World News

From The Guardian

Despite effectively being a home-from-home for violent videogames and adult entertainment, it appears Japan isn't immune from the anti-publicity surrounding Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto series. Kanagawa prefecture has already enforced a mandatory 18-rating on the original GTA3 for the PS2, and now Saitama prefecture has followed suit. The game is published by Capcom in Japan, and the publisher challenged Kanagawa's crack-down citing freedom of speech fears and suggesting that the legal restriction undermines existing voluntary ratings. Whether Capcom will now challenge Saitama's decision is unknown, but Capcom will be concerned that action at a national level is looming.

Unlike Europe, Japan - like North America - currently has no national framework for limiting the sale of adult games to minors, though trade body CESA is currently trying to introduce voluntary censorship in order to halt any wider concern which could spark government attention.

I've seen the game myself and it's far too violent and obviously harmful, Saitama governor Kiyoshi Ueda told the Mainichi Daily News. Freedom of expression is one thing, but the wholesome upbringing of youths is also important and this was the only option.

Retailers in Saitama (which borders Tokyo) will be fined 300,000 Yen (about 2,800 USD) if caught selling GTA3 to those under 18 years of age. GTA: San Andreas is currently awaiting a release in Japan, more soon.

From The Guardian

China announced a fresh crackdown yesterday on the internet amid further revelations of a plan by Hu Jintao, the president, to suppress dissent.

The state bans the spreading of any news with content that is against national security and public interest, said a statement from Xinhua, the official news agency. The announcement called for blogs and personal web pages to be directed towards serving the people and socialism and insist on correct guidance of public opinion for maintaining national and public interests.

The statement was just one of a series of initiatives by the government to root out politically sensitive news from domestic and foreign media. On Thursday a Chinese journalist and former professor was given a seven-year sentence for "inciting subversion" by writing hundreds of articles for banned overseas news websites.

Last month the government tried to implement a scheme to pay journalists according to how much Communist party officials liked, or disliked, their articles. In July a political activist was given five years for posting a punk song on the internet deemed to be subversive, and in April a journalist was sentenced to 10 years for sending an email overseas about restrictions on freedom of speech.

Providing further evidence of an organised national crackdown, the New York Times reported yesterday that Hu called for a "smokeless war" against "liberal elements" in China during a secret leadership meeting in May.

The government employs a cyberspace police rumoured to number 30,000 and has spent lavishly on internet filters. Journalists and human rights organisations say the "smokeless war" amounts to a transformation of the government's tactics from violence, open harassment and the closing of newspapers to more covert methods of maintaining control. Journalists who try write on forbidden topics are rarely attacked directly, but are discredited by charges such as corruption, sexual harassment and extramarital affairs.

They claim confiscation of notes, address books and mobile phones happen secretly beneath a facade that nothing is wrong, so as to defend the image of the party and its leaders. They are trying to safeguard the welfare of the regime, while simultaneously providing for the illusion of a free liberal press, said Law Yuk-kai of the Hong Kong-based Human Rights Monitor. But the internet provides a new way to organise people and is therefore a mounting threat to the government.

From NewIndPress

An eight-year-old film by an Indian director is among several Nepali movies that are bearing the brunt of a new censorial attitude for their political overtones.

The new government has apparently banned Tulsi Ghimire's film Balidaan - meaning "sacrifice" in Nepali. Cinemas in Nepal have been asked not to show it, the film's producer Shyam Sapkota said. It has fallen out of favour with the current government for its depiction of a mass movement for democracy 16 years ago.

The plot revolves around a young student who after completing his studies goes to the villages to start a mass movement against the repressive administrative system. Though the film does not spell out the political affiliation of the martyr hero, he is generally regarded as a communist reformer.

One of the songs in the film - "Gaon gaon bato utho, basti basti bato utho" (Arise from the villages, arise from the slums) - has been adopted by the largest communist party in the kingdom, the Communist Party of Nepal-Unified Marxist Leninist with its mass meetings often ending with the rendition of the popular song.

After King Gyanendra sacked prime minister Sher Bahadur Deuba and seized power by force in February, Nepal's opposition parties say the king is trying to re-introduce the autocratic system of government practised by his father, the late King Mahendra. Besides banning criticism of the palace and the army, the king-headed government has also cracked down on the media.

Now the Nepalese film industry too has been subjected to censorship, film directors say. The government has also banned Aago, a film by director Narayan Puri. Though Aago doesn't name any party by name, it is thought to be influenced by the Maoist insurgency. Aago ran into trouble with the censors even before the royal takeover and was released only after the director agreed to cut out several scenes. Now, despite the cuts, theatres have been asked not to screen the film.

A third film based on the mass movement of 1990 that finally clipped the powers of the palace and ushered in multi-party democracy has also been virtually banned. Bir Ganesh Man Singh, based on the role played by one of the leaders of the movement, Nepali Congress leader Ganesh Man Singh, was screened twice during the National Film Festival organised by the government last month but has run into problems after that. We wanted to screen it in Pokhara city as a charity show, said Bijay Ratna Tuladhar, co-director of the film. However, the authorities 'requested' us not to show it now.

Also banned is director Prakash Sayami's Hatiyar, another film that shows people revolting against an oppressive regime and being forced to take to arms.

From The Sun

The Filipino version of Big Brother has been taken off air for a week - because there is too much sex and nudity.

Head of censorship, Maria Consoliza Laguardia, pulled the plug on the show and wrote to its producers to complain. She said she considered the kissing scene between housemates Chx and Sam, gyrating dances in skimpy bikini, double entendre dialogue and use of skimpy bikini, to be beyond the parental guidance classification and not suitable for television viewing.

The show's producers complied with the suspension but insisted they had stuck to guidelines. They said in an statement: We understand that ‘Pinoy [Filipino] Big Brother’ represents a new, unprecedented expression of Filipino reality, a microcosm of human behaviour that opens valuable studies and insights into social interaction, relationships and discipline.

From Stuff

New Zealand student magazine, Critic, could face legal action following its latest controversial issue.

The Office of Film and Literature Classification (OFLC) has been asked by police, members of the public and the Society for the Promotion of Community Standards to rule on whether the University of Otago magazine's "Offensive Issue" was objectionable.

The issue has attracted an outcry from police and Rape Crisis, who said one article was a "how-to guide" for rapists. The police request is the first step in a possible prosecution.

The company responsible for Critic could be liable for fines of up to $30,000 if prosecution goes ahead, but its chairman of directors is backing editor Holly Walker.

OFLC information unit adviser Deborah Gordon said police could submit an article for classification, and depending on how it was classified, could prosecute under the Films, Videos and Publications Classification Act.

Penalties could be "quite severe". However, because Critic published before its publishers were aware it could be objectionable, they are likely to be less so.

Otago University campus Constable Andy Ferguson said he had sent a copy of the magazine to the OFLC to be classified. When I get a response from them I will seek advice from my superiors whether charges will proceed.

The university's deputy vice-chancellor, Professor Gareth Jones, said through his secretary the matter would be discussed at a vice-chancellor's advisory group meeting on Monday.

From Reuters

Inspectors for U.S. Customs and Border Protection at Logan International Airport say they are trying to keep bizarre pornography out of the state.

Our main focus is on terrorism, Ted Woo, spokesman for the CBP's Boston office, told the Boston Herald, but this is something our agents are definitely on the lookout for. If it's so-called normal pornography, it's not going to be an issue, especially if it's for personal use.

The confiscated material is sent to U.S. Attorney Michael Sullivan's office, where it is ultimately destroyed unless someone is willing to fight for the sordid contraband in court.

Sullivan's spokeswoman Samantha Martin said no one caught with porn involving consenting adults has been prosecuted in recent memory. Virtually any material exploiting children, however, is expressly illegal.

The Washington Post reported this week FBI headquarters has put out a call to agents to join a new national anti-obscenity squad targeting the manufacturers and purveyors of porn.

From Reuters

A Paris-based media watchdog released a handbook on Thursday to help cyber-dissidents and bloggers avoid political censorship in countries as far apart as China, Iran, Vietnam and Cuba.

The guide, published by Reporters Without Borders (RSF) with the backing of the French government, identifies bloggers as the "new heralds of free expression" and offers advice on how to set up a blog and run it anonymously.

Bloggers are often the only real journalists in countries where the mainstream media is censored or under pressure, wrote Julien Pain, head of RSF's Internet Freedom Desk. Only they provide independent news, at the risk of displeasing the government and sometimes courting arrest.

The "Handbook for Bloggers and Cyber-Dissidents" can be downloaded from the RSF website, www.rsf.org,  and the media organization says it is available in English, French, Chinese, Arabic and Farsi.

The guide is based on technical advice from experienced bloggers and experts, and provides personal accounts by bloggers such as Arash Sigarchi, who received a 14-year-jail sentence in Iran last February but is free pending an appeal.

Blogs get people excited. Or else they disturb and worry them. Some people distrust them. Others see them as the vanguard of a new information revolution, RSF said on its Web site. Because they allow and encourage ordinary people to speak up, they're tremendous tools of freedom of expression.

The handbook offers advice on how to establish credibility by observing basic ethical and journalistic principles.

One chapter offers advice on technical ways to get around censorship. Others feature bloggers' experiences from such countries as Nepal, Iran, Bahrain and Hong Kong.

Publication of the handbook follows moves in some countries to crack down on Internet use.

RSF said countries which were trying to control what their citizens read and do online included China, Vietnam, Iran, Iran, Cuba, Saudi Arabia and Uzbekistan.

Perhaps the will destroy their own country as effectively as they have destroyed Iraq

From Monsters & Critics

The Bush administration reportedly is getting help from the FBI in its war on porn, a campaign that has also become the subject of mischievous humor.

Early last month, the FBI`s Washington Field Office began recruiting for a new anti-obscenity squad, reports The Washington Post. The initiative has been designated as one of the top priorities of Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales, says the Post.

I guess this means we`ve won the war on terror, one exasperated FBI agent told the newspaper. We must not need any more resources for espionage.

The squad will divert eight agents, a supervisor and assorted support staff to gather evidence against 'manufacturers and purveyors' of pornography directed at consenting adults.

The effort comes at a time when popular acceptance of hard-core pornography has come a long way, says the report.

The Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation`s top priority remains fighting the war on terrorism, said Justice Department`s Brian Roehrkasse. However, it is not our sole priority. In fact, Congress has directed the department to focus on other priorities, such as obscenity.

From The Guardian

The week the new president of Iran was sworn in, bloggers suddenly found themselves isolated: their blogrolls (a list of favorite blogs on the side of their own) had disappeared. Why? Because blogrolling.com, the popular website that provided the free service, was being filtered by all ISPs in Iran.

Internet censorship officially started almost a year ago when a three-member committee - later a five-member committee - was formed to watch Iranian websites and blogs and decide which ones the ISPs should filter. Ever since, aside from millions of pornographic websites, hundreds of Iranian blogs and websites have become inaccessible through their normal web addresses. (Proxies are hugely popular, before these are themselves filtered.) A scientific study partly sponsored by Harvard University suggested many of these websites and blogs were political.

However, in the past few months online services such as Orkut (Google's social networking service), the website statistics service Nedstats and Flickr (Yahoo's photography community website) have been filtered by major ISPs. Nobody knows whether it was the committee for internet filtering that banned them or the judiciary, which has recently - despite having a member on the committee - started to order ISPs directly to censor the sites.

Frustrated and hopeless, Iranian bloggers feel threatened more than ever now blogrolling.com's service has become inaccessible. As one blogger wrote, they see this a "deliberate assault" on the extremely large network of Iranian bloggers, which has effectively become the symbol of free speech in a country where the state has total control of the press, TV and radio.

With the ultra-conservative president now in power, everyone is waiting to see how the communications and information technology minister deals with Persian-language political content on the internet. Will the authorities embrace the internet as an influential source of news and information, as they did during the election campaigns with their numerous official and unofficial campaign websites? Or they will intensify filtering and, as conservative bloggers have suggested, start to go after those who write weblogs "insulting" the regime's officials and religious figures?

After all, one blogger, Mojtaba Samienejad, is still in jail serving a two-year sentence for "insulting the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic", and two other bloggers, Mojtaba Lotfi and Morteza Abdollahinasab, were recently released after spending months in jail for the same reason.

From Tom's Hardware Guide

California lawmakers approved Assembly Bill 1179, which prohibits 'extremely violent' video games from being sold to minors and requires large labels to be affixed to retail boxes. Violators can be hit with up to $1000 in fines, per infraction. The bill now heads to Governor Schwarzenegger's desk and he has 30 days to either sign or veto the bill.

AB1179, formerly known as AB450, was sponsored by Speaker pro Tem Dr. Leland Yee (Democrat) and passed by a 65 to 7 vote. The bill will hit retailers with up to a $1000 fine if they willingly sell violent games to minors. In addition, AB1179 requires a two inch by two inch label with a white 18 (outlined in black) to be affixed to the retail boxes of those games. Interestingly, only the retailer will be fined, and not the sales clerk. Also, if the manufacturer forgets to label the box, the store will not be fined.

In AB1179, violent games are games where the player has an option of killing, maiming,
dismembering, or sexually assaulting an image of a human being in a 'shockingly atrocious manner', but it is unclear who will determine what content will fit that definition. Yee, who is also a Child Psychologist, believes that violent games can have a dramatic and detrimental effect on children and his bill has the backing of child advocacy groups, like Common Sense Media.

Adam J. Keigwin, spokesperson for Leland Yee, also does not think the bill encourages censorship. We are not asking them to be less violent. They have a first amendment right to make or produce what they want, but we just want them to sell to adults, says Keigwin. Keigwin also thinks that the current ESRB rating system 'doesn't have any teeth' and that Mature-rated games are routinely sold to children.

