From the BBC

About 100 journalists from one of China's most progressive newspapers, the Beijing News, have walked out to protest against their editor's sacking. The paper appeared on Friday, but many stories were taken from the Xinhua news agency rather than its own journalists.

The highly unusual move follows the ousting of editor-in-chief Yang Bin and two senior editors, as Communist Party officials moved to rein in the paper. Yang Bin and the two other editors were due to be replaced by staff from the conservative Guangming Daily.

Papers like the Beijing News have been publishing stories to attract readers and advertising revenues, leading to disputes with Communist Party censors, who have traditionally maintained an iron grip over all media. After a recent easing of government control, several high-profile incidents this year suggest the Party is reversing that trend.

There was no mention of the walkout in China's newspapers, but word of it spread rapidly via internet blogs and bulletin boards, which Communist officials are less able to control.

Beijing News journalists told Western news agencies via phone that most staff were unhappy about Yang Bin's removal, which was described officially as a reassignment.

The Beijing News has a reputation for forthright reporting and commentary. In June, it exposed a bloody crackdown ordered by officials against protesting farmers in Dingzhou, in the northern province of Hebei, where six farmers were killed.

I guess it easy for politicians to bask in support from fellow politicians about anti sex measures only to find that sexual entertainment is actually very popular with the public. I would guess for instance that more adults buy porn than go to church.

From The Irish Independent

A new tax on pornography is threatening to cost Silvio Berlusconi's government support in the forthcoming 2006 general election.

The tax will be applied to all hardcore pornography including films, magazines and sex shop merchandise, has been decried by libertarians as an intrusion into people's private lives.

It was driven through parliament by the 'post-fascist' National Alliance party earlier this month in a bid to raise revenues and trim Italy's budget deficit.

The Italian porn industry is estimated to generate income worth €1.1bn a year, meaning the 25pc tax could reap as much as €275m. Daniela Santanche, the National Alliance politician who steered the bill through the Chamber of Deputies despite opposition from doubtful members of Berlusconi's Forza Italia party, said she "rejoiced" when the tax was included in the budget. But the tax is proving unpopular.

This government promised to simplify and reduce taxes, said the veteran porn star, Jessica Rizzo. Instead it has invented new ones.

The controversy could hardly come at a worse time for Berlusconi, as increasingly pundits predict the 2006 election will be extremely close and that centre-left challenger, Romano Prodi, could well emerge as victor.

Based on an article from the BBC

Images of Queen Elizabeth II, George W Bush and Jacques Chirac apparently having sex have been removed from billboards in Austria. The posters, shown as part of a public arts project ahead of Austria's EU presidency, had provoked political ripples of interest.

The artists said they were withdrawing their work so as not to detract from that of others involved in the project.  Condemning what they described as "public censorship", the artists said the posters had been misunderstood. No-one had bothered "to engage with the artistic message" of the billboards, they added.

The posters were part of a series of 150 different images being flashed to motorists via billboards across Vienna. Artists from across the EU had contributed varied works to the display.

The image by Spanish artist Carlos Aires, showing the naked threesome wearing rubber masks of the Queen and two presidents, caused the most controversy.  But denying his works were meant to offend, Aires told Austria's APA news agency: "Pornography is in the eye of the beholder. I suddenly had this image of three decision makers who are having an orgy while everything around them collapses.

Another image, of a woman lying naked on a bed except for a pair of knickers bearing the EU flag, was also condemned as pornographic.

Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel was not able to ban the posters but had appealed to the independent artists' group running the project to withdraw some of them.

Opposition leaders and some of Austria's media complained the images demeaned women and had embarrassed their country as it prepares to take over the rotating EU presidency on 1 January.

From Payvand

Reporters Without Borders welcomed an initiative by 13 Iranian deputies who have written to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to protest against censorship of the Internet, which they described as "unconstitutional".

The worldwide press freedom organisation also noted that several news websites, until now tolerated by the authorities, have recently been blocked.

It is encouraging to see representatives of the Iranian people campaigning against web censorship, said Reporters Without Borders. Their letter suggests that contrary to the claims of the regime's officials, the government's filtering policy is far from universally popular with the people.

In their 13 December 2005 letter, the 13 deputies, all close to the reformist camp, said that filtering certain websites, particularly scientific publications, was "contrary to the constitution and laws" of the country. They said that only "immoral" sites could legally be banned.

The Iranian representatives urged the head of state, who is guarantor of the constitution, to lift filtering of three news websites : www.mellimazhabi.org, www.emrouz.info and www.rooydadnews.com

Three further sites were banned by the authorities between November and December : a foreign-based online newspaper http://roozonline.com, the website of the liberal political movement www.mizannews.com and news site www.ashoob.com run by Iranian students.

