clubs to adult bookstores, and a 20 percent tax on their revenues.

Travelers in our state are being sent a signal that Missouri is a porn-friendly state, sponsoring Senator Matt Bartle, said during earlier debate on the bill. Missouri law has fallen sadly behind the laws and ordinances in other jurisdictions. The legislation needs another vote to move to the House.

Bartle said he’s not concerned about the industry’s claims that the legislation violates constitutional rights to free speech and expression. He said it is modeled after what worked and withstood court challenges in other states.

The legislation would restrict such businesses to operating only between 10 a.m. and midnight, and businesses could not be open on Sundays or holidays. Also, customers and strippers could not touch, and customers could not tip strippers. Total nudity would be banned, and no one under 21 could work in such businesses.

Based on an article from AVN

A Senate committee is scheduled for Wednesday under a new title, "Obscenity Prosecution and the Constitution." The original hearing was titled “Obscenity Prosecution of the First Amendment.”

The hearing will be chaired by Sen. Sam Brownback, who, with Sen. Orrin Hatch, wrote in the Washington Times criticizing Judge Gary Lancaster's opinion that dismissed federal indictments against Extreme Associates.

Although the official Judiciary Committee Website no longer discloses the witnesses who have been invited to appear at the hearing, Patrick Trueman, has reportedly been substituted for one previously-announced witness. Trueman is the former head of the Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section of the U.S. Department of Justice under President George W. Bush. Now he is Senior Legal Counsel for the reactionary Family Research Council (FRC). Trueman has also served as Legal Affairs Director for the American Family Association (AFA), another vocal nutter group.

The list of witnesses reportedly still includes Robert A. Destro, professor of law at the Catholic University of America's Columbus School of Law; and Frederick Schauer, Frank Stanton Professor of the First Amendment at Harvard University, both of whom have strong conservative credentials, with Destro also having ties to right-wing religious groups as well.

Although both the Adult Freedom Foundation (AFF) and the Free Speech Coalition (FSC) have requested the opportunity to provide additional witnesses who are intimately familiar with both federal and state obscenity prosecutions and with the general workings of the adult entertainment industry, to date all such requests have been rebuffed. We asked if we could supply experts on the issue, Paul Cambria, general counsel for AFF, told AVN.com. We were told we were too late, and they had already selected the experts. Then we were told who they were, and each of them had a history of basically being against adult material. They had a history of having a clear bias against adult entertainment.

Even if adult-friendly witnesses are not permitted to testify live, several attorneys have indicated their intentions to submit written testimony to the subcommittee.

AVN.com has previously written about witnesses Destro and Schauer, noting that Schauer was an advisor to several U.S. senators involved in creating the anti-adult industry portions of the PROTECT Act which was passed by Congress in 2003.

However, Patrick Trueman is clearly the witness with the most anti-sexual-speech experience. Since leaving the Justice Department, Trueman has worked almost exclusively for right-wing religious pro-censorship groups as well as groups intent on erasing the constitutional boundaries between church and state. As to sexual speech, Trueman is staunchly against that freedom. While employed by the AFA, he conducted a long-running campaign against Internet service provider Yahoo! for allowing sexual speech and explicit images to be posted on the service's message boards.

Of Judge Lancaster's decision in the Extreme case, Trueman charged that the jurist is giving the Supreme Court an opportunity to eliminate anti-pornography laws. If higher courts fail to overturn this decision, it will be yet more proof that the often-mocked 'slippery slope' argument is alive and well.

From Indian Television

China repeatedly blocked transmission of BBC World’s week-long series of China-themed programmes to hotels and apartment compounds for foreigners during political and other sensitive reports.

For example, a report on restive Muslim Uighur ethnic group in China's far west was cut off after just seconds of starting to air. According to international media reports, the screen went black after a BBC correspondent said, But the Uighur people have little affection for their Chinese masters.

Other foreign channels and BBC World are not licensed for cable distribution to ordinary Chinese, but millions of households with unlicensed satellite dishes can view them.

The media reports stated that the Uighur issue has been especially a sensitive issue as some members of the minority group are waging a low-intensity struggle against Chinese control.

The BBC’s website describes China Week as a themed series of news reports and programmes exploring one of the world’s most dynamic countries.