From AVN

Every battle is won in stages, and in every stage are dates that stand out as seminal moments in the tide of victory or defeat.  Oct. 3, 2005, may become a date that will live in infamy in the obscenity wars, because on that date a Louisiana jurist is expected to render a decision about the constitutionality of the state’s obscenity statute.

Until recently, no one outside this small Louisiana community considered it a hotbed of political controversy. That changed when the local district attorney charged two video-store owners with promoting obscenity.

The case, in which defense attorneys are challenging the very core of Louisiana’s applicable law, could have profound effects on obscenity laws nationwide.

Because it specifically attempts to regulate electronic communication, the law is … written so broadly that anything on the Net would be subject to Louisiana law, and Louisiana is not allowed to regulate interstate commerce, says Chicago First Amendment attorney J.D. Obenberger, one of the representatives for the defense. That’s a constitutional responsibility of the federal government. I’m using the improper effects of the statute on the Internet to get the whole statute thrown out.”

Judge Charles Porter is expected to announce his decision about the constitutional challenge Oct. 3. Whether he sides with the defense or the prosecution on the matter, all parties in the case, including the judge, agreed in advance that the case will be certified as a constitutionally important question of first impression, Obenberger says, and the decision will be appealed to the state Supreme Court or directly to the U.S. Supreme Court. Until a higher court has ruled on the constitutional issues, the obscenity prosecution will not proceed.

If the higher court sides with the defense, obscenity statutes in 45 other states will be in jeopardy due to similar construction. If we win in Louisiana, I don’t think anyone else is going to try [pressing an obscenity case] anywhere again, Obenberger says. If the Louisiana law falls, then all the other state laws fall like a house of cards.

In addition to challenging the vagueness and reach of the statute, Obenberger associate Reed Lee, who is acting as co-counsel, is challenging the law on the basis that it infringes individual privacy rights.

People do have the right to receive these materials in their homes, and a law such as this one, when it extends to consenting adults, goes beyond what’s constitutionally permissible, Obenberger says.

That argument may prove to be extremely compelling in this case, Obenberger notes. Lee submitted the same position in an amicus curae brief to the appellate court in the Extreme Associates case, and has since received an inquiry from the court asking if he will be available to present oral arguments to support his point when the court considers the matter.

Louisiana can’t control what everyone in the country gets to see and exert a heckler’s veto because someone in a community in your state may get offended by this. Everyone will get scared, and that will affect what goes on in [Los Angeles] and New York, Obenberger says. It’s going to chill free expression in Louisiana and that’s bad enough, but they’re going to chill free expression in areas of the country that maybe aren’t as conservative as this area of the country is.

From AVN

The high-stakes, dot-xxx sponsored Top-Level Domain (STLD) guessing game continues, as a conclusion regarding the contentious domain will not be reached until "a future date," a representative of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, the nonprofit international body that oversees the domain name system, said Friday.

ICANN’S board considered approving the proposed dot-xxx sTLD during a Thursday meeting as planned, but members expressed concerns in relation to draft compliance and process terms and opted to forgo any immediate action on the matter, the ICANN representative said.

Although ICANN has set no date for its next vote on dot-xxx, ICM president Stuart Lawley said he expects the board to consider the matter at its next regular meeting, scheduled for Oct. 18, and he firmly believes the domain will be approved at that time.

We’re quite pleased with [ICANN’s] decision, Lawley said. It wasn’t unexpected, especially since this is such a politically sensitive matter. They don’t want there to be any causes for embarrassment.

Lawley explained that in two previous instances, ICANN was left with “egg on its face” when the dot-travel and dot-pro sTLD approvals were met almost immediately with unforeseen, controversial developments. Within a week of ICANN’s approval of a contract with the registry for dot-travel, the registry was sold to another entity, and dot-pro proved to be a hotbed of “illegitimate” registration activity, Lawley noted.

Criticism of dot-xxx includes that anointing a special sTLD for the adult industry is inappropriate and would lead to an explosion of pornographic websites and that approval of dot-xxx would legitimize the adult entertainment industry. Ironically, it also includes that dot-xxx represents an attempt to “ghetto-ize” the adult industry, and that it would pave the way for governments and anti-porn groups to censor or even completely obliterate adult content from at least parts of the Web.

Of course, it may simply be that ICANN has delayed the vote again while it figures out how to extricate itself from what it may consider a no-win situation. If it approves dot-xxx, ICANN could face disapproval from social conservatives and governmental bodies that oppose the domain. Worse, the U.S. Department of Commerce, which retains veto power over the board’s actions, could reverse the decision. If ICANN denies dot-xxx, some may see the action as capitulating to those same forces. ICANN and the U.S. administration have faced sharp criticism recently because of close historical ties that won’t seem to break, despite repeated assurances from the U.S. that ICANN is independent and not subject to undue governmental influence.

From Eye Weekly

Despite all the happy Liberal talk of liberalization, the Ontario government will continue to view and screen every film, video, cartoon and video game in the province before they can be legally sold or seen by the public.

The new "Film Classification Act of 2005" came into effect on Aug. 31, and not only does the act not abandon film censorship in Ontario, as politicians said it would, it effectively expands it.

George Orwell would be impressed, says Toshiya Kuwabara, the outgoing manager of the tiny gay and lesbian Glad Day Bookstore, which fought in court to rein in the powers of the Ontario Film Review Board (OFRB). The Liberals are doing the opposite of what they say they are doing and are delighting as the public eats it up, he says.

In fact, the practice of screening and censoring films by the provincially run OFRB was declared unconstitutional and illegal by an Ontario Superior Court of Justice ruling in early 2004. The court ordered the government to give up its authority to censor and ban films it didn't like within a year.

The McGuinty government did not appeal the decision and said they would comply. However, when the new legislation materialized late, it not only kept the powers of the province to screen and approve films, it expanded their authority further to include material previously not subject to prior approval by agents of the state.

The new act looks shockingly like the old act, says Noa Mendelsohn Aviv of the Canadian Civil Liberties Association's freedom of expression project. She says the constitution is supposed to be the supreme law of the land and the courts have said censorship is illegal under our constitution. If the government can simply ignore the courts and the constitution when they please, what does that say for their respect for the rule of law in this country?

OFRB spokesperson Jason Okamura sees it differently. When asked to respond to the concerns of critics, Okamura simply read the same prepared statement he read to this reporter in the spring when the legislation was introduced as a draft. The Act, he said, "responds" to the court ruling by "narrowing" the focus of censorship.

Alan Borovoy, lawyer for the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, has called this interpretation of the court's direction peculiar, saying: The court didn't say to narrow censorship, it said to abandon it.

Freedom of expression advocates say the fight isn't over yet. John Tatulis, the owner of VXI Multimedia and a member of the group Responsible Ontario Adult Retailers (ROAR) says his group will continue its fight to keep the province out of their stores. One of our members just won a court decision giving him the right to sue the government as well as specific government employees for the damages they have caused to his business in their attempts to shut him down through censorship and seizures.

He realizes they are fighting an uphill battle. But we're not giving up -- we will hold them accountable, he says.

From AVN

In an attempt to exert control over the sexual practices of American citizens under the guise of protecting children, Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.) introduced bill H.R. 3726 this week, also called The Child Pornography Protection Act of 2005.

Among other provisions, the bill targets adult citizens who record visual images of consensual sexual activity in the privacy of their own homes, adds nudity and clothed images of pubic areas to the definition of “explicit sexual activity” as defined in U.S.C. 18 §2256, and criminalizes the production and distribution of R-rated mainstream motion pictures that fail to comply with the record creation and notice provisions of 2257, and possibly for violation of obscenity laws.

The stated intent of H.R. 3726 is to crack down on what Pence refers to as “home pornographers,” defined as people who create child pornography using their home computers. A close reading of the bill, however, reveals far more ambitious legislative objectives, including altering the federal labeling and record keeping law (U.S.C. 18 §2257) to include simulated, written and illustrated content, which directly implicates many if not most Hollywood films, expanding the reach of federal forfeiture laws to include 2257 violations and obscenity convictions, and enhancing administrative subpoena power to cover obscenity cases, making it easier for the government to compel a person to appearance or to obtain records in a legal proceeding without having to demonstrate probable cause before a judge.

Surely games can be sold such that allow for unlimited modification via Internet download. There must surely be a recognition that when modified via the Internet the original rating may change. All it needs is a little advice on the download page.

From The Register

US games software watchdog the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) has told games publishers they must reveal any hidden content included in all the software they have released since 1 September 2004.

The order was sent by email, a copy of which was leaked to games-oriented website Gamasutra this week. In the email, the ESRB expressed its concern that hidden content subsequently exposed by games modifications could undermine the ratings system. Since the ESRB is run by the games industry itself, it undoubtedly fears that any loss of faith in its ratings could lead to a potentially harsher, government-mandated certification system.

To counter that threat, the ESRB told all publishers and developers they must formally detail any hidden material which the organisation has not already been notified about. If you fail to notify us of previously undisclosed, non-playable, pertinent content by 9 January 2006, and such content becomes playable through a subsequent authorised or unauthorised release of code to unlock it, rendering the original rating assignment inaccurate, punitive in addition to corrective actions may result, the watchdog warned, without going into details.

Any hidden material reported to the ESRB by that time will be used to consider whether a game should be re-rated. In future, the organisation said, if games companies don't want hidden content to be reflected in a game's rating, they shouldn't include it. The request follows the discovery of adult material in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas earlier this year.

The ESRB's rules have always required games publishers to notify it of hidden content intended to be exposed by special codes or, say, by sending game characters to certain locations. These so-called Easter Eggs are commonplace, but since the adult content in GTA: San Andreas was not included as an Easter Egg, it was not revealed to the ESRB.

GTA: San Andreas is due to return to shops this week after its publisher, Take-Two Interactive, removed the so-called 'Hot Coffee' content in order to get the rating back down to Mature.

From News.com.au

Yahoo Inc defended itself today against accusations that it supplied data to Chinese authorities which led to the imprisonment of a journalist, saying it had to abide by local laws.

Press watchdogs accused Yahoo Holdings (Hong Kong) Ltd of providing details about email communications that helped identify, and were used as evidence against, Shi Tao, who was sentenced in April to 10 years in prison for leaking state secrets abroad.

Just like any other global company, Yahoo! must ensure that its local country sites must operate within the laws, regulations and customs of the country in which they are based, Yahoo spokeswoman Mary Osako said in a statement emailed to Reuters by the company's Hong Kong arm. Yahoo would not confirm or deny that it furnished the Chinese Government with the information.

The French group Reporters Without Borders said Shi, a former news editor for the Contemporary Business News in Hunan province, was convicted for emailing foreign-based websites the text of an internal message to journalists about dangers around the 15th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre in 2004.

China broadly defines as a state secret anything that affects the security and interests of the state, but the limits are vague and can include political news.

The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists said in February that China had the most journalists in prison, 42, of any country for the sixth year in a row. Among those in detention are New York Times researcher Zhao Yan, arrested on charges of leaking state secrets to foreigners, and Hong Kong-based reporter Ching Cheong of the Singapore Straits Times, whom China suspects of spying for Taiwan.

Shi's conviction sent shockwaves through the Chinese journalist community because many felt his sentence was excessive and might have been heavy to serve as a warning.

The Committee to Protect Journalists decried what it called China's "chokehold" on the internet. We categorically condemn the outrageous prosecution of Shi Tao," executive director Ann Cooper said. We call on the Chinese Government and Yahoo to provide a full explanation of the circumstances that led the company to provide account holder information.

From Scoop

Publisher Steve Crow (best known for his popular Erotica Adult Lifestyle Expos) and editor Jonathan Eisen  have teamed up to create New Zealand's newest magazine UNCENSORED.

I think New Zealanders are beginning to realise that much of the information that they get from the mainstream comes with an 'agenda' that involves staying away from or 'spinning' the big issues rather than risk rocking the boat. UNCENSORED is simply about presenting the facts exactly as they are, exposing the naked truth and 'outing' those who seek to corrupt or hide it from us for their own purposes."

Despite Steve Crow's reputation as the founder of Vixen (New Zealand's most successful importer, distributor and producer of adult entertainment products) UNCENSORED magazine will not be publishing porn. Rather, Crow promises readers just the facts, for a change free from contamination by advertising pressures, vested interests and industry or government-sponsored PR spin.

Crow, who will be writing a regular column in UNCENSORED, has had many run-ins with "Wellington bureaucrats" and politicians, and has often taken them to court over censorship issues, winning many of his cases. He points out what he calls the "absurdity" of NZ censorship laws in which he says there is too much subjectivity, Victorian attitudes and double standards.

As an example of the double standards, he cites the fact that hardcore homosexual porn is OK with our censors, while hardcore heterosexual porn apparently is not. He states that perhaps this is a direct reflection of the personal attitudes of the Chief and Deputy Chief Censors, both of whom are gay.

Another double standard, Crow says, is that the Censors are far more tolerant of violence, rape and murder, often with a little bit of (non-explicit) sex thrown in for good measure, than they are of explicit sex, especially if there is even the slightest hint of coercion or violence. It seems to be acceptable to our Censors to flood us with media depicting violence, no matter how extreme as long as, God forbid, we don’t show people having sex.

After the idea of outlawing "hate speech" arose last year, Crow decided that the issue of censorship went much farther than the restrictions imposed on adult entertainment; and UNCENSORED, his latest project, reflects his concerns that many forms of censorship in New Zealand are widespread.

It's no accident that September 11 is the date chosen for the launch of UNCENSORED as the hidden facts regarding the real perpetrators of the tragedy of 9/11 are featured in the first issue of the magazine.

UNCENSORED magazine is distributed by Independent Media Distributors Ltd and will be available in booksellers, news dealers and supermarkets throughout the country. It will initially be published quarterly. RRP $9.95 (126 pages, full colour, perfect bound.)

From The Guardian by Edgar Forbes

We should be using the same mechanism as terrorists to get to the truth that lies beyond and behind the lenses of the cameramen

As the public and the press pour over the latest terrorist video to be aired on al-Jazeera, the question again arises whether it is right for us to see or be shown these words of war.