From The Independent

An Ethiopian court has charged 131 politicians, journalists and activists with treason and genocide as the Prime Minister, Meles Zenawi, continues to suppress all dissenting voices in the country.

Two campaigners for the Make Poverty History movement are among the defendants. Daniel Bereket, the head of policy for ActionAid in Ethiopia and Netsanet Demessie of the Organisation for Social Justice in Ethiopia, have been charged with two counts of treason. If found guilty, they could face life imprisonment.

ActionAid claims the men were arrested in November for doing their job as anti-poverty campaigners, and have done nothing illegal.

Brian Kagoro, head of policy for ActionAid Africa, said: Neither Daniel nor Netsanet are anti-state. They may have been critical of the government's progress towards the Millennium Development Goals, but they are not political activists, and they are not members of the opposition.

Others charged include the leader of the opposition, Hailu Shawel, elected members of parliament and Ethiopian journalists.

Zenawi, an ally of Tony Blair and a member of his Commission for Africa, has accused the defendants of causing the riots that spread through the capital, Addis Ababa, after the general election on 15 May.

Many of those charged have also been accused of genocide; the charge sheet claims members of the opposition party, the CUD, tried to isolate the Tigrayan people, who are supporters of Zenawi's ruling party, the EPRDF. The charges relate to criticisms by the CUD about the ethnic composition of the ruling party, and a manifesto promise to change Ethiopia's constitution, which divides the country into ethnically determined regions, and replace it with a new national system.

Zenawi has said he will leave it to the courts to decide if any guilty defendants are put to death or imprisoned for life. All those who appeared in court were denied bail and will appear again on 28 December.

Ethiopia has already attracted widespread condemnation for the way it has dealt with the aftermath of its general election, the third multi-party election in the country. The CUD accused the government of rigging elections and falsifying results. The protests led to rioting that left 42 people dead in June. Others died in clashes with security forces last month. Human rights groups say police used live ammunition to disperse protesters.

Since the riots in June, Meles has closed five newspapers, jailed their editors and arrested 40,000 people. Most of those taken into custody were held for a few weeks, but about 3,000 are still in detention. Two foreign radio stations, Voice of America and Deutsche Welle, were also taken off the air for broadcasting critical reports.

Britain has already frozen £50m of aid amid concerns about governance, and Lord Triesman, the Foreign Office minister responsible for Africa, said the UK was reviewing its entire £90m aid package to the country.

From Indian Television

A draft of the broadcasting code being proposed by the government, in consultation with the industry, attempts to emphasise self-regulation and self-censorship by broadcasters.

What's the basic rationale in the draft for content regulation? It is for an industry-wide "self-regulation mechanism, which is dynamic and progressive" and is based on standards, principles, norms and processes evolved and implemented by the content regulator through "active compliance" of the member licensee /advertisers.

However, the draft codes now being examined by various constituents of the industry also makes it clear that all types of programming, including films, cannot be shown during any part of the day as there is a need to protect children from unrestricted viewing. Especially if the access cannot be controlled like in a DTH service.

The licensee's responsibility for sensitive scheduling of programmes may reduce a risk of offence to the minimum, the draft code says. Further, it adds that at certain times, parents will want to be confident that their children can watch television unsupervised without the risk of being exposed to unsuitable material. At other times, they can accept more challenging material and can reasonably be expected to take greater control over their children's viewing,

The draft, which has been prepared by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Ficci) on the request of a 30-member government-sponsored panel set up to structure content-related regulation, categorically states: The TV programmes should take care of the broadcast between 4 pm and 7 pm adhering to the all the programming guidelines."

However, some exceptions have been proposed in time bands. For example, programmes that belong to a mature/adult genre, could be allowed to be aired on television from 7 pm to 4 pm (presuming children viewership is not high during this time) with disclaimer after editing scenes containing sex and nudity.

Programmes that belong to the adult genre, the draft code proposes, could be allowed to be aired on television from 10 pm to 6 am, with a disclaimer. Such (adult) programmes would be edited to fit the genre of adult movies for India (like snipping explicit sex scenes and nudity, full frontal and back nudity, scenes showing genitalia of animal or human or overt sexual situations), the draft code suggests.

Interestingly, it says that where the TV viewing is subject to access control (like DTH) or are available only on demand, programming suited for adults could be "allowed through the day."

It has been suggested that ads relating to some products or services like betting tips, betting and gaming, all tobacco products, private investigation and escort agencies, occult and magical remedies/medicines are "unacceptable."

Pointing out that the time available to prepare the draft was short, Ficci has clarified that it has been built upon the Ofcom regulations (of the UK) in context of the Indian laws and prevalent ground realities, while borrowing some improvements from TELA regulations and Indian precedents in other sectors.