From Gay City News

In yet another exception to a 2003 Supreme Court decision legalizing sodomy, a high military court, the U.S. Navy-Marine Corps Court of Criminal Appeals, has upheld the sodomy conviction of a heterosexual marine in a case arising from events at an American base in Japan.

According to the opinion for the court by Judge David Wagner, Aviation Boatswain’s Mate Jakarri Avery was living on the base during divorce proceedings from his wife, a Japanese citizen. Avery acknowledged to his unit mates that he had both anal and oral sex with two other Japanese civilian women in his barracks room. The prosecution resulted from a confrontation between Avery’s wife and one of the two females at the on-base hotel that had to be resolved by military police.”

Military authorities prosecuted Avery for sodomy, adultery and indecent acts, as well as the possession and use of marijuana and Percocet, a prescription drug. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to nine months confinement and a bad-conduct discharge that included forfeiture of pay and a reduction in grade.

Shortly after his sentencing, the Supreme Court declared, in a 6-3 opinion in Lawrence v. Texas, that that state’s anti-sodomy law was unconstitutional, in effect nullifying nationwide other such statutes. Avery promptly appealed his sodomy conviction, claiming that, based on the language in the Lawrence ruling, his private adult consensual activity was protected by the Constitution.

Last year, in the highest military appellate ruling on the impact of Lawrence on military sodomy prosecutions, United States v. Marcum, the Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces ruled that Lawrence had not invalidated Article 125 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, the military sodomy law, but had merely narrowed the circumstances in which it could be used to prosecute uniformed personnel. Under the Marcum approach, sexual penetration that falls squarely within the parameters of Lawrence—consensual oral or anal sex—could still be prosecuted if there are military factors that affect “the nature and reach of the Lawrence liberty interest.” In the Marcum case, the military high court found that sexual activity between military personnel of different ranks presented issues of military relevance justifying prosecution.

Since the Marcum decision, there have been several military sodomy prosecutions, but in only one case, involving a service member and a civilian, did a military court find Lawrence to be controlling. Undoubtedly, Avery was hopeful that this precedent would be found to control his situation, but the court thought otherwise. His subordinates knew about the extra-marital activities, and local Japanese nationals also knew about the activities. In this case we find direct and obvious impacts on both the command structure and the armed forces reputation in the local foreign community resulting from the acts of sodomy committed by the appellant.

Apparently, Avery’s candor about his extra-marital sexual behavior figured into the court’s decision. Not unlike the secrecy governing the sexual behavior of gay and lesbian service members, perhaps more discretion would have allowed Avery to avoid prosecution.

It is unclear whether or not Avery intends to appeal his decision to the military high court.

Sounds like any many other European capitals to me, suffering from nutters and other lowlifes  that like to deprive their fellow man of sexual entertainment.

From Index on Censorship

Eight months before the World Summit on the Information Society is held in Tunis, the government has blocked the site set up to monitor the summit. It also has  blocked access to the opposition Progressive Democratic Party (PDP)’s website.

The action is likely to reinforce the view of free expression groups that Tunisia address its censorship of the internet before being granted the 'honour' of hosting the UN sponsored summit on global digital information. A number of websites are already being blocked or filtered, including the site set up by Reporters Sans Frontières (RSF) to monitor the summit.

The ban has been linked to the PDP's criticism of Tunisian president Zine el Abidine Ben Ali's decision to invite Israeli premier Ariel Sharon to the country. According to the Paris based Tunisian Solidarity Movement (TSM), lawyer Muhammad Abu was detained on 2 March after an article criticisng the decision was published on the internet. Abu is a member of the Tunisian Committee of Young lawyers, the International Association of Support for Political Prisoners, and other justice groups.

Sounds like any many other European capitals to me, suffering from nutters and other lowlifes  that like to deprive their fellow man of sexual entertainment.

Based on a biased article in The Sunday Herald

A backlash against the ‘sex sells’ culture has seen Russians embrace the old Soviet values. Moscow’s deputies believe they have the remedy: a law that would ban advertisements featuring swear words, genitalia and “filthy gestures and poses”.

And their concerns are far from isolated. Right across Russia the calls for a renaissance of Soviet-style puritanism and a return to moral order are being voiced with increasing frequency.

Once a drab, neon-free and asexual zone, Moscow itself has metamorphosed into a city where anything goes. Billboards feature soft lesbian scenes and underwear adverts for women’s thongs  and sexual double entendres are used to sell anything from cars to phones.