Is al-Jazeera a PR channel for terrorist propaganda? In reporting and further disseminating this video nasty, is our press just providing a further platform for airing these voices of hatred? At a time when parliament is legislating to ban subversive speech and banish those accused of engaging in it, is it right that our media are broadcasting the chilling message of Mohammed Sidique Khan that our words are dead until we give them life with our blood.

The answer has to be a resounding yes. To give his words life Khan and his accomplices drew their blood from hundreds of innocent victims. So why should we be allowed to listen to the words of Khan? Precisely because we need to know what and who we are dealing with. If we are targets we have a right to know why. We now know Khan's reasons, or some of them.

Mohammed Khan was wrong on so many levels but our response to his video should be to also prove wrong his statement that: I'm sure by now the media's painted a suitable picture of me, this predictable propaganda machine will naturally try to put a spin on things to suit the government and to scare the masses into conforming to their power and wealth-obsessed agendas.

The Hutton Inquiry and the protracted attempts to elicit the basis for going to war should act as a wake-up call to the press and its public to take debate to a new level.

What is fundamentally troubling is that attempts to get information about what is actually happening in Iraq and other parts of the world for which terrorists are holding us responsible, are being prevented by western armed forces. Moving on from the critique surrounding the decision to go to war, our next focus should be on the results of that decision. We know the results we've witnessed in London but what do we really know about what's happening to the people our armed forces have supposedly liberated? Getting the truth and the news to deliver it is proving a real problem in Iraq. The raft of briefings given to the media at press centres on military bases such as al-Sayliyah are sanitised versions of events delivered behind the bloody scenes of war and the conflict that has waged ever since.

Getting the grass-roots news out of Baghdad and surrounding areas is a perilous process. According to Reporters Sans Frontieres, 66 journalists and media workers have been killed since the conflict began in 2003, more than in the entire Vietnam war. What makes matters worse are how many of these have been the victims of so-called "friendly fire" by coalition forces.

It is worrying to see how a ground-level affront on press freedom and reporting is being waged against many of those journalists brave enough to risk life and limb to bring us closer to the fuller picture of what's really happening. Having been responsible for the deaths of numerous journalists, US forces don't seem to like the idea of free-roaming journalists getting behind-the-scenes footage.

Reuters journalists have been a particular target of the US forces who took cameraman Ali Omar Abrahem al-Mashhadani captive three weeks ago and are holding him without stating what, if any, the charges are. He is being denied any form of trial or access to legal representation. Widespread demands for his release have been met with intransigent rebuffs from the military who say that it will be at least another 60 days before anyone get to see him. This cannot be right.

Ali al-Mashhadani has since been joined by another Reuters cameraman, Haider Kadhem who was detained over "inconsistencies" in his statements and because military personnel didn't like some of the images they found on his equipment. Eyewitness accounts suggest that his only misdemeanour was to identify US troops as being those who fired at the car containing his colleague soundman Walee Khaled who was killed.

So how far is the US military prepared to go to cover up the sights they don't want us to see or report on. Given the fact that Reuters is a global news organisation with a reputation for impartial newsgathering, why the suspicion of its staff? US forces are also behind the killing of two Reuters cameramen. Having worked for the news agency for over a decade Mazen Dana was gunned down while filming outside Abu Ghraib prison in 2003 amid various unsatisfactory explanations why he was targeted. Earlier that year a US tank gunner opened fire on the Palestine Hotel in Baghdad killing Reuters cameraman Tara Prostyuk who had been standing on his balcony. The hotel was known as a base for journalists covering the conflict but US forces claimed that Iraqi troops were also there. Another Spanish cameraman, Jose Couso also died in the incident.

To the extent terrorists are sending us their messages through the media, we should be using the same mechanism to get to the truth that lies beyond and behind the lenses of the cameramen US troops are so keen to suppress.

From LA Times

The notion persists that all readers are kids, which places more restrictions on what comic book characters can say.

Comics have gained a certain gravitas in recent years: Graphic novels get reviewed alongside conventional books, and universities offer courses on comic book theory. There has been a glut of news stories telling us of comics' newfound maturity. The courts, though, have not adapted so readily.

We still have to deal with prosecutors who will look at a jury and say, 'Come on — comics are for kids. Let's call a spade a spade,'  says Charles Brownstein of the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund. It's a stigma, he says, that still causes problems for the industry when it comes to obscenity charges or arguing fair usage in copyright cases. That's why Brownstein's group has earned gratitude — and often financial support — from those in the comics world.

With a three-person staff, the defense fund is run out of a small office on Madison Avenue in New York. They've recently moved operations from Northampton, Mass. The nonprofit organization was founded by comic book artist Dennis Kitchen in 1986, more than 30 years after the industry's first major run-in with the authorities — a Senate hearing on the destructive influence of comics on children. Things didn't go comics' way that day, and a restrictive Comics Code Authority was soon established. Ever since, comics and the law have had a strained relationship.

The field of comics law is littered with weird details. One landmark case involved two villainous half-human, half-worm brothers named Johnny and Edgar Autumn who graced the pages of DC Comics. They happen to look a lot like the musicians Johnny and Edgar Winter. Less than flattered, the Winter brothers sued in 1996 on such grounds as defamation and invasion of privacy.

There's been progress, Tom Batiuk says, but comics still struggle for the same acceptance as books and movies.  The defense fund's efforts are important for an industry with few financial resources, Miller says. Book publishers and movie studios have plenty of resources to fight censorship attempts, but the comics industry mainly consists of artists with day jobs and mom-and-pop stores.

From Computer Active

Level 3 Communications is denying German web surfers access to www.Ogrish.com, a website displaying graphic images that many consider distasteful. [but no doubt OK by our very own censorial Home Office as they are not sexual]

Ogrish has made a name for itself by hosting shocking images. The website offered video footage of the beheading of hostage Nick Berg last year in Iraq, forensic pictures from murder investigations and photos of victims of the tsunami that struck Asia last year. The website is hosted by a US customer of Level 3.

The telecoms firm blocks access to the site by filtering the IP address on its routers in Germany. The blocking method ensures that only customers of German ISPs that use Level 3's services are affected by the ban.

Level 3 is a so-called backbone provider that operates a worldwide network of internet lines. It sells access to its network to ISPs, enterprises and hosting providers.

German watchdog Jugendschutz had contacted the local branch of Level 3 about Ogrish. The self-styled 'Youth Protection' group claimed that the provider violated German legislation that requires websites to verify the age of its visitors before granting access to adult content.

Level 3 launched an investigation following Jugendschultz's complaint and decided to block the website, a spokeswoman for the company told vnunet.com. We blocked [Ogrish's] IP address so that we could be as surgical as possible, she said.

The spokeswoman added that Level 3 does not have a predetermined policy for blocking websites, but does so on a case-by-case basis. The company blocked access to a website for the terror organisation of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad last year that was hosted on its network. Similar to the Ogrish case, there were several layers between Level 3 and the company that hosted the actual website.

In a note posted on its website, Ogrish complained that Level 3 acted without an official legal order. This action is outright censorship and is not justified, it said.

The site claims that it is merely showing scenes that are part of everyday life, and stated that it has taken appropriate action to discourage underage visitors from accessing the website.

It also claimed that the block affects internet users in countries surrounding Germany, including France, The Netherlands and Poland. The Level 3 spokeswoman replied that she is not aware of any users outside Germany being affected by the block.

Since Level 3 operates a private network, the provider has the legal right to block whatever content it wants, according to Annalee Newitz, a policy analyst with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which seeks to assure freedom of expression in digital media. The operator's block does not violate freedom of speech rights because these only apply to government censorship.

Newitz did disapprove of Level 3's decision to act based on a complaint from the watchdog group. It should have waited until it got some kind of official request from a political or judicial party, Newitz told vnunet.com. Hopefully Germans will vote with their money, telling Level 3 that they do not like vendors that censor things.

From Taipei Times

A film director who could face charges over his documentary about an opposition politician said yesterday that police have asked him to surrender all remaining copies of the film and the equipment used to make it.

Martyn See said authorities have also asked him to hand over shipping documents for Singapore Rebel, which he sent for screening at the New Zealand Human Rights Film Festival and the Amnesty International Film Festival in Hollywood earlier this year.

See said police questioned him for three hours on Thursday about his political affiliations. He said police also quizzed him about his online journal, and about how he had obtained archived newspaper articles posted on his Web site: The mood was relaxed until near the end of the interview, when I felt many questions were totally irrelevant to the making of Singapore Rebel. The filmmaker agreed to surrender the video, documents and copies on Aug. 29 after he was informed that the items would be returned.

Police have said See may have broken the law by knowingly showing or distributing a "party political film." See could be imprisoned up to two years or fined up to S$100,000 (US$60,606) if convicted.

Singapore's government is trying to promote this ultramodern city-state as an Asian regional arts and media hub -- but its leaders have been widely criticized for their strict censorship policies and other controls on free speech. Singapore's government has called politically motivated films "an undesirable medium" to debate issues.  Leaders argue that such regulations help maintain the stability that has turned Singapore into one of Asia's safest and wealthiest countries.

Singapore Rebel is about outspoken government critic Chee Soon Juan, who faces bankruptcy due to defamation lawsuits filed by former leaders Lee Kuan Yew and Goh Chok Tong. The 26-minute film was pulled from this year's Singapore International Film Festival after organizers were warned that it may contain some politically sensitive material.

Police spokesman Victor Keong said that "investigations are ongoing."

From Fiji Times

The Fiji Law Reform Commission is in the process of amending the Penal Code and the Criminal Procedure Code, says chairman Alipate Qetaki. This seems particularly timely after the recent High Court judgment overriding anti-gay legislation

Referring to the High Court judgment by Justice Gerard Winter who had called on the commission to speed up the reforms, Qetaki said Justice Winter should understand that the Commission was an independent body which had its own procedures. The review of the Penal Code and Criminal Procedure Code started on May 17, 2005. We have a workplan to follow and an important element in the workplan is for the commission to carry out consultations within Fiji.

Qetaki said the commission was in the process of preparing discussion papers and issue papers that would be distributed to stakeholders including judiciary and the general public. This is to assist them to respond to various legal issues raised. There are social issues involved like abortion, prostitution and homosexual conduct, which are all part of the review. So the commission is carrying out a holistic review of the Penal Code.

The review is to ensure fair trial and protection of the rights of people accused of any criminal offence and to ensure fair, effective, speedy and efficient procedures for investigation and prosecution of offences.

From The Hindustan Times

Border agents arrested a Malaysian man who tried to smuggle suspected pornographic video disks in his underwear into Singapore, the government said.

Officers did a full-body search of the man after he was allegedly caught with contraband cigarettes at a border crossing with Malaysia, the Immigrations and Customs Authority said on its Web site on Wednesday.

While frisking the man, police found two video CDs and two DVDs, the authority's Web site said. The Web site described the videos as "suspected to be uncensored and obscene."

Singapore bans the sale and possession of pornography. Importing pornography carries a one-year prison sentence upon conviction for a first offense. Possession of pornography carries a six-month prison sentence upon conviction for a first offense.

From Sign On San Diego

An Australian and a Fijian man won appeals on Friday against their convictions for homosexuality in Fiji, with the South Pacific island nation's High Court ruling homosexual acts in private were legal under the constitution.

Thomas McCosker, and Dhirendra Nadan had been sentenced to two years' jail after earlier being found guilty of homosexuality in a Fijian hotel room in March and for creating pornography by filming the act.

High Court Judge Gerald Winter said privacy provisions of the Fijian constitution meant that homosexual acts between consenting males in private were not illegal, but homosexual acts in public or without consent were illegal, reported local media. What the constitution requires is that the law acknowledges difference, affirms dignity and allows equal respect to every citizen as they are, Winter said in his judgment. A country so founded will put sexual expression in private relationships into its proper perspective and allow citizens to define their own good moral sensibilities, leaving the law to its duties of keeping sexual expression in check by protecting the vulnerable and penalising the predator.

The case sparked widespread debate about Fiji's strict, but rarely enforced, homosexual laws, which carry a maximum 14-year jail term. Australia has since added a warning to its travel advisory for Fiji about homosexuality being illegal.

McCosker's lawyer Natasha Khan said the ruling would have a big impact in Fiji, although she said state prosecutors have indicated they might appeal to Fiji's Supreme Court.

It's the not the all-encompassing victory we were looking for but it's middle ground nonetheless, Khan told reporters.

From Kansas.com

A Cole County judge on Friday declared a state law that places overly strict new restrictions on strip clubs is unconstitutional.

Circuit Judge Richard Callahan said provisions of the law, which was to go into effect Sunday, violate state constitutional limits on amending a bill beyond its original purpose, and First Amendment protections of nude dancing. The state may not limit persons of majority age from engaging in lawful expressive conduct protected by the 1st Amendment of the United States Constitution without a substantial and direct connection to adverse secondary effects, a showing that has not been made, Callahan said in the declaratory judgment.

Under the law, signed in July by Gov. Matt Blunt, seminude lap dances would have been banned and dancers would have had to stay at least 10 feet from each other. A customer would have faced a misdemeanor charge for tucking a dollar bill into a dancer's G-string. The law also would have required all dancers and customers to be at least 21 years old. Current law sets the minimum age for dancers at 19.

The bill's sponsor, Sen. Matt Bartle, R-Lee's Summit, said similar laws have been upheld in other states. I react to what my constituents have asked for, Bartle said before the ruling. I think smut shops in Missouri are incredibly destructive in people lives.

The adult entertainment industry's attorneys claimed the law violates free-speech and expression rights under the First Amendment. They also argued that it violates state constitutional requirements that bills relate to one subject and remain tied to their original purpose.

The subject of the bill that included the strip club restrictions was passed under the heading of "crime" after it initially was labeled as a bill for alcohol-related traffic offenses.