Oh dear, the authorities will just have to ban films, games and music

Based on an article from The Times

Three Spanish teenagers fascinated by the film Clockwork Orange burnt a homeless woman to death for kicks.
María Rosario Endrinal Petite, 50, who had been sleeping in a Barcelona doorway, was attacked and set on fire with solvent. She died in hospital. It is believed to be the culmination of months of attacks on homeless people by the gang, who had become obsessed with the Stanley Kubrick film and with violent video games.

Señora Endrinal had sought refuge in the doorway of the bank in Sant Gervasi, one of the most expensive areas of Barcelona. Footage taken by security cameras late at night last weekend shows two youths, named in court as Ricard Pinilla and Oriol Plana, both 18, throwing a traffic cone and a bottle at her. At one point Señor Pinilla throws an orange at Señora Endrinal. Police have taken this and the gang’s obsession with attacking homeless people as proof of their fascination with the 1971 film.

A 16-year-old, named in court only as Juan José, is shown by the security cameras arriving with a bottle of flammable liquid a few hours after the first incident. The youths are seen to smile as Señor Plana taps his nose and they cover their faces before setting fire to Señora Endrinal.

The day after the murder police overheard a conversation in an internet café about three regular customers who had boasted of killing a homeless person. The arrests were made. The youngest of those held claimed that they had attempted to set fire to the building, not to kill the woman. But it has been reported that the youths filmed attacks on their mobile phones and exchanged pictures with others at the internet café.

One person who knew the alleged attackers told El Mundo that the three were “proud” of these attacks. “It was how they amused themselves, attacking the homeless at night,” the unnamed friend said.

They were also fixated with a violent video game called Counterstrike, giving themselves code names. The three were also fans of the Spanish pop group Estirpe (Lineage), whose songs about extreme nationalism, violence and hatred for immigrants are popular among neo-Nazi gangs.

A judge ordered the three to be held in custody while the investigation continues.

Everyone has the right to do what they want, BUT... not children or teenagers, who are inexperienced.....

I somehow think that the statement that Everyone has the right to do what they want, in Bahrain, may be the biggest pack of lies in the entire history of the Melon Farmers.

From The Gulf Daily News of Bahrain

New laws could soon be brought in to stop youngsters surfing for sex sites at Internet cafes. Children would be banned from Internet cafes under proposals backed unanimously by MPs at parliament's weekly session yesterday.

Separate male and female areas would be set up and private cubicles ripped out, to stop youngsters having sex in them or surfing for pornographic sites. Internet cafes would be tightly monitored and their owners prosecuted if they broke the rules, under the proposals, put by Al Menbar Parliamentary Bloc.

Children and teenagers use the cafes to surf websites for pornography, or even for sites about terrorism and illegal drugs, MPs heard. Internet cafes allow children and teenagers access to banned sites in private stalls or rooms, by logging into the network through alternative proxies, said bloc member Dr Saadi Ali: Even though many have computers and Internet access at home, children prefer the café because it is more private and they can view websites without family supervision. Many of them lie to their parents, claiming they are studying with friends and some parents don't really care where their children spend their time."

Dr Ali said Internet use in the country was not properly regulated under specific rules and regulations. If a café in a Western country allowed children and teenagers access to these websites, the owner would be severely punished, Other countries have rules and regulations, except us."

Dr Ali said children should be educated about right and wrong in an appealing and scientific manner. Allowing them complete privacy isn't a solution, because privacy is one of the main reasons the morals of our children are going down, Everyone has the right to do what they want, BUT... not children or teenagers, who are inexperienced.

From DNA

The Bombay high court on Wednesday restrained cable operators and service providers from showing any film with an ‘A’ (adults only) certificate on television.

A division bench comprising Justice RM Lodha and Justice DG Karnik passed the interim order on a public interest petition by social activist Pratibha Naithani.

The order relies on a provision in the Cable Television Network (Regulation) Act, which prohibits operators from showing any material “unsuitable for unrestricted public viewing”.

As per the order, which takes immediate effect, cable operators will have to block any film on any channel certified as ‘A’ or for a particular class or profession by the Central Board of Film Certification. In effect, only films with a ‘U’ (unrestricted viewing) certificate can be beamed into people’s homes.

In November 2004 the court had restrained satellite television channels from beaming movies or programmes without obtaining appropriate certification from the censor board.

Naithani’s lawyer MM Vashi told the court that despite the directive channels continue to beam adult films. Iqbal Chagla, who appeared for a satellite channel, said channels have complied with the order and now get the necessary censor certificate and show it before screening the film.

But Vashi pointed out that this “skewed” interpretation of the order defeats its purpose: How can a film that has been certified as an adult film be shown on TV, which is watched by the entire family, including children?

Chagla argued that policing what people can view in the confines of their homes amounts to a violation of their fundamental rights. There cannot be any blanket restriction. Will we now only see programmes suitable for children? he said.