Deprived of commercialism for years, experts say Russia has embraced the old adage that “sex sells” with gusto but with little regulation, a phenomenon that has at turns shocked, offended and titillated.
Strip clubs and brothels line many of the city’s main avenues, hardcore pornography DVDs are on sale at most of the city’s metro stations and sex shops.

Young people who have only vague memories of Soviet-style morality, where sex was rarely referred to in public, do not bat an eyelid at any of this. But middle-aged and older Russians find it distasteful and are beginning to realise that democracy and capitalism do not have to go hand in hand with sex.

After one Muscovite complained that she had caught her five-year-old grandson watching a pornographic video he had bought from a sex shop near his school, lawmakers decided enough was enough. Under a law drafted by Moscow Duma deputy Ludmila Stebenkova, sex shops will soon be prohibited in residential homes, markets, airports, railway stations and from within 500 metres of schools, cemeteries, theatres and hospitals.

The clean-up battle is also being waged on TV. Nationally, lawmakers are trying to ban the broadcast of violent images or images of an extreme sexual nature between 7am and 10pm.

Russia's State Duma has ordered its cultural committee to investigate an opera by the Bolshoi Theater after a deputy described it as pornographic. United Russia Deputy Sergei Neverov complained after seeing a television report on the opera, The Children of Rosenthal: It is not decent for the stage of the Bolshoi Theater. His complaint involves a scene featuring a ranting pimp.

The famously conservative Russian Orthodox Church is also doing its bit. It is in the process of setting up a nationwide channel to promote Christian morality and oppose “the cult of consumption and pleasure”.

Church leaders, who have the Kremlin’s ear, say that television adverts should not promote sex, alcohol or cigarettes, and the government has fallen into line. Beer ads have been banned from radio and TV between 7am and 10pm, the consumption of beer is to be prohibited in many of public places such as hospitals and schools, and children under the age of 18 have finally been banned from buying beer, traditionally considered a soft drink in Russia.

The Church says the media have much to answer for, notably for the fact that some eight out of 10 marriages end in divorce and that an estimated one-third of births take place out of wedlock.

A Kremlin-backed youth group called Walking Together is trying to turn the tide. With a nationwide membership of 100,000, it urges its members to adhere to a strict moral code which urges respect for one’s parents, no drunkenness or drugs and respect for core family values. It has recently been joined by another Kremlin-inspired youth association called Nashi, or “One of Us”.

In the eyes of the authorities, morality is closely linked to national security. The Kremlin is said to be concerned that young people are becoming too fond of the single, promiscuous, commitment-free lifestyle at the expense of Russia’s falling birth rate. The current average birth rate is 1.25 children per woman. A rate of 2.13 needs to be attained if the existing population level is to be maintained, something that is regarded as vital for Russian national security.

From The Nation

The Supreme Court yesterday upheld a ruling that all 21 journalists fired four years ago by television station iTV were illegally dismissed. The court ordered iTV to reinstate the journalists and pay them their salaries dating back to February 2001.

Some of the 17 journalists who turned up at the court embraced each other upon hearing the verdict. Their legal victory has lifted industry spirits at a time of media suppression in Thailand.

iTV is owned by the family of Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who has frequently lashed out at reporters who criticise him or his policies, saying they are unpatriotic.

The court dismissed iTV’s reasons for dismissing the journalists. The station said it terminated the employment of seven of the journalists because they criticised management for interfering in editorial content so that it favoured the ruling Thai Rak Thai party. It also dismissed the television station’s claims that 13 journalists were made redundant.

The court believed that iTV dismissed them because they applied to become members of the station’s labour union. The court also ruled that iTV illegally dismissed one journalist because he refused to cover a news event. It said the journalist had the freedom to choose what news to cover and that the station could not interfere.

Songsak Premsuk, iTV managing director, said the company would welcome all 21 journalists back and would pay them their back salaries in one payment.

Ubonrat Siriyuwasak, a media academic at Chulalongkorn University, hailed the ruling as a day for justice. The verdict shows that if journalists do their job with honesty, they will be protected, Ubonrat said.

iTV was founded in 1992 amid a broad movement to promote democracy in Thailand. Its aim was to provide an independent-television voice, since all TV stations at the time were owned by the military or controlled by the government.