Bartle gave fellow lawmakers 50 case studies that support his belief that strip clubs decrease surrounding property values and increase crime. He said the new law would reduce those negative effects.

Richard Bryant, an attorney for the industry, said the studies were endorsed by religious groups and called them "bogus." He said a secondary impact study conducted a couple of years ago in Kansas City found that adult businesses did not increase crime or sink property values.

The attorney general's office said it was reviewing Callahan's decision and didn't yet know what actions it might take.

Based on an article from the Hartford Courant

The US House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed legislation in February to raise the current $32,500 maximum penalty for indecency to $500,000. Similar legislation also passed the House last year, but again it's stalled in the Senate.

Although those who say the big increase would be a censorship tool for the government are heartened, groups fighting indecency on television and radio are frustrated.

This should have happened a long, long time ago, said L. Brent Bozell, president of the Parents Television Council, an entertainment industry watchdog group. The House continues to do its job, and the Senate continues not to do its job.

Last year the Senate bill was held up and eventually scuttled by Sen. Ernest "Fritz" Hollings, who wanted the legislation to include a requirement that the Federal Communications Commission study violence on television. This year, the issue has been bottled up in the Senate Commerce Committee.

Lanier Swann of Concerned Women for America, said the panel's chairman, Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, needs to answer for the reason that he isn't helping move this forward when it's something that the American public would really like to see.

Stevens has not said why two indecency bills pending in his committee have yet to get a hearing. He has advocated stronger indecency rules for broadcasters, and has complained about vulgarity on cable. His aides say he is not ignoring the issue, and is crafting his own legislation.

Opponents of higher fines worry that they would lead to less free expression. What has become clear is this really isn't about protecting kids. This is about changing television,"\ said Jim Dyke, executive director of TV Watch, an advocacy group funded in part by the entertainment industry. A politically active, savvy group of Americans has figured out a way to make TV in their own image. His group helps teach parents about tools they can use to control what kids see on television.

Under FCC rules and federal law, radio stations and over-the-air TV channels cannot air obscene material at any time, and cannot air indecent material between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m. The rules do not apply to cable or satellite broadcasts.

The FCC defines obscene material as describing sexual conduct "in a patently offensive way" and lacking "serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value." Material deemed indecent contains references to sex or excretions.

The commission has been quiet about indecency recently, not issuing any fines against broadcasters so far this year. In 2004, the FCC issued a record $7.9 million in fines, including a $550,000 fine against Viacom Inc., which owns CBS, for the 2004 Super Bowl halftime show featuring Jackson.

The National Association of Broadcasters said it would prefer to see the nation's 13,000 radio stations and 1,700 TV stations police themselves. Most people would recognize that broadcast programming is far less explicit in terms of sex and violence than what you routinely find on cable and satellite TV and radio, broadcasters' association spokesman Dennis Wharton said.

One of the bills before Stevens' committee was introduced by Sen. Sam Brownback. It would raise the maximum fine tenfold, to $325,000 an incident. The other bill, introduced by Sen. Jay Rockefeller, would boost the top fine to $500,000. It also would extend indecency rules to cable and satellite, and - for the first time - would allow the government to regulate violence on television.

From the BBC

A Hong Kong judge has ruled that laws prohibiting gay sex by men under the age of 21 are unconstitutional.
The High Court judge, Michael Hartmann, said the current laws discriminated on the basis of sexual orientation. Hartmann said the current laws were demeaning of gay men who are, through the legislation, stereotyped as deviant.

A 20-year-old gay man, William Roy Leung, had challenged Hong Kong's existing laws on the issue. They allow sex between heterosexuals and lesbians from the age of 16, but anyone under the age of 21 who engages in sodomy could face life in prison.

Gay rights activists welcomed the ruling, saying that 63 men have been arrested under the laws in the past five years. They said that the law was now unenforceable. It is a landmark case and a long overdue judgement, said activist Roddy Shaw. It's the first time that sexual orientation has been upheld as a protected ground against discrimination in a Hong Kong court.

Hong Kong is now holding consultations on the legislation. The territory's security bureau said it was studying the ruling.

From CBS News

Alaa Fattah has a voice that carries further than those of other antigovernment activists. Fattah, just 23, is one of Egypt's leading bloggers, part of an online community that acts as a virtual megaphone for Egypt's burgeoning opposition movement. Other countries in the Middle East have started cracking down on the Internet, arresting bloggers and imposing strict censorship regimes.

As bloggers gain clout in Cairo, observers say it is only a matter of time before Egypt follows suit. At a recent demonstration in Cairo's Opera Square against the 25-year rule of President Hosni Mubarak, activists distributed placards that read "Freedom Now" and "No to Oppression." Fattah, on the other hand, passed out lists of Web sites to a dozen or so local bloggers who act as an unofficial media outlet for Egypt's disparate opposition. You just can't rely on the mainstream media here.

Many Arab bloggers are tackling sensitive political and human rights issues rarely broached by the state-controlled media. They are proving to be a powerful source of information, capable of reaching a few hundred like-minded activists, or of rallying international attention to a cherished cause.

After government supporters attacked and beat protesters in late May, Egypt's blogging community led the effort to publicize what had happened.

I had never heard the word blogger until May 25, says Rabab al-Mahdi, a political science professor at the American University in Cairo, and an opposition activist. But now I know them well because of all the amazing coverage they had of the protests. My friends overseas all followed what happened through the blogs, because they have more credibility than the mainstream media.

Activists in Egypt rely on blogs like Fattah's to find out the time and place of future demonstrations, to learn who has been arrested and where they have been taken, and to debate the effectiveness of opposition strategies. In short order, Egypt's bloggers have become a political force, capable of more than merely commenting from the sidelines.

In early June, Fattah and two other bloggers decided they were tired of protesting in the same tired locations, with the same hackneyed slogans. Acting independently of opposition elders, they used their blogs to organize a protest in a working-class Cairo neighborhood, which attracted a respectable 300 people. The young bloggers' innovative logos, slogans, and choice of location prompted a sweeping debate among the Egyptian opposition.

Similarly, after three suicide bombers pounded the Sinai resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh on July 23, three other Egyptian bloggers organized an antiterrorism candle light vigil. It attracted so much interest that the government banned it at the last minute.

The new threat is only beginning to dawn on Middle Eastern regimes, long accustomed to tightly regulating the flow of information. Bloggers and online journalists have been imprisoned in Iran, Syria, Bahrain, and Tunisia. Several others closely monitor and restrict access to Web content. Media observers expect the region's bloggers to face growing intolerance from governments.

In 2001, Hossein Derakhshan, an Iranian emigrant to Canada, published directions on how to make a blog in the Farsi language. Seven months later there were 1,200 blogs in Iran. Today, there are an estimated 75,000 to 100,000 Iranians blogging, including former vice president Mohammad Ali Abtahi. During the 2003 student uprisings in Iran, Internet blogs and chat rooms allowed students to mobilize, organize, and communicate with one another, free of prying government eyes.

Iran has since adopted one of the world's most substantial Internet censorship regimes, according to the Open Net Initiative, a partnership of researchers from Harvard, Cambridge University, and the University of Toronto.

From Mizzima

The Burmese government have continued to ban sensitive news despite assurances of more “flexible censorship policies”

The Burmese Ministry of Information’s Press Scrutiny and Registration Division (PSRD) on 16 August blocked the Myanmar Times from publishing a Burmese translation of an article on new publishing license regulations in the country, according to well-informed sources in Rangoon.

The banned article, scheduled for the Myanmar Times’ 18 August edition was about the new publishing license regulation, issued by the ministry on 1 August.  Under new publishing rules, the PSRD can block the transfer of a publishing license from one publisher to another. The new rules also tighten control over authorized publications’ editorial teams.

The new regulations, however, were only published in “Myanmar Times”, which runs bilingual news and commentary in English and Burmese languages every week. Apparently the military junta does not want Burmese readers to know about its new restrictive policy. It doesn’t care about the English version which tends to be read mostly by expatriates in Burma, said the sources.

Ironically, the publishing rules are part of new press censorship regulations that PSRD director Maj. Tint Swe says offers concessions to the media in return for a more proactive approach to supporting the junta. Maj. Tint Swe earlier told the Myanmar Times that new censorship policies put in force in July will allow for a more flexible environment for media reporting. He had said that negative reports an commentary about China, India and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) will still be banned, but suggested that critical reports on Burmese government projects may be tolerated as long as criticisms are deemed “constructive”.

He added that media coverage of natural disasters and poverty, previously banned, will also be allowed so long as the reports do not affect national interest.

Recent developments in Burma however suggest that nothing has changed in the junta’s censorship regime. Worse, some members of the Burmese media community suggest that things are still getting worse.

On 5 August, “Irrawaddy Magazine”, an independent Burmese news publication operating in exile in Thailand, quoted journalists inside Rangoon as saying that the overall the situation was deteriorating, despite official assurances of “more flexible censorship policies”.

In July, none of the Burmese media reported on Burma’s decision to forgo its rotating chairmanship of Asean in 2006 in response to pressure from the international community.

From Scoop

The New Zealand Office of Film and Literature Classification has classified the modified version of video game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas as R18 with the descriptive note ‘contains violence, offensive language and sex scenes’.

On 25 July 2005 Chief Censor, the crazed Bill Hastings called in the game for re-classification, following reports that it contained hidden sex scenes. The game, with the hidden sex scenes activated, has been examined and classified.

Although the modified game has also received an R18 classification, it was important that we examined the game in light of the new content said Hastings. When we classify a game or any other publication we need to examine all its elements before making a decision. We could only be sure that the classification was appropriate once we had done that he said. The new classification applies only to copies of the game with the ‘Hot Coffee’ modification activated.

Because the game was already restricted to adults, the new content has not created the need for a higher classification as it has in some other countries. The sex scenes, while not explicit, have reinforced the adult nature of the game said Hastings.

The new classification will not affect owners or sellers of the unmodified game.

The modified game is unlikely to be offered for sale since doing so would violate the developer’s copyright and the game’s end user agreement. However, people should bear in the mind that it is an offence to supply or exhibit the any version of the game to people under 18 years of age.

It hardly sounds surprising that few youth aspire tothe communist party's 'cult of austerity'. I think they could do with a little re-branding

Based on an article from The Standard

China has launched a sweeping campaign to censor publications and audio-visual products it sees as supposedly exposing its youth to unhealthy influences, state media said recently.

Five government departments, including the Education Ministry and the Communist Youth League, issued a joint notice ordering the crackdown on "harmful" publications and electronic product.

The campaign, to take place nationwide between now and October, will target books, cartoons, audio-visual products and video games with content featuring pornography, violence and "feudal superstition and false science," it said. Officially, atheist China still regards many religious activities as superstition and often uses this as a pretext to crack down on religious groups.

The authorities will also step up their control of shops selling computer software and video games and target people engaged in producing illegal publications, it said.

President Hu Jintao's government has repeatedly expressed strong concern about the ethical standards of the young, who are increasingly exposed to materialistic values while showing little interest in the communist party's cult of austerity.

Last year, China seized about 230 million illegal publications, including pornographic materials, and shut down 41,000 publishing houses and bookstores, according to state media.

From Advocate

Two gay men challenging Fiji's sodomy laws on Wednesday made passionate pleas in the country's high court not to be returned to jail, reports the Fijilive Web site. Thomas McCoskar from Australia and Dhirendra Nadan of Tavarua, Nadi, are appealing their two-year sentences and convictions for engaging in gay sex and creating pornography for distribution via the Internet earlier this year.

The decision on their appeal will be delivered by Justice Gerard Winter in Lautoka on Friday. Both men made passionate pleas for freedom. McCoskar said he came to Fiji in March for a holiday without knowing of Fiji's strict sodomy laws. It was not publicized in Australia that homosexual [activity] is illegal in this country. If I knew that, no way will I engage in this practice.

Their lawyer, Natasha Khan, earlier questioned the constitutionality of the sodomy law and its impact on gays in Fiji. The sodomy laws will be used by police, for example, for the purpose of blackmail and extortion. It is not properly utilized, so every known homosexual can be penalized by the court. Khan also denounced public opinion against legalizing homosexual activity, saying that such opinion has no place in court. We have to protect the minorities.

Sodomy is a felony that carries a maximum of 14 years' imprisonment. The case is believed to be a first in Fiji in which the inconsistency between the constitution and the penal code on laws relating to homosexuality is brought before the courts. While the constitution—Fiji's supreme law—guarantees the rights of sexual minorities, the penal code forbids sex between men.

From The Sydney Morning Herald

Singapore maintains some of the world's tightest restrictions on free expression on the internet, but unlike other regimes, it doesn't do it with filters.

Instead Singapore controls the web through an unusual mix of legal pressures and access restrictions, according to a new study by three universities.

Testing of 1632 websites by the OpenNet Initiative found only eight blocked, mostly for pornography. If you look at it alongside places like China and Iran, Singapore's technical internet censorship regime is mild by comparison, said John Palfrey, executive director of the Berkman Centre for Internet and Society at Harvard University

Singapore's government manages to restrict discussions on politics and religion by requiring sites on those topics to obtain licences, the report found. Internet service providers also must comply with regulations banning speech deemed offensive or harmful.

To discourage dissent, the government also uses defamation laws that favour plaintiffs and puts defendants at risk of hundreds of thousands of dollars in liability, the report found. The report cited the case of a University of Illinois student from Singapore who was threatened with a lawsuit over comments made on his web journal. Singapore's Agency of Science, Technology and Research agreed not to sue after he shut down his blog and apologised for comments he had posted about the agency.

From AVN

US obscenity charges against two rural Louisiana adult bookstore owners should be dismissed because the state’s obscenity statute violates the First Amendment, according to attorney J.D. Obenberger, who is representing one of the business owners.

Obenberger is trying to get the Louisiana law, which was written in the early 1970s, invalidated entirely because of what he calls overly broad and vague language that stifles constitutionally protected speech.