Seven satellite television companies - Sony, STAR, Zee, MTV, Sun, Surya, and Vijaya - are party to the petition. STAR TV counsel V Tulzapurkar said the Cable TV Act only applies to the operators and not private satellite channels.

The court also pulled up the police for failing to act on complaints registered by Naithani. It was told that the Centre has set up a 30-member committee to frame fresh rules for television content, and to revise and harmonise the censorship guidelines and the Cable TV Act, advertising codes, and programming rules.

From CPJ

The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the Southeast Maluku government's order to shut down Radio Gelora Tavlul, a popular station in eastern Indonesia known for its criticism of the local government.

Authorities accompanied by police entered the radio station in the remote city of Tual, capital of the Southeast Maluku regency, about 1,600 miles (2,575 kilometers) east of Jakarta, on Thursday and ordered it to stop broadcasting because its business license had expired.

The local administration rejected the station's request for a renewal of its business license, saying that Radio Gelora Tavlul had aired stories about alleged local corruption "too often," the Jakarta Post reported.

Radio Gelora Tavlul is a member of the independent 68H broadcasting network and features news and talk shows critical of the local government, according to the Alliance of Independent Journalists or AJI, a local press freedom group. AJI protested the government's action, saying it violates Indonesia's constitutional guarantee of free speech and the protections of its press law.

In an interview with the Jakarta Post, station Director Joost F. Rettobjaan vowed to continue broadcasting and accused the government of issuing the ban in retaliation for news stories that alleged misappropriation of local government funds.

Fredy Melmambessy, the head of the Maluku chapter of the Indonesia Broadcasting Commission, or KPI, said in an interview with the Jakarta Post that the local government's actions were illegal because only the KPI has the authority to close a broadcaster.

The government's barefaced attempt to censor a critical independent radio station is outrageous and against the public interest, CPJ Executive Director Ann Cooper said. Journalists in remote areas must be protected from crackdowns by local authorities—in this case, by officials intent on keeping their own actions secret.

updated 17th December

updated 20th December

Updated 31st December

From the BBC

The trial of acclaimed Turkish novelist Orhan Pamuk casts a shadow over the country's entry talks to the EU, a senior EU official has warned. Olli Rehn, who oversees Turkey's moves to join the EU, described the trial as a litmus test as to whether Turkey was committed to freedom of expression.

The writer has been charged with denigrating Turkish national identity. He faces trial for remarks about Turkey's killing of Armenians during World War I and Kurds in the 1980s.

Ankara denies the deaths can be classed as a genocide and accuses Pamuk of "insulting Turkishness".

The charges relate to a magazine interview earlier this year in which Orhan Pamuk said: One million Armenians and 30,000 Kurds were killed in these lands and nobody but me dares talk about it. He could face up to three years in jail if convicted.

Rehn said the trial of a novelist who expressed a non-violent opinion casts a shadow over negotiations for Turkey's entry into the EU.  He added that it presents an opportunity to set a positive precedent for the numerous other cases of free speech that are awaiting trial. It is not Orhan Pamuk who will stand trial tomorrow, but Turkey, Rehn said.

The EU officially inaugurated talks on Turkey's entry into the bloc in October this year. Days later, Rehn visited Pamuk in Istanbul, bought several of his books and declared he was a fan of the writer, the Associated Press news agency reports.

Human rights groups have urged the EU to ensure Turkey's laws on freedom of speech match those in western Europe before it admits the country into the bloc.

Pamuk is a passionate advocate of admitting Turkey into the EU. His books, including My Name is Red and Snow, have been internationally acclaimed for dissecting Turkey's vibrant, often strained, ties to Europe and Asia.

Dozens of other far less famous writers and academics are also facing charges under the revised penal code.

From The Telegraph

The trial of Turkey's best-known novelist Orhan Pamuk for insulting Turkey was suspended yesterday in a tense first hearing marred by violence inside and outside the Istanbul courtroom.

The ruling judge said the court prosecuting the award-winning novelist required approval from the ministry of justice in order to proceed.

Dennis MacShane, the Labour MP and former Europe minister said: The accusation of insulting the state is something you associate with dictatorial regimes, not with a modern European state.

Many European Union observers who came to show support for Pamuk said they had expected the presiding judge to dismiss the case against Turkey's best known writer and thereby end the damage it has caused to worldwide to Turkey as it seeks membership of the European Union. Instead, judge Metin Aydin agreed to prosecution demands that the trial be suspended until the ministry of justice delivered its opinion on the case that has been mired in legal ambiguities.

Confusion over how to proceed with the trial stems from the fact that Pamuk allegedly committed his "crime" before the introduction of a new penal code in June. The next hearing was set for Feb 7 and the hawkish justice minister Cemil Cicek praised the court for its decision. This is exactly what should have happened," he said, blaming the Turkish media for "exaggerating" Pamuk's plight. The author faces up to three years in prison for "insulting the Turkish identity" in remarks made to a Swiss magazine in February.

Pamuk said: 30,000 Kurds and one million Armenians were killed in Turkey and no one dares talk about it. His comments referred to the Turkish army's brutal suppression of a Kurdish separatist rebellion over past decades and to the mass slaughter of Armenians by Ottoman forces between 1915 and 1917. The issues are among the most sensitive in modern Turkey and Pamuk's words triggered fury among millions of Turks.

The anger was in evidence yesterday. As Pamuk left the courthouse, dozens of ultra-nationalists shouted: "Traitor," "Turkey is ashamed of you!" "Shame on you!" and pelted his car with eggs. Pamuk was escorted by police in riot gear who used shields to push the crowd back. Some protesters kicked and lunged at his car.

Inside the courtroom witnesses said one woman swatted Pamuk with a folder. McShane was punched in the face and kicked in the legs by ultra-nationalists who shouted insults at other western observers. Pamuk, the best-selling author of My Name is Red and Snow and often mentioned as a Nobel Prize candidate, is charged under Article 301 of the revised Turkish penal code, which has been widely criticised abroad.

EU officials have warned that until the government thoroughly overhauls its criminal justice system, which was based on Italian fascism in the 1930s, overzealous prosecutors will continue to frustrate Turkey's efforts to become the EU's first predominantly Muslim member and accession talks launched on Oct 3 may even be frozen.

They've had two years of impressive reforms but now they are in clear regression, an EU diplomat said.

Based on an article from the Evening Echo

Turkey’s Justice Minister Cemil Cicek criticised EU officials today for pressuring Turkey to stop a freedom-of-expression persecution  against renowned author Orhan Pamuk, but hinted that a court could drop the case.

The trial of Pamuk has emerged as a key test of Turkey’s relations with the European Union, which demands that the country do more to protect freedom of expression.

European monitors at the trial repeatedly stressed that Turkey must stop the trial if it is to push forward with its bid to become the bloc’s first Muslim member. The government, however, is also facing pressure from nationalists angered by Pamuk’s comments.

Cicek pointed out that the European Union had earlier pressed Turkish governments not to interfere with the judiciary. Foreign guests must show respect to Turkey’s values and institutions, Cicek said. [I for one show all due respect...ie none. Respect has to be earned]

A court on Friday halted the trial of Pamuk, Turkey’s best-known author, saying it needed approval from the Justice Ministry before the case could move forward. Cicek said the file from the court regarding the case reached his ministry this morning.

Pamuk, the country’s most prominent author, faces charges for insulting the Turkish Republic and “Turkishness” after telling a Swiss newspaper in February that 30,000 Kurds and one million Armenians were killed in these lands, and nobody but me dares to talk about it.

For Pamuk to go into taboo areas of Turkish history was … a risk, Denis MacShane, Britain’s former minister for Europe and a member of the British parliament, wrote in an essay published in The Observer. But writers are there to take on the creeping tide of censorship that has been fuelled by religious fundamentalists and ultra-nationalists, wrote MacShane, who attended the trial as an observer.

This is not the Turkey which civilised Turks long for, wrote Semih Idiz, a columnist for the Milliyet newspaper. Our only relief is that the bullets fired in the past by those trying to silence others with despotism have been replaced with eggs.

Are they hoping that an acquittal will somehow justify the repression. The shame is in the law itself, not the way it is applied when an intense international spotlight is brought to bear.

Based on an article from The Guardian

Turkey's foreign minister acknowledged yesterday that charges brought against Orhan Pamuk, the country's best-known novelist, have tarnished Turkey's image, and said laws that limit freedom of expression may be changed.

...BUT... the government would rather wait to see the outcome of charges brought against Pamuk and dozens of other people before moving to amend them, Abdullah Gul said in an interview: Laws are not untouchable. If necessary we can change these laws. However, first we will see how these laws are interpreted.

European officials have criticised Turkey for putting Pamuk on trial and have called on the country to do more to protect freedom of expression.

Pamuk was charged under a law that makes insulting Turkey a crime, after he told a Swiss newspaper in February that 30,000 Kurds and 1 million Armenians were killed in these lands, and nobody but me dares to talk about it.

Turkey, which started EU membership negotiations in October in a process that may take more than 10 years, has been under pressure from Brussels to grant greater cultural rights to Kurds.

Its broadcasting watchdog also announced yesterday that local television stations would be able to broadcast in Kurdish and other ethnic languages from the end of January. Turkish law was changed in 2002 to allow limited broadcasts in minority languages, but local stations wanting to broadcast in Kurdish had, until now, met bureaucratic hurdles.