Charged in the case are Emmette Jacob Jr. of Le Video Store and Edward Burleigh Jr. of The Video Place. Jacob, who is represented by Obenberger, was charged under Louisiana statute for selling a copy of Hustler that featured double-penetration and watersports photos and two DVDs.

As Obenberger wrote in his memorandum, R.S. 14:106 is facially invalid under the United States and Louisiana Constitutions because it extends the criminal application of its community standards in defining obscenity to the Internet and interstate commerce, and it extends criminal sanction to depictions which cannot be the object of criminal obscenity prosecution, and for these reasons is accordingly unconstitutionally infirm as impermissibly overbroad.

The argument is that Louisiana has failed to define the term “community” in the statute as pertaining to community-defined prurient interest – the so-called Miller test that determines whether material can be deemed obscene. Meanwhile, in 20 other states the state itself has been defined as the community, three states have defined the county as the community, and seven have defined the district as the community. Louisiana has no clear definition of community, which Obenberger argues essentially makes the law applicable to all pornography being viewed in Louisiana, such as that on the Internet, and violates the right to free expression.

If convicted on the obscenity charges, both Jacobs and Burleigh could face up to three years in prison. However, if Obenberger is successful, the decision would apply to both men.

Word from both camps is that regardless of what Judge Charles Porter decides, there will be an appeal and the case may eventually wind up in the Supreme Court of the United States, which could affect obscenity laws throughout the nation.

This imperils the survivability of all the obscenity statutes in the 45 states that have them. All of them are really expansively written, Obenberger said. They tend to all date from the ‘70s and try to reach everything they can. There’s a problem with that because society and the world have changed – we have the Internet and satellite dishes. Now, in order to not exceed the scope of their powers, they’ve got to limit their statutes to things that directly occur within their state.

The Louisiana obscenity statute has been upheld on previous court challenges; however, in 2000, the state supreme court eliminated a section of the law that banned the selling of sex toys as obscene devices.

Judge Porter plans to issue a ruling by August 28.

From ZD Net

The Bush administration is objecting to the creation of a .xxx domain, saying it has concerns about a virtual red-light district reserved exclusively for Internet pornography.

Michael Gallagher, assistant secretary at the Commerce Department, has asked for a hold to be placed on the contract to run the new top-level domain until the .xxx suffix can receive further scrutiny. The domain was scheduled to receive final approval Tuesday. The Department of Commerce has received nearly 6,000 letters and e-mails from individuals expressing concern about the impact of pornography on families and children, Gallagher said in a letter that was made public on Monday.

The sudden high-level interest in what has historically been an obscure process has placed the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) in an uncomfortable position. ICANN approved the concept of an .xxx domain in June and approval of ICM Registry's contract to run the suffix was expected this week.

ICM Registry, a for-profit company in Florida that plans to operate the .xxx registry, has told ICANN it would agree to a month's delay in the approval process to permit it to "address the concerns" raised by the Bush administration and other governments.

We're focusing our attention on the Department of Commerce and ensuring that we're building this as a voluntary (top-level domain) for responsible companies, Jason Hendeles, founder of ICM Registry, said in a telephone interview on Monday. Hendeles said that although the .xxx application is "already approved," his company is willing to try to allay fears about legitimizing pornography. The industry has existed for a long time and is growing internationally and is doing what it can to fight child porn and to be a responsible industry. This is an opportunity for all the different voices to come together.

Michael Froomkin, a law professor at the University of Miami, said it's not surprising ICANN's board has found itself in a pickle. They're supposed to be picked for technical competence,They're not elected. They're not representative of anything much. Who would pick this group of people to make decisions about how we feel about (domains) with sexual connotations?

A government report from a few years ago hints that the Bush administration could choose unilaterally to block .xxx from being added to the Internet's master database of domains. The report notes that the Commerce Department has reserved final policy control over the authoritative root server.

From adnki

A group of Yemeni journalists and parliamentarians are calling for the country's ministry of information to be abolished, saying the department - considered a source of media censorship by many - is undemocratic. The call came at the end of a two-day workshop this week on how to obtain legal guarantees for the freedom of the press, the Emirates-based newspaper Gulf News reports.

Those participating in the workshop also urged the House of Representatives, the Shura Council, the government in charge of drafting the new press law and the Yemeni Journalists Syndicate, to introduce a new press law, in line with international legislation.

They also called for a new article to be added to the country's constitution, providing for freedom of opinion and expression without restrictions, and which would eradicate government control of the media.

In its annual report released earlier this year, the human rights organisation Amnesty International highlighted the targeting of journalists in Yemen last year, saying punitive measures, including imprisonment, detentions and fines, increased. It gave as one example the case of Saeed Thabet, a Yemeni correspondent for a London-based news agency, who was detained for a week in March for reporting that the Yemeni president's son had been shot.

In September last year, Abdulkarim al-Khaiwani, editor-in-chief of the al-Shura opposition magazine was accused of supporting the rebel leader Hussain Badruddin al-Houthi and sentenced to one year's imprisonment after he criticised the Yemeni president and security force activities. He was then pardoned by the President Saleh in March 2005.

From Reuters

The Ugandan Broadcasting Council has shut down a popular radio station, K-FM, following the airing on Wednesday evening of a talk show that discussed the death of Sudanese First Vice President John Garang.

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni had on Wednesday afternoon threatened to shut down newspapers engaged in speculation over Garang's death on 30 July, in a Uganda government-owned helicopter that crashed near the Uganda-Sudan border. I will no longer tolerate a newspaper which is like a vulture. Any newspaper that plays around with regional security, I will not tolerate it - I will close it.

K-FM chief executive, Conrad Nkutu, said media council officials had gone to their studios on Thursday in the Ugandan capital, Kampala, and ordered them to stop broadcasting, an action he said was "unexplained, unreasonable and illegal".

The programme, Andrew Mwenda Live, featured a discussion of the president's threats, as well as speculation about the cause of the crash.

Garang, who had led the former southern Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army through 21 years of civil war against the Sudanese government, had assumed office on 9 July, after signing a peace agreement with the government in January.

He died en-route to southern Sudan from Uganda, following a meeting with Museveni. Garang, who was buried in the southern town of Juba on 6 August, has been replaced as vice president by Salva Kiir Mayardit. An investigation into the cause of the crash is ongoing.

From The Guardian

Egyptian censors have blocked sales of a news magazine that shows on its cover plainclothes security forces preparing to attack pro-democracy demonstrators.

The move comes as the regime of the president, Hosni Mubarak, which has ruled Egypt under a state of emergency for 24 years, is trying to convince the US of its commitment to political reform.

As a step towards greater democracy, the president agreed under pressure this year to allow more than one candidate when he seeks re-election next month. Since then, would-be opposition candidates have been harassed and peaceful demonstrators beaten up.

The government continues to censor and manipulate the media. It is the third time in three months that the authorities have interfered with the English-language magazine, Cairo. Earlier issues were blocked temporarily - apparently because of objections to a report about the constitutional referendum last May and a cartoon that portrayed the ruling National Democratic party as a ferocious beast.

They don't really give a reason for their decisions, said the editor, Matthew Carrington. They might just say the person who can give permission [to distribute the magazine] is away or something like that. It costs us in circulation and it costs us in reputation. Advertisers get worried. It costs us in several different ways.

The magazine says it aims to meet high standards of accurate and independent journalism. Egypt's other main English-language publications - al-Ahram Weekly and the daily Egyptian Gazette - are both indirectly under government control.

The stifling of Cairo magazine in this way is particularly concerning in the lead-up to the limited presidential elections in September, said Sophie Redmond of Article 19, the international campaign for free expression. Restrictions placed on the media in the lead up to elections is a very strong early warning sign, and can be used as an indicator of the fairness of the elections."

The latest issue of Cairo - which has been awaiting a distribution permit for almost a week - reports on a demonstration by the Kifaya (Enough) movement, which wants Mubarak to step down. Small groups of demonstrators who gathered in central Cairo on July 30 were surrounded by thousands of uniformed police and attacked. Within minutes, gangs of young men, directed by plainclothes security officers with holstered pistols, set upon the protesters, beating them, kicking them and dragging them into police vans, the magazine said. The scenes were witnessed and reported at the time by international media.

From Reporters without Borders

Police raid two newspapers despite announced end to censorship

Reporters Without Borders today condemned the "outrageous return of police raids on newspaper printing presses" in Sudan after the security forces prevented two Arabic-language daily newspapers from being published on 6 August despite the previously-announced lifting of censorship.

So it has taken a month for President Omar Hassan Al Bashir to break the promises he made with his hand over his heart on 11 July, the press freedom organisation said. The UN secretary-general and the heads of state present should call on the president to keep his word. We do not want to think the announcement was just for show.

In the presence of several African presidents, UN secretary-general Kofi Annan and many senior European and US officials, President Al Bashir undertook on 11 July to support the construction of democracy and the rule of law and freedoms, and announced the repeal of the emergency laws.

The printing press that produces the Al Watan and Al Wan newspapers was raided at around 4 a.m. on 6 August by members of the security forces, who ordered the presses to stop and confiscated all available copies. No official explanation was given by the Sudanese intelligence services.

The Associated Press news agency quoted Al Watan editor Tahir Sati as saying the police had come the previous evening to inspect the content of the next day's edition. He said they left at the end of the evening, but returned in the early hours and seized the 25,000 copies that had already been printed: No reason was given. But we think it is was related to our criticism of the government, especially of its handling of the riots and demonstrations.

Serious rioting broke out in Khartoum and its suburbs after Vice-President John Garang, the leader of the former rebels of the Sudan Peoples Liberation Movement, was killed in a helicopter crash on 31 July. The Sudanese Red Crescent estimated that a total of 130 people were killed in rioting in three localities.

From CBC

In a new attempt to reassert control over popular culture, China has barred new foreign television channels and plans to step up censorship of imported programs.

China has greatly liberalized media markets over the past three years and satellite broadcasters such as News Corp. and Viacom have moved in. But that's prompted concern among China's leadership about safeguarding "national cultural safety," China's Culture Ministry announced on its website on Wednesday.

The ministry announced it would not allow the import of new newspapers and magazines, electronic publications and audiovisual products. It will also put restrictions on Chinese publications using work from foreign sources.

It promised content guidelines for foreign satellite channels that already have licences, though it did not describe how these guidelines would be administered.

Last year, the government prohibited the use of English words on television and foreign programs that promote "western ideology and politics." It also banned programs about crime or violence in prime time in order to promote a "healthy environment" for children.

Newspapers were forbidden from reporting on stories about changes of leadership or political reform unless the source was the official news agency Xinhua.

Last month, the government banned Chinese television and radio stations from forming partnerships with foreign companies or leasing channels to foreign companies.

As part of its new initiative Chinese authorities will crack down on illegal satellite dishes.

Communist leaders are concerned about material that is spreading "politically and socially dangerous" influences. Regulators frequently cite foreign culture as a source of unwholesome influences.

Beijing still controls which movies are allowed into the country, and what content is allowed on domestically owned stations. But it is increasingly difficult to control what Chinese people read because of the growth of blogging and of internet sites that spread information not generally available in China.

From AVN

The last few minutes of yesterday's hearing on plaintiffs' motion for a preliminary injunction in the case of Free Speech Coalition v. Gonzales had to be embarrassing for Department of Justice (DOJ) trial attorney Samuel C. Kaplan.

Judge Walker D. Miller, who will decide whether to issue an injunction that will extend beyond the September 1 expiration of the agreement currently in place – a ruling he has promised to make within a few weeks at the latest – was questioning Kaplan about producers' duties to maintain lists of URLs at which appear sexually explicit images, under the revised regulations issued by the Justice Department pursuant to 18 U.S.C. §2257.

Plaintiffs had argued that the recordkeeping burden for webmasters under the 2257 regulations was enormous, since the regs require them to maintain and index the URL of every appearance ("iteration") on a Web page of an image of actual human beings engaged in actual sexually explicit conduct, and to keep an electronic copy of every such page. Since such pages are sometimes changed daily – or hourly! – though keeping the same URL, producers would be required to keep dozens or possibly hundreds of copies of pages with the same URL as long as hardcore images appeared on them.

The issue privacy issue was also raised where the law requires that performers real name and addresses are made avaialable. Attorney Allan Gelbard and performer Nina Hartley, had previously testified that they knew of adult stars who had been stalked after their real names had been revealed in public.

The hearing today went as well or better than we expected. stated Jeffrey Douglas at the conclusion of the day's proceedings. The issues that we needed to argue before the court were laid out persuasively and passionately. We went into the hearing optimistic that secondary producer requirements, unlawful as they are, would be enjoined, and nothing that occurred in the hearing lessens our optimism. We felt that we had a substantial but smaller chance of having the entire regulatory scheme enjoined. Courts always want to be as conservative as possible when it comes to enjoining a federal regulation, and the judge engaged in appropriate inquiry with our attorneys as to whether or not injunction of the entire scheme were required. We continue to be hopeful that we'll prevail in obtaining an injunction to the entirety of the regulations, and we await the judge's ruling with anticipation.

From Reporters without Borders

Saudi Arabia has created one of the world's biggest Internet filtering systems. The authorities have officially announced that they block access to nearly 400,000 webpages, with the aim of protecting citizens from offensive content and content the violates the principles of Islam and the social norms.

The Internet blacklist in Saudi Arabia covers some very broad fields, including the websites of political organisations and Islamist movements that are not recognised, and any publication dealing directly or even very indirectly with sexuality. Saudi women, who represent nearly two thirds of the country's Internet users, can only access online content that has been expunged of any reference to their rights, their health or their intimate lives.

Saudi Arabia has no law dealing specifically with the Internet. So, in practice, it is covered by the press law, which requires all media to obtain official permission. Furthermore, the royal family has the power to dismiss journalists and appoint news media executives and editors. Free expression does not exist in Saudi Arabia, whether in the press or on the Internet.

The Saudi censorship system

The Internet Services Unit (ISU) is in charge of maintaining the Saudi Internet censorship system. It manages the gateway used by all the local Internet Service Providers (ISPs). As a result, it can monitor all online data exchanges taking place in Saudi Arabia. The ISU is also the agency that is in charge of the country domain name (.sa) and it manages the technical aspects of the Saudi Internet. But it just carries out the instructions it receives from the Saudi security services and does not decide what must be censored.

The ISU offers an online form and e-mail address (abuse@isu.net.sa) for Internet users who want to report sites they think should be blocked. Hundreds of requests of this kind are received every day. They are handled by a team assigned full-time to this task.

It seems that the filters installed by the ISU, with the help of such US companies as Secure Computing, are easy to get around. In fact, a seasoned Internet user can access censored sites quite quickly. The simplest solution is to go to a discussion forum offering an up-to-date list of proxy servers. In the great majority of cases, these relay servers are used to access pornography sites.

Evading the censorship

Created in 1996 by Sa'ad Al-Faqih, the Movement for Islamic Reform in Arabia (MIRA) is a London-based religious movement that is very critical of the Saudi regime. Its website, www.miraserve.com, is on the list of sites that have been censored by the government since the Saudi Internet's outset. But the movement very quickly found ways of getting round the censorship. It managed to find solutions which, although involving sophisticated technology, are easy to use.

To access www.miraserve.com despite the filter, Saudis just have to send an e-mail message to a certain address in order to receive an automatic response identifying an URL (web address) that is not blocked. The MIRA installed a device that allows it to created an unlimited number of web address through which its online publication can be accessed. MIRA also offers advice on how to use the Internet anonymously by using an e-mail address such as Hotmail or Yahoo ! and by surfing the Web using software provided by companies such as Anonymizer or Safeweb.

From Asia Times

Japanese police class graphic British 'Lovers' Guide' as criminal. They have pulled the plug on a wildly popular local translation of a British sex education manual widely praised for its mature approach to physical intimacy

"Rabaazu Gaido," the Japanese translation of the 1992 British manual "The Lovers' Guide," has been a roaring success since it hit the market on May 21.

Despite carrying a hefty price tag by Japanese publication standards of 2,500 yen, its first printing of 10,000 copies quickly vanished from shelves. In the two months since, the book has gone into four printings and sold 50,000 copies. But the phenomenal response to "Rabaazu Gaido" -- which some attribute to its unprecedented use of photos featuring genitalia that would normally be banned under Japanese law -- has also attracted the attention of the Metropolitan Police Department.

Osamu Abe, president of the publisher that released "Rabaazu Gaido," was called into the MPD earlier this month for an hour long interrogation conducted by a couple of hefty cops who insisted that the manual be "cleaned up." They didn't sit there and point out specific areas that were bothersome, but simply said that it wasn't permissible to sell a book that featured graphic depictions of genitalia and fellatio, Abe tells Shukan Post. They said if we didn't fix it up, they would have to consider dealing with the matter (according to the law).

Abe was given instructions on what the MPD wanted and asked to write a note promising that he would obey. Abe initially refused, but a week later sent the cops the note they had been looking for. But instead of promising that he would fudge out the dirty bits, so to speak, Abe told the MPD he would only revise the book as he deemed fit.

Genitalia were exposed in the original British book because it was deemed that was the best way to pass on the correct knowledge. If we clean up all the exposed genitals, the book loses its meaning, Abe tells Shukan Post. We have no intention of making the changes and we'll probably have to take the book out of print.

Dr. Andrew Stanway, the editor of the original book, said that "The Lovers' Guide" had initially been criticized when it came out in Britain, but was eventually recognized as a valuable source. He denies it is obscene, as the Tokyo cops say.

Hideo Aoki, translator of the Japanese version of "The Joy of Sex," agrees. It's a real shame the Metropolitan Police Department refuses to regard 'Rabaazu Gaido' as a proper sex education tool not just for men, but for women, too. Pictures of genitalia were not merely gratuitous, but there with the intention of providing better instructions about sex. That book had significant meaning in helping prevent sexually transmitted diseases like AIDS. It should be highly regarded for that point, too

From Asia Times

While the police the United Kingdom keep a special lookout for men hauling rucksacks, in India, especially the metros, they have been peering into people's cell phones.

The long arm of the law silently watches over the shoulders of people to catch them "red-handed" watching porn, which is not illegal, but any form of promotion by forwarding/hosting can invite a jail sentence and a heavy fine.

Reports are trickling in from everywhere - outside discos, pubs, bus-stops, pavements, colleges. Some policemen have been brazen enough to catch anybody with a cell phone, which is quite easy as there are more than 50 million users in India, and ask to be shown all files, hidden or not, even though this might be beyond the law itself. The police are going about their duties with exceptional zeal, and with an unaccustomed determination to view all of the "evidence".

The latest fillip to the phenomenon that has made the police hyperactive is to do with an actress called Mallika Sherawat. She is trying to make an impression in the West by starring in a Jackie Chan movie and making a bold (some thought she forgot to wear items in her dress) appearance at the Cannes film festival. She is saucy, also very sexy and holds the Indian record for having kissed in a Hindi movie the maximum number of times. Thus, her fans are in the legions.

Some technology driven person who could be sitting anywhere in the world morphed Sherawat's picture onto a porn video, uploaded it into a cell phone and in a blink the MMS was everywhere. The upset actress, who was shooting somewhere abroad, called everyone she knew, including the press, her agents, officials, ministers, film producers and actors, which only heightened interest in the video. The morphed body has turned out to be that of a Mexican girl, while nobody can trace the originator.

To worsen matters, an intimate clip of two young upcoming Bollywood actors who were seeing each other until recently also surfaced around the same time as the Sherawat MMS. Some reports have blamed the jilted actor as the source, which only raises interest given the fascination for real action involving real stars.

Indeed, such has been the brouhaha that the beat constable, too, wants to take a peep in more ways than one. The police in India have been fighting a losing battle to check porn usage. They have raided the Internet cafes that dot the country and hauled up innocent young boys and girls and put them in jail. Viewing pornography in the privacy of one's home doesn't come under the ambit of the law, but to do so in a cafe, which is legally defined as "public space", is illegal. According to Section 67 of the Indian Information Technology Act, transmission of obscene material through electronic media can invite a jail term of up to five years.

While the Sherawat episode might have taken interest in downloading MMS porn on cell phones to new levels, the trend actually began last year. A schoolboy secretly filmed and then circulated a sexual act with his girlfriend using a camera cell phone after he broke up with her. The story (appropriately termed the MMS case) raised a furor and led to the arrest of the Indian country head of ebay.com, where a student of the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology was peddling the clip.

It was also the country's first brush with reality sex on a cellular phone, which like reality TV always sells more. In the months that followed, there were several instances of intrusions of privacy courtesy of camera phones, involving celebrity couples, such as actors Kareena Kapoor and Shahid Kapoor. Some hotels in Mumbai and Delhi have banned camera phones in the swimming area.

From Bernama

Swaziland's Minister of Public Service and Information Themba Msibi this week issued a statement, saying that the Swazi government was considering reviving its Media Council Bill of 1997 if the media failed to put in place a self-regulatory body within the coming two weeks. Swazi media are in the process of establishing such a body.

Msibi made the statement during a meeting of journalists in Sidvokodvo. The independent Swazi press still is weak and subjected to censorship, but editors are hoping that the establishment of a self-regulatory body could improve the situation somewhat by limiting government interference.

Both the Swaziland chapter of MISA and the Swaziland National Association of Journalists (SNAJ) yesterday said they are concerned about the Minister's utterances, particularly as he is well aware of the media's continuing efforts to establish a self regulatory body, MISA-Swaziland says.

The press freedom group fears that a reintroduction of the repressive Media Council Bill of 1997 will halt all positive developments within the Swazi media sector. We are very disturbed about this since the Ministry is aware of the reasons for the delay in the process [of establishing a self-regulatory body and complaints mechanism in Swaziland], MISA-Swaziland said in a statement released yesterday evening.

MISA-Swaziland today further condemned in the strongest terms such candid moves by government and called for more time to be given to enable media owners to endorse the process before it is finalised. It should be said loud and clear that the Ministry is aware of the challenges that media stakeholders are facing in their attempts to implement such a body. There is no need to invoke fear in the media or attempt to derail the current process.

Swaziland's 1997 Media Council Bill had been drafted without any input from the press or any other stakeholders. The bill provided for the compulsory registration of journalists and a wide range of harsh disciplinary measures against journalists and editors. According to the freedom of expression group Article 19, the bill sought to bring the entire practice of journalism in Swaziland under government control.

After much lobbying of Swazi MPs, national and international press freedom groups managed to stop the Mbabane parliament's endorsement of the controversial bill in November 1997. Several attempts have been made to change the wording of the bill or to reintroduce it to parliament. Meanwhile, private Swazi media have sworn to self-censorship to avoid open conflicts with the repressive government.

From Bernama

Information Minister Datuk Seri Abdul Kadir Sheikh Fadzir said his ministry had submitted a memorandum to the government requesting the return of power to determine guidelines and monitor the contents of the broadcast media.

The memorandum was prepared by the ministry following numerous grouses from members of Parliament and Umno members who were unhappy with the contents of programmes aired by the private television stations.

Abdul Kadir told reporters this in response to a call by Kedah representative Mohamed Kamal Saidin at the Umno general assembly for the ministry to be given back the power to determine broadcasting guidelines and monitor the contents of the broadcast media.

Mohamed Kamal made the call when debating the motion on religion and education because he said that some private television programmes were against Islamic teachings and culture.

Abdul Kadir said that prior to 1998, the power to draw up guidelines and monitor the contents of the broadcast media rested with his ministry but was transferred to the Energy, Water and Communications Ministry following the establishment of the Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC). With the inception of the MSC, he said, the Broadcasting Act was repealed and replaced with the Communication and Multimedia Act 1998.

Abdul Kadir said the memorandum also contained issues of overlapping power involving several ministries such as the Malaysian National Film Development Corporation being placed under the Arts, Culture and Heritage Ministry, the Film Censorship Act under the Home Ministry and the Print Media Act under the Internal Security Ministry.

From Bernama

Information Minister Datuk Seri Abdul Kadir Sheikh Fadzir said his ministry had submitted a memorandum to the government requesting the return of power to determine guidelines and monitor the contents of the broadcast media.

The memorandum was prepared by the ministry following numerous grouses from members of Parliament and Umno members who were unhappy with the contents of programmes aired by the private television stations.

Abdul Kadir told reporters this in response to a call by Kedah representative Mohamed Kamal Saidin at the Umno general assembly for the ministry to be given back the power to determine broadcasting guidelines and monitor the contents of the broadcast media.

Mohamed Kamal made the call when debating the motion on religion and education because he said that some private television programmes were against Islamic teachings and culture.

Abdul Kadir said that prior to 1998, the power to draw up guidelines and monitor the contents of the broadcast media rested with his ministry but was transferred to the Energy, Water and Communications Ministry following the establishment of the Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC). With the inception of the MSC, he said, the Broadcasting Act was repealed and replaced with the Communication and Multimedia Act 1998.

Abdul Kadir said the memorandum also contained issues of overlapping power involving several ministries such as the Malaysian National Film Development Corporation being placed under the Arts, Culture and Heritage Ministry, the Film Censorship Act under the Home Ministry and the Print Media Act under the Internal Security Ministry.

Based on article from The Times

British comics Eric Idle, Eddie Izzard and Billy Connolly are among 100 famous comedians starring in a film supposedly so lewd that one of America’s biggest cinema chains is refusing to show it.

The poster for The Aristocrats proclaims proudly that the documentary is “obscene, disgusting, vulgar and vile”. An endless retelling of the world’s dirtiest joke, the movie goes on release in America this week without a ratings certificate and will be shown in Britain at the Edinburgh Festival next month.

Although the AMC cinema chain has announced it will not be screening the film, some critics have hailed it as a masterpiece of wit. The Hollywood Reporter said the comedy “classic” might be the “funniest movie you’ll ever see”.

Yet the contents of the joke, which can include incest, rape, child sexual abuse, sodomy, defecation and bestiality, are no laughing matter. As Idle, the former Monty Python star, says suggestively on screen: There’s no act in England that an aristocrat won’t do.

The joke always begins in the same way. A man seeks work from a theatrical agent, who asks: “What’s your act?” The man replies that it is a “family act” and goes on to describe the most outlandish and perverted group sex imaginable. The challenge to every comedian who retells the gag is to top that.

The punchline never varies either. The stunned agent asks: “What’s the act called?” and the response is: “The Aristocrats!” Cue laughter, disgust or incomprehension.

The film’s director, Paul Provenza, a stand-up comic, said: It’s a private game for comedians who do not want to worry about what people think about them. They want to show their peers how good they are at being bad.”

Connolly was first told the joke backstage in Glasgow in the 1970s and felt he had been initiated into the comics’ fraternity. I realised that was the moment when I had made it. It was hilarious to hear all these old guys trying to outdo each other in wild ways.

Others are less impressed. Ted Baehr, of the Christian film magazine Movieguide, said The Aristocrats was “a foul movie”. They think they are pushing the envelope but they don’t understand that most of America is turned off by their antics.”

Based on article from Newsday

A special three-judge federal panel on Monday refused to find unconstitutional a law making it a crime to send obscenity over the Internet to children.

The Communications Decency Act of 1996 had been challenged by Barbara Nitke, a photographer who specializes in pictures of sadomasochistic sexual behavior, and by the National Coalition for Sexual Freedom, a Baltimore-based advocacy organization.

They contended in a December 2001 lawsuit brought in U.S. District Court in Manhattan that the law was so broad and vague in its scope that it violated the First Amendment, making it impossible for them to publish to the Internet because they cannot control the forum.