Until 1991 it was illegal to speak Kurdish in Turkey.

updated 18th December

From Yahoo News

The authorities in Kazakhstan, angered by a comedian's satirical portrayal of a boorish, sexist and racist Kazakh television reporter, have pulled the plug on his alter ego's Web site.

Sacha Baron Cohen plays Borat in his Da Ali G Show and last month he used the character's Web site www.borat.kz to respond sarcastically to legal threats from the Central Asian state's Foreign Ministry.

A government-appointed organisation regulating Web sites that end in the .kz domain name for Kazakhstan confirmed on Tuesday it had suspended Cohen's site. We've done this so he can't badmouth Kazakhstan under the .kz domain name, Nurlan Isin, President of the Association of Kazakh IT Companies, told Reuters. He can go and do whatever he wants at other domains.

Isin said the borat.kz Web site had broken new rules on all .kz sites maintaining two computer servers in Kazakhstan and had registered false names for its administrators.

Cohen, as Borat, hosted the MTV Europe Music Awards in Lisbon last month and described shooting dogs for fun and said his wife could not leave Kazakhstan as she was a woman.

Afterwards, Kazakhstan's Foreign Ministry said it could not rule out that he was under "political orders" to denigrate Kazakhstan's name and threatened to sue him.

Cohen, who is Jewish, responded to the legal threats on the www.borat.kz site in character, saying: I have no connection to Mr Cohen and fully support my government's position to sue this Jew.

In typical vein, he went on: Please, captain of industry, I invite you to come to Kazakhstan, where we have incredible natural resources, hard working labour and some of the cleanest prostitutes in all of Central Asia.

From Reporters without Borders

Reporters Without Borders condemned censorship by the Kazakh government, which has removed the right to use the .kz suffix from two websites it finds troublesome, including that of British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen, or "Borat".

The worldwide press freedom organisation said it was concerned by the politicisation of the administration of domain names and has written to Franck Fowlie, ombudsman for the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN,) that registers domain names, asking him to intervene.

Borat.kz carries sketches by Sacha Baron Cohen, who portrays a sexist and racist Kazakh journalist on the US cable channel HBO. The Kazakh web business body that manages the .kz  said the site had been shut because borat.kz was hosted outside Kazakhstan and false administrators‚ names had been given when it was registered.

The government decided last month to deny .kz to sites hosted abroad, an unjustified step that tightens political control over Kazakh online publications.

The role of bodies that manage the country code top-level domain names (ccTLDs) is above all technical. They are not qualified to censor the contents of sites, Reporters Without Borders said in its letter to Frank Fowlie. We find however that the Kazakh government sees to it that websites that mock or criticise it are rejected.

In this way, it infringes the principles set out by ICANN, which requires that the management of the ccTLDs should be fair and non discriminatory‚. We think that an intervention by your organisation would show that it was capable of defending free expression on the Internet, a key issue when you consider the stormy debates on the governance of the Internet that marked the recent World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), the letter to the ombudsman said.

The opposition website Navi.kz was forced to give up its .kz at the end of October after a legal procedure that was stage-managed by the authorities.

In November, Reporters Without Borders put Kazakhstan on a list of "countries to watch" because of repeated violations of free expression on the Internet. See :

From Aftenposten

When it is elected in late January, Canada's next government will have to watch its step in cyberspace, there's a new watchdog on the block.

Online Rights Canada, dedicated to protecting citizens from invasions of privacy, excessive surveillance and such, was launched Friday with support from the Canadian Internet Policy & Public Interest Clinic at the University of Ottawa and the U.S.-based Electronic Frontier Foundation.

The group was founded partly in reaction to a bill, which died on the order paper when Parliament was resolved but is likely to be revived in the future. It would have allowed law enforcement agencies to obtain personal information without a warrant and forced communications providers to build surveillance back doors into the hardware that routes phone calls and Internet traffic.

The petition asks Canadian lawmakers to protect citizens' privacy rights when the new government convenes after the late-January election. Other important issues for ORC will include revisions to Canadian copyright law, access to information and freedom from censorship, the group says.

Online Rights Canada is designed to provide a home on the Internet for grassroots activism on digital issues, the new organization said. Canadians are realizing in ever-greater numbers that the on-line world offers tremendous opportunities for learning, communicating and innovating, but that those opportunities are at risk as a result of corporate practices, government policies and legal regimes that hinder on-line privacy and free speech, CIPPIC executive director Philippa Lawson said in a statement.

All of last year's legislation is back on the drawing board, EFF policy co-ordinator Ren Buchholz added. Canadians now have another chance to present a public-interest perspective on issues like copyright reform and increased government surveillance.

David Fewer, CIPPIC's staff counsel, says he expects ORC will evolve into a major resource for Canadians looking for opportunities to protect their on-line rights.

From Aftenposten

Porn laws relaxed - for now

Norway's Supreme Court cleared editor Stein-Erik Mattsson on pornography charges, ending Mattson's three-year long battle to modernize Norway's censorship practices. Importers are now gearing up to sell to Norway, but authorities may still try and keep it out.

Stein-Erik Mattson with his issue of 'Free' Aktuell Rapport, which dropped its price tag and censorship bars and started the legal process that ended Wednesday.

Mattsson flouted Norway's insistence on putting black censorship bars over images of 'genitalia in action that may offend' by printing up an uncensored but far from sensational magazine called Frie Aktuell Rapport. He not only gave it away, he sent a copy to every Member of Parliament and waited for trouble.

The long legal process that resulted nearly broke Mattsson. After first being acquitted, prosecutors appealed the verdict but the appeals court unanimously rejected the appeal. The Oslo district attorney then took the case to the Supreme Court, but having lost his job in the interim, Mattsson offered to pay his fine in order to put an end to the matter.

But he had no choice once the case was on the Supreme Court agenda. Instead, he made a convincing argument, showing judges a lengthy montage of film sequences passed by Norway's board of film censors on artistic grounds that was far more disturbing than run-of-the-mill sex without bits covered.

The Supreme Court couldn't stand watching it all, and agreed that standards had changed since the law's inception. After a collective assessment I have concluded that the threshold for what today is deemed to be offensive - and therefore punishable - cannot be said to have been transgressed, is how first-voting Supreme Court judge Ole Bjørn Støle ruled, and the decision was unanimous.

Mattson said the ruling finally upheld his view that he had done nothing wrong by showing 'regular sex', uncovered, and he sent his thanks to Socialist Left Party politician and porn hater Lena Jensen, for bringing the original complaint against him.

Norway's porn industry is ready to gear up for uncensored material, but doubts remain. We are waiting to push the button, first we just have to make sure exactly what is legal, said Finn Engnes, manager of Erotic Wholesales, who has so far specialized in importing sex toys, oils and lingerie. Engnes said he expects a green light and is already lining up producers from Europe and the USA.

Leif Aage Hagen, Norway's major player in the sex and porn industry in Norway, said he had been planning for this day for 30 years. A Norwegian version of the American "Hustler" will be launched as soon as possible, maybe already before New Year.

Film channel Canal + said they had no immediate plans to drop the black bars that obscure the action on their late night erotic films. We interpret the ruling to apply to the printed medium and not film. We conduct ourselves according to Norwegian law and so will not be changing our programming offering because of this ruling, said Canal + managing director Bjørn Stangjordet.

Meanwhile, politicians are ready to respond by introducing new and more specific legislation to keep porn at bay. Parliamentary members of the governing coalition signaled that they would push for a new examination of censorship legislation, and they can expect the enthusiastic support of the Christian Democrats.

updated 15th December

From The Guardian

Italian porn stars were up in arms yesterday over plans by Silvio Berlusconi's government to introduce a tax on their work. The proceeds from the proposed new "porn tax" would go towards paying for working mothers to afford baby-sitters.

The measure - the brainchild of the formerly neo-fascist National Alliance - is due to be voted on in parliament next week. It is contained in the latest draft of Italy's 2006 budget, which emerged from committee late on Wednesday.

The porn tax would take the form of a 20% levy on the selling price or rental cost of pornographic videos and DVDs. A similar surcharge would be placed on payments for pornographic material delivered by television stations or over the internet.

Rocco Siffredi, Italy's most celebrated movie stud, said the government had "picked a fight with sex". He and other pornographic actors have threatened street demonstrations against the tax.

The Italian treasury estimates a porn tax could raise around €60m (£40m) next year. Daniela Santanche, the National Alliance MP charged with shepherding the budget through its committee stages, said that would allow the government to offer tax breaks for the cost of hiring baby-sitters. Parents would be allowed to reduce their taxable income by up to €2,150.

The baby-sitting bonus is one of several measures in the draft budget aimed at encouraging Italians to have more children. Italy has one of the world's lowest birth rates, and it is contributing to a growing imbalance between the working and non-working population that threatens its welfare system.

The porn tax won the backing of the cabinet on Wednesday.
 

Yet more customers for the mail order companies now based in the Netherlands. No doubt they will spend the new few days booking out company names with Italy in the name just like they have done with all the British sounding DVD suppliers.

From the BBC

Italian Finance Minister Giulio Tremonti has pushed through parliament a new 25% tax on all hardcore pornography.

Previous attempts to raise new revenue by taxing pornography have failed.

Objections from the porn industry that they are already paying VAT and it is illegal to tax them twice have now been overruled by the minister.

Rome is desperate to find new revenue because it has to trim its budget deficit to meet EU rules. Moreover, the government cannot raise general taxation only months before a general election.

The new tax is similar to one imposed in France and will apply to all hardcore pornography, including films, magazines and merchandise sold in sex shops.