A judge from the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals and two district judges heard the facts of the case and issued a written decision saying the plaintiffs had provided insufficient evidence to prove the law was unconstitutional.

The panel noted that evidence was offered to indicate there are at least 1.4 million Web sites that mention bondage, discipline and sadomasochism but that evidence was insufficient to decide how many sites might be considered obscene. The judges said the evidence also was insufficient for them to determine how much the standards for obscenity differ in communities across the United States.

The court said it was necessary to know how much the standards vary to decide if those creating Web sites would be graded for obscenity unfairly when compared with those who market traditional pornography and can control how they distribute the material.

As the law stands, a communication is obscene if according to each community's standards it appeals to the prurient interest, depicts or describes sexual conduct in an offensive way and lacks serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value.

The law requires that those sending the communications take reasonable actions to restrict or prevent access by children to obscenity, sometimes by using a verified credit card, debit account or adult access code as proof of age.

Nitke, who has exhibited her work for more than 20 years, said she will appeal the ruling. I'm appalled. I think it's vitally important to keep the Internet free for education, the arts and open discussion on sexual targets.

The National Coalition for Sexual Freedom also was disappointed with the ruling, spokeswoman Susan Wright said. Personal Web sites and chat groups that include discussions and images of explicit sexuality are at risk of prosecution. Basically, we proved we're at risk of prosecution, and speech has been chilled because people are afraid to put anything sexual on their Web sites."

Based on article from AVN

Draft legislation intending to repress adult websites hiding behind the guise of unreasonable age-verification standards and a 25 percent tax is likely to be introduced in the Senate within the next few weeks, according to information obtained by AVN.

Senator Blanche L. Lincoln will announce The Internet Safety and Child Protection Act of 2005. The proposed act is divided into two sections. Title I stipulates an operator of a regulated pornographic website shall verify that any user attempting to access their site is 18 years of age or older using software certified for that purpose … prior to the display of any pornographic material, including free content that may be available prior to the purchase of a subscription or product. Title II attempts to fund enforcement of Title I and various other activities related to children and pornography by imposing a 25 percent tax on gross website receipts. The bill also would amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to include a revenue category called “Internet Display or Distribution of Pornography.”

A “regulated pornographic website” is defined within the draft bill as a person required to maintain documents verifying the age of persons engaged in sexually explicit conduct pursuant to section 2257(a) of title 18, United States Code.

The draft bill also includes a provision mandating a bank, credit card company, third-party merchant, Internet Payment Service Provider, or business that performs financial transactions for a regulated pornographic website shall only process age-verified Internet pornography credit card transactions for sales. ... If that provision survives and the bill clears the House and Senate and is signed into law, it could prohibit such billing mechanisms as online checks, dialers, prepaid access cards, and SMS payments for electronic adult content in the U.S.

Lincoln, a second-term Democrat, considers the legislation important “as a parent, not as a politician,” according to Drew Goesl, her press secretary. In her eyes, [the bill is] necessary to make the Internet safer for kids.

To that end, Lincoln included funding for child protection programs within the draft bill: There is established in the Treasury the Internet Safety and Child Protection Trust Fund … into which shall be deposited all taxes collected from adult websites. Subject to annual appropriations, monies in the trust fund would be disbursed to the U.S. Department of Justice and the states for “crimes against children” programs; to private-sector companies, organizations, and individuals for research in filtering technologies; to educational agencies for “training contributing to greater child Internet safety and reductions in sex trafficking and sex crimes against children,” and to federal agencies to combat sex trafficking and crimes against children.

At least one high-profile adult entertainment impresario finds the bill’s provisions absurd. For one thing, says Kick Ass Pictures owner Mark Kulkis, the definition of “content producer” under 18 USC §2257 remains up in the air pending the outcome of a legal challenge to the regulations by the Free Speech Coalition. Until the fog surrounding 2257’s regulations clears, it’s going to be impossible to determine what qualifies as a “registered pornographic website” under the proposed bill.

In addition, Title II of the draft legislation “is blatantly unconstitutional,” Kulkis says. To tax one type of expression and not others is blatant censorship. It would be the equivalent of taxing all Spanish-language media and using the funds to combat illegal immigration.

While he said he thinks Lincoln is well intentioned, he doesn’t believe Title I of her bill, at least as it exists in the draft, will be effective at keeping kids away from online smut. The most the adult industry should be required to do is provide fair warning that you’re about to enter an area with explicit content,

Kulkis admitted some adult websites beg for trouble by flaunting explicit content on their home pages, unprotected by any sort of “splash” page or warning label. That’s like an adult store putting hardcore [product] in the front window,

According to the draft, the bill, if passed, would take effect January 1.

From IJ Net

More than five months after it was banned by the government after the royal takeover on February 1, the Nepal 1 television channel has resumed broadcasting in the country.

King Gyanendra suspended press freedom and many other basic rights when he took over the government on February 1. He lifted the state of emergency in April, but journalists and their advocates report that press freedom remains restricted.

Akhanda Bhandari, a journalist with the Kantipur Daily, reported to IJNet that Nepal 1 resumed its broadcasts on July 7. The channel, which broadcasts from India, had continued its operations during the Nepalese blackout for audiences in neighboring countries.

Nepal 1 was the first Nepalese-language satellite channel. The channel reportedly irritated the Royal Nepalese Army with its reporting, especially a story last year on how soldiers were ambushed by Maoist rebels, Bhandari said. The broadcasts resumed in Nepal after campaigns by viewers and supporters.

However, Nepal News reported on July 9 that the government is still restricting news content on FM radio.

From IJ Net

More than five months after it was banned by the government after the royal takeover on February 1, the Nepal 1 television channel has resumed broadcasting in the country.

King Gyanendra suspended press freedom and many other basic rights when he took over the government on February 1. He lifted the state of emergency in April, but journalists and their advocates report that press freedom remains restricted.

Akhanda Bhandari, a journalist with the Kantipur Daily, reported to IJNet that Nepal 1 resumed its broadcasts on July 7. The channel, which broadcasts from India, had continued its operations during the Nepalese blackout for audiences in neighboring countries.

Nepal 1 was the first Nepalese-language satellite channel. The channel reportedly irritated the Royal Nepalese Army with its reporting, especially a story last year on how soldiers were ambushed by Maoist rebels, Bhandari said. The broadcasts resumed in Nepal after campaigns by viewers and supporters.

However, Nepal News reported on July 9 that the government is still restricting news content on FM radio.

From The Telegraph

Venice has begun a "zero tolerance" campaign to restore public decorum, with dozens of tourists being fined €50 [£34] for removing their shirts and other "unseemly behaviour".

Unacceptable behaviour also includes eating picnic-style lunches outdoors, dangling feet in the canals, and wearing minuscule shorts.

The man behind the clampdown is Augusto Salvadori, the tourism councillor, a veteran of the struggle to protect the dignity of the city.

The focus of his crusade is what Venetians now call torsonudismo - literally, "torso-nudism" practised by tourists removing their shirts in the heat.

Of the first tourists to be fined for torsonudismo several days ago, all were in St Mark's Square, while a British couple were fined for dangling their feet in a canal.

Based on an article from The Independent

The New Zealand maker of a computer game involving violence and the selling of drugs has withdrawn the product from sale.

The Dope Game was being distributed by Auckland based online company 89 Games.

It focuses on drug lords earning money by growing marijuana and making hash, opium, morphine and heroin.

The Department of Internal Affairs has submitted the game for classification by the Chief Censor and the game's creator, who wants to remain anonymous, says that has forced him to withdraw it.

Chief censor Bill Hastings says they will continue to review the computer game. Hastings says a decision will be made in about three weeks.

Based on an article from The Independent

A tempest has struck the American video-game industry after the publisher of the country's most popular series, Grand Theft Auto, acknowledged that its latest installment includes embedded pornographic content that allegedly was never meant to be seen by players.

The globally successful game sold one million copies in Britain in nine days when it was released last October, where it attracted an "18" certificate.

The regulatory board in the US that applies ratings to video games stripped the game of its "Mature" ranking (17+)and upgrading it to "Adults Only" (18+). Mainstream retailers yesterday removed the best-selling title from their shelves.

The game, which is playable on computers or on portable consoles such as Sony PlayStation or the XBox, has been under assault by politicians and family values advocates for several weeks since the existence of the hidden sexual material was first revealed.

The company that produced it, Rockstar Games, at first accused hackers of somehow polluting the title, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. This week, however, it admitted the sex scenes have been within the games since they were first shipped. Players found they could unlock the illicit material simply by downloading a modifying software programme, called Hot Coffee, from the internet.

Grand Theft Auto is one of the most popular game franchises in the world and when the San Andreas episode came out in October, it sold more than five million copies in the US. With the software modification, users of the game are able to direct their characters to the house of a "girlfriend" to engage in sex acts. While the characters remain largely clothed, the acts are said to be entirely explicit.

The outrage grew quickly as nutters and other groups accused the company of trying to pervert the games rating system. It is the first time that the Entertainment Software Ratings Board has been obliged to change the rating on a product after it has already entered the market.

Apparently the sexual material was embedded in the game. The company admitted that, said Senator Hillary Clinton, who was among politicians lobbying for action against Rockstar Games.

Some video games makers have recently begun encouraging the more sophisticated games players to try to manipulate their products. The best of them can alter a game's code to change its plot. This kind of interaction with buyers can extend the shelf-life of a title for months.

But Rockstar denies any such strategy in this case, suggesting the sex sequences were left inside the code by mistake. An artist makes a painting, then doesn't like the first version and paints over the canvas with a new painting, right?"said a spokesman for the company. That's what happened here. Hackers on the internet made a programme that scratches the canvas to reveal an earlier draft.

Retail chains such as Wal-Mart, Best Buy and Target removed the game from sale in line with their policy not to sell pornographic content. The owner of Rockstar Games, Take-Two Interactive, said it expected net sales to drop by about $50m (?30m) in the current quarter. Not everyone was sympathetic. Critics say the punishment is negligible, given the Grand Theft Auto franchise has earned it revenues of nearly $1bn in four years.

I wonder if it is actually an offence to watch porn in India. Or are the police just making up the law themselves.

Based on an article from Stuff

Indian police forced around 200 people caught watching pornography to do sit-ups in public to shame them and keep them away from theatres that illegally screen adult movies.

The Hindustan Times reported that police stopped the screening of a pornographic movie at a cinema in Balasore district in the eastern state of Orissa and made audience members to do 10 sit-ups each at a public square, watched by onlookers.

The police made the all-male group vow not to watch pornography again. To make matters worse for the embarrassed teenagers who were caught, police called their parents to watch them doing sit-ups.

Police officer Sanjeev Panda said authorities carried out the public shaming after attempts to get theatres in district not to show pornography had failed.

So we decided to crack down on the audience, Panda was quoted in the newspaper, which also reported that police in Orissa planned to integrate such public punishments into their general campaign against pornography.

Exhibiting pornography is illegal in India, but it is screened in many cinemas. The latest craze is pornographic Multi-Media Messaging (MMS) clips, some of which allegedly show Bollywood actresses engaged in sexual acts.

From The Nation

The Thai Journalists’ Association issued a statement in response to an executive decree by the government after the recent violence in Yala province.

The decree will give Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra sweeping powers and provide his officials with the right to bar news releases he considers detrimental to national security.

The association said it considered the decree to be in violation of the Constitution and the public’s right to know the truth. We don’t support any law that will terminate freedom of speech, a basic right of the people and the media

The new measures call for the ban of all news releases that the government deems will terrify the public or distort the facts during states of emergency, which it said would lead to misunderstandings and undermine national security. The measures will be enforced in a particular area or the entire country.

An editor of the Thai-language newspaper Thai Post said the government had ignored the rights of the people while illegitimately giving itself more power. The government is moving in the wrong direction, said the journalist, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

By implementing the ban on media reports concerning violence in the deep South, the government may be playing into the hands of the terrorists, he said. Without the media, local people will tend to believe information provided by the terrorists when they don’t trust what the government says. The government has signalled its intention to use an “eye-for-an-eye” strategy to solve the problems in the South, which may in fact worsen the situation, he said.

Senator Sopon Supapong said such media restrictions were only implemented in countries ruled by dictators....Exactly

I originally thought this was a bit of a non-story but it seems to have mushroomed a little.

From the BBC

Senator Hillary Clinton has stepped into the controversy over sex scenes in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. She wants the US Federal Trade Commission to find out who put the explicit material in the game.

The US Entertainment Software Rating Board is already investigating GTA maker Rockstar over the matter. The ESRB wants to work out if the sexual content was in the game all along but hidden or if the mod adds it.

Rockstar has denied that it included the graphic content in San Andreas and has instead accused hackers of altering the code.

The controversy about the Hot Coffee mod broke earlier this week with the ESRB's announcement of its investigation. The board wants to find out if Rockstar broke rules that demand it tell industry regulations if such material is included in games.

The downloadable mod was put together by Dutch GTA fan Patrick Wildenborg and is said to unlock mini-games in the recently-released PC version of San Andreas that lets players make game characters have sex.

For its part Rockstar said that the Hot Coffee mod only works because hackers took apart, rebuilt and then recompiled the game's underlying computer code. Hackers had gone to significant trouble to alter scenes in the official version of the game, Rockstar said in a statement. Wildenborg said all the scenes unlocked by the mod were in the original game but were simply inaccessible. Rockstar said it was looking into ways to change San Andreas to stop the Hot Coffee mod working.

As well as seeking to find out who put the content in the game, Senator Clinton wants the FTC to find out if the game has been given the wrong rating by the ESRB. She also wants to find out if game stores are doing enough to stop minors getting hold of the game.

In a letter to the FTC, Senator Clinton cited a study by the National Institute on Media and the Family that found 50% of boys between seven and 14 years old could buy mature rated games. There is no doubting the fact that the widespread availability of sexually explicit and graphically violent video games makes the challenge of parenting much harder.

The mature or "M" rated PC version of San Andreas is only supposed to be bought by those aged 17 and over. If the game were to be get the rarely awarded Adults-Only (AO) rating, sales of the game could plummet. The PlayStation 2 version of San Andreas was the best-selling game of 2004 in the US.

From The Age & Stuff

Telstraclear's new chief executive has pulled the plug on the pornography channel, Chilli, offered by its pay-TV business Saturn TV. TelstraClear is also ending the broadcast of Sky's adult channels, Playboy and Spice 1 and 2.

Spokesman Mathew Bolland says the decision to drop the pay-per-view channels from today comes following a review of all the content broadcast on Saturn. The view is that adult content is inconsistent with the company's values and standards. It's not something we'll be broadcasting."

Customers (hopefully soon to be ex-customers) have been notified of the change by letter. No other changes came from the review.

From New Ind Press

Scenes showing heroes and villains puffing away could soon go up in smoke in Bangladesh, with the government planning to ban such scenes on celluloid as well as the stage - on the lines of a similar proposal in India.

The ban - which will come close on the heels of a bar on smoking in public places - will encompass cinema, television and theatrical performances, the New Age daily reported on Tuesday quoting officials of the information ministry. We will send letters requesting filmmakers, producers, and the authorities concerned not to allow scenes of smoking in films and stage shows, said a senior official of the ministry. Many non-smokers become smokers to emulate heroes or actors. We want to stop this, said the official, also a member of the Bangladesh Film Censor Board. The move will discourage young people from smoking, he said.

Filmmakers are divided over the issue of the possible ban, as many seem to think that smoking is often a part of the character of a hero or a villain. Khurshid Alam Khashru, a filmmaker, The move is unfair as it is a ban on artistic expression; films are a wrong target in the drive to curb smoking.

The Smoking and Tobacco Product Usage (Control) Bill 2005 by the national parliament March 13. It bans smoking in public places and advertisement of tobacco products and its producers. The public places include educational institutions, government, semi-government and autonomous offices, libraries, lifts, hospitals, clinics, court buildings, airports, sea and river port buildings, railway stations and bus terminals, ferries, cinema halls, covered exhibition centres, theatre halls and children's parks.

The law also prohibits the advertisement of tobacco products in cinema halls, government-private TV channels, the sale of films or videotape containing tobacco products, publication of advertisements in books, magazines, leaflets, handbills, billboards and newspapers. It also restricts installation of vending machines in public places to sell the tobacco products.

From the Sudan Tribune

A crackdown on independent media in Ethiopia begun after deadly post-election violence last month has continued with 11 journalists now facing various charges and the credentials of five others revoked, officials said Tuesday.

In the last one week, the country's police have arrested 11 journalists working for private Amharic-language weeklies but were been released on bail pending a decision from the prosecutor whether to charge them with defamation on complaints from the defence ministry.

The first batch of six editors were arrested on June 28 for allegedly defaming the air force, when they reported that eight pilots on a training program in Belarus had asked for political asylum there after deadly election-related clashes earlier last month.

Last Thursday, five other editors were detained for several hours for their coverage that allegedly depicted the police and as brutal and accused the country's main orthodox church for failing to criticise Addis Ababa over the government for the June 8 violent crackdown that left 39 demonstrators dead.

But on Tuesday, the defence ministry said it was justified to order the arrest of the 11 journalists and warned the weeklies against running stories that are "defamatory and baseless".

The arrests sparked sparked protest from global media watchdogs, which urged the international community to press the Ethiopian government to halt its crackdown independent media.

In addition to that, the government last month revoked the press credentials of five local journalists working for the US-funded Voice of America and German radio Deutsche Welle, accusing them of reporting false information in the aftermath of disputed elections last month.

From The LA Times

R-rated comedies, often box-office busts, are making a comeback, thanks to big DVD sales. When New Line had its first research screening of Wedding Crashers in Pasadena last fall, the studio knew it had a potential hit on its hands. The madcap romantic comedy, which stars Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn as a pair of lovable rogues who get their kicks from partying at stranger's weddings, got a resoundingly enthusiastic reception from a theater full of young moviegoers.

One of the studio's only concerns about the film, which arrives July 15, was its rating. The film's director, David Dobkin, was contractually obligated to deliver a PG-13 movie, largely because R-rated comedies today rarely perform as well as PG-13 films. But when the audience filled out a research survey after the screening, most of the scenes they checked off as their favorites including one featuring a furtive sexual act performed under the table at a formal family dinner put the movie into R-rated territory.

New Line's decision to release a potential summer comedy blockbuster with an R rating has raised eyebrows at rival studios. In recent years, thanks to political and demographic pressures, the R rating has been in a precipitous decline. Since 1999, when R-rated movies made up 41% of all box office, the R-rated business has dropped 30%, while PG and PG-13 films have risen considerably. The drop in R-rated movies has been especially dramatic since Hollywood chieftains were hauled before Congress in September 2000 following the release of a scathing Federal Trade Commission report accusing entertainment companies of cynically marketing R-rated movies to children.

The numbers speak for themselves. According to data compiled by Exhibitor Relations Co., since the 2000 congressional hearings, 15 comedies have made more than $115 million at the box office. Only one, American Pie 2, had an R rating. 2004 was an especially miserable year for R-rated comedies. Eurotrip, The Girl Next Door, Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle and Team America: World Police were all box-office disappointments, with only Team America making more than $20 million in its theatrical release.

Studio marketers say the R rating puts them at a clear disadvantage. Many exhibitors are reluctant to play trailers for an R-rated movie in front of a PG-13 film. Even worse, R-rated humor is verboten in TV commercials, so it's impossible to show a film's raunchiest scenes on TV.

Despite these restrictions, the R-rated comedy is beginning to make a comeback. Wedding Crashers will be followed in August by Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo, with Rob Schneider, and The 40-Year-Old Virgin, starring Steve Carell. More R-rated comedies are due early next year.

The reasons for this mini-comeback are simple. In recent years, the real action in the movie business has shifted from theatrical box-office to DVD sales, which now make up more than 60% of studio revenues. One of the hottest profit centers is a new genre devoted to raunchy "unrated" DVD versions of R-rated films. As The Times' Elaine Dutka reported recently, the unrated versions of such R-rated comedies as Bad Santa, Harold & Kumar and the American Pie series accounted for nearly 90% of their video sales.

This trend speaks volumes about the tendency in America to say one thing but do another. People claim they want wholesome family entertainment, but the big money on the Internet and in pay TV comes from pornography. In the rare instances when a studio puts out a feel-good valentine, like Because of Winn-Dixie or My Dog Skip, the movie dies on the vine. For all the talk of our country's obsession with moral values, nothing succeeds with the American people like the salacious promise of a little extra nudity or hanky-panky in their DVD packages.

This unlikely boom in raunchy videos has been made possible by the fact that the Motion Picture Assn. of America, which rigorously regulates the ratings of theatrical films (and, just as important, their trailers and TV spots), has taken a see-no-evil, hear-no-evil approach to the video marketplace. Former MPAA chief Jack Valenti, who still oversees the ratings board, told Dutka that as long as the packaging is honest, he has no problem with unrated movies. Apparently the same goes with Wal-Mart, which has long refused to carry hip-hop CDs with parental advisory warnings but now happily stocks unrated DVDs, at least as long as they are assured by studios that the videos would be rated R if they had received a rating.

In fact, all of those R-rated comedies that underperformed at the box-office last year were big hits in their DVD release. Kornblau says the American Pie DVDs, largely on the strength of sales from unrated videos, are the biggest-selling home-video franchise in the studio's history. American Wedding, the third installment in the series, had a 20-minute bachelor party sequence that was scripted specifically for the unrated DVD. It's a no-brainer to imagine that, as this becomes standard practice at every studio, R-rated films will enjoy a renaissance.

In the long run, thanks to the arrival of an assortment of new technology, most of these ratings issues will probably lose most of their relevance. The studios have already quietly found ways to disseminate R-rated marketing material across the Internet. Soon kids will be watching hi-def movie trailers on their 3G cellphones. It won't be long before they'll be seeing the movies themselves on some kind of hand-held video device. Unless the studios feel heat from Washington, most of these areas will remain outside the enforcement capabilities of the MPAA's ratings board.

Despite New Line's jitters about marketing Wedding Crashers, you can bet the studio will make its money back selling an unrated DVD of the movie. In America, if something is forbidden fruit, you'll always find plenty of people eager to take a bite out of the apple.

Lets hope that there is isn't a massive "BUT" to follow.

From The Nation

President Mohammad Khatami recently called on officials of Islamic Republic of Iran's Broadcasting (IRIB) to avoid censorship and said that they should not think that they are serving Islam through unilateral reflection of the events.

Prohibition and censorship will no longer work, he said during a visit to IRIB, the national media which President Khatami always criticized for not reflecting the government's performance in the field of economic development. Strategy of prohibition and censorship does not work for solving political, social and cultural problems. Such a strategy is going to prove futile day by day. No power is capable of creating distance between public opinion and what is going on in the world.

Don't think that promoting superficial approaches and admiring appearance will strengthen religious belief in the community. It may be due to the fact that a part of the IRIB is suffering from such an attitude, but, it should improve itself. You should break taboo for the sake of Islam and truth. You should know that admiration of officials is not the only way to reinforce the Islamic Republic. Respect for people's rights, democracy, progress in all fields and enforcing justice are guarantors of strong Islamic Republic.

From The Nation

The Thai Culture Ministry has taken over responsibility for censorship of visual and audio products from the Royal Thai Police.

The ministry would manage the task with honesty, transparency, and ensure the participation of  all related parties, said Permanent Secretary for Culture Khunying Thippavadee Meksawan yesterday. Thippavadee said the ministry, as directed by the Cabinet last year, has taken over the job of censorship.

The first priority would be to educate Culture officials about related regulations. However, there still remains the job of transferring officers and establishing departments, she said. The officials would work on granting permission to businesses wanting to sell and rent tape cassettes and video products as well as censoring content, Thippavadee said.

Censorship would be completed in a positive manner, taking into account social sensitivities, and be open-minded, accurate, legal, honest and transparent with full participation of related parties, she said: This is the new approach for censorship officials.

Meanwhile, Central Investigation Bureau deputy commander Colonel Prawat Semdee said only 22 of 150 police officers currently working in the censorship division had been willing to transfer to the ministry, as others were concerned about limited career prospects.

From Gulf Times

Nepal’s private FM radio stations plan to defy a ban on news broadcasts and begin giving daily updates of planned protests against the government’s clampdown on the media, a broadcaster said on Thursday.

The country’s 47 private FM stations also plan to broadcast news on activities relating to King Gyanendra’s birthday on July 7, the Save Independent Radio Movement (SIRM) said.

A ban was slapped on the broadcast by FM stations of news bulletins after Gyanendra sacked the elected government and assumed full powers in the Himalayan kingdom on February 1, saying his action was necessary to deal with an ongoing Maoist insurgency.

However, 27 private FM stations defied the ban on June 15 and as a form of protest aired news of the kings visit to Doha. Apparently in a dilemma about how to punish stations broadcasting news of the king’s visit to Qatar, the government took no action. But the Communications and Information Ministry published a notice in local newspapers earlier this month warning that station owners would be punished if they continued to defy the rules.

SIRM spokesman Ghamraj Luintel said radio broadcasts of protests plans would begin from Thursday and continue until July 14. He said listeners would also be asked to participate in survey on whether they thought the government’s attitude towards FM radio is right or wrong.

Journalists have been holding street protests almost daily against the media clampdown, with many of them being arrested by police, held overnight and then released. The Federation of Nepalese Journalists (FNJ) says more than 2,000 reporters have lost their jobs since Gyanendra’s power grab, with several news outlets shut down under a state of emergency that included press censorship.

The king lifted the state of emergency at the end of April but has continued to restrict press freedoms and the right to protest. Luintel said SIRM representatives were to meet the king on Friday at a tea party being organised by the palace ahead of his 59th birthday next week. We will meet the king ... and apprise him of the problems faced by the FM operators, Luintel said.

Since the ban, FM radios have been airing purely entertainment programmes and those related to social issues such as health and community development.

From China Daily

Eleven people have been jailed for up to 12 years for running an obscene website in China's largest case of Internet pornography, the People's Court Daily said.

The sentences were handed down on Friday by the Hefei intermediate court in the central province of Anhui, the paper reported

Wang Yong and Shao Rong were described as the main operators of the website - 99 Sex Forum. The website was set up in 2002 and run from an overseas server, the report said.

Apart from posting pornographic pictures, videos and stories, the website had chatrooms and information on prostitution throughout China, it said.  In November 2004 the website had nearly 76,000 registered users and had earned some 220,000 yuan (26,000 dollars), the report said.

In July 2004 China launched a repressive campaign against Internet porn.

From Today Online

Japan said it will tackle the spread of "illegal and harmful" websites in the wake of a series of Internet-based incidents involving suicide pacts and homemade bombs.

The government said that it has worked out plans to combat illegal and harmful content on the Internet after discussing the issue and considering freedom of expression and privacy of communications. They will restrict access to such websites on the Internet at government offices, public schools and other state-funded organizations.

It said it will commission software manufacturers to design web-based filters that block access to websites that arrange group suicides or show how to counterfeit money or make explosives, among others. The government will also encourage and support a "voluntary" restriction of "harmful" websites by Internet service providers and will set up a study group on the issue later this month.

Additionally, the government will form a study group in August to look into voluntary rules to be made by web content providers. How to distinguish 'harmful' from 'safe' content is expected to be one of the most intensely discussed matters, said a trade ministry official. Voluntary rules could include providing information about website contents, which is similar to X-rating certain movies.
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According to the National Policy Agency, the number of the Internet-related crimes in 2004 doubled from 2000 to 2,081 cases. These included child prostitution via mobile phone e-mails, the distribution of obscene materials and assisting of suicides.