Tremonti says that, just like his French colleague, he is imposing what he calls an "ethical" tax.

The porn industry in Italy is estimated to be worth more than one billion euros a year.

From The Guardian

Senior journalists from the last national TV news programme to be mildly critical of the Kremlin have resigned from their channel, complaining of the "introduction of censorship and sweeping control".

News editor Yelena Fyodorova and anchor Olga Romanova, who fronts the mildly critical 24 news programme, along with several colleagues, resigned from REN-TV on Monday, blaming managerial interference. Romanova was barred from entering the studio ten days ago.

ln September a state-loyal firm bought a 35% stake in REN-TV, which has an audience of 97 million

The same applies to Thailand, I always prefer the pirate version over the official version. Apart from pirates of recent releases (which are filmed using a video camera), the real copies are simply superior to the local version. They strip off any regional encoding bollox; they do not suffer from the ludicrous local censorship which even pixellates fags, drinks & guns; and they have far more choice of original language, dubbing & subtitles.

From The Star

Heavy censorship to blame for brisk sales of pirated CDs. Movie lovers are inclined to buy pirated discs because strict censorship had made going to the movies less fun, the Dewan was told.

Deputy Home Minister Datuk Tan Chai Ho said many viewers had complained about heavy censorship by the Film Censorship Board: Some of the scenes do not even bridge with one another because of the censorship. He said it was important to organise more campaigns to urge the public not to buy pirated products, and added that this required the efforts of several ministries.

Datuk Mohamed Aziz (BN – Sri Gading) asked how the board categorised scenes which were “pornographic or sexually stimulating.” Is kissing pornographic or sexually stimulating? For an 18-year-old, watching a woman unzipping her clothes could be exciting; but us, we are more ‘steady’ when we view scenes like that.

Tan replied that movies were censored based on the storyline or theme, characters, dialogues and messages: We will ensure that movies are presented in a healthy and positive way based on the guidelines set by the Government.

From Ansa

A porn tax, an idea often discussed but never yet implemented, is being looked at seriously again as the Italian government's budget package is debated in parliament .

Daniela Santanché, the rightwing MP promoting the idea, said on Friday that she was studying two possibilities: higher taxes for producers of porno material or increased sales taxes on films, magazines and other products .

She said the new tax could be inserted into the 2006 budget, which parliament must approve this month, through an amendment if all the members of the ruling centre-right coalition agreed. Santanché gave no details of how much the proposed tax might rake in for state coffers .

Two years ago her National Alliance party proposed a porn tax as a way of providing 100 million euros in funding for scientific and technological research. It said the extra tax was justified because it targeted a "questionable" industry. In the end the proposal failed to garner sufficient support .

The Northern League party, one of National Alliance's coalition allies, put forward a similar proposal a year earlier but that too was voted down. According to a report released by the Eurispes research institute earlier this year, Italy's pornography industry now has an annual turnover of 1.1 billion euros .

That figure is said to be rising at a rate of about 10% a year, making the industry one of Italy's most resilient, even though experts note it is still far smaller than the German or Spanish ones.

From The Register

The proposed .xxx porn domain has been kicked into the long grass just days before it was due to meet final approval.

ICANN chairman Vint Cerf stunned an open meeting of the governmental advistory committee (GAC) in Vancouver late on Tuesday when he announced that the whole issue had been pulled from the Board meeting agenda - where it had been the first topic of discussion.

The reason given (this time) was that the GAC needed time to review a 350-page ICANN report on the domain's feasibility before it could provide its approval (or disapproval).

That's a red herring though. The report was completed on 31 August, and is mostly complimentary about the proposed domain. Not only that but all the issues surrounding the domain are already well known to everyone involved, and up until Cerf's sudden announcement, had been effectively given the green light.

ICANN has come under pressure to release the report and so provide adequate excuse for delaying .xxx's approval yet again. The people behind .xxx, ICM Registry, opposed its release, complaining that no other new domains had had their ICANN report released before they had been granted final approval and that they were being unfairly treated.

However, if rumours are to be believed, ICANN took a top-level decision to release the report and so provide a delay excuse, after EU commissioner Viviane Reding called the head of ICANN Paul Twomey direct and threatened to withdraw all the EU's representatives unless the issue was pulled. Twomey this morning denied he had had any communication with Reding over the issue.

If would certainly be an unusual decision on Reding's part, especially since the EU has been mostly supportive of .xxx. It is only Brazil and the US administration that remain opposed to the domain.

More likely is that the US government intervened but is desperate to avoid being seen to do so because of the ongoing Internet governance conflict, where the US government retains unilateral control of the Internet but claims never to apply it.

The Bush administration has been very effectively lobbied by the Christian right, and the US is desperate to make it look as though other governments are equally concerned about .xxx. The conspriacy theory is that by delaying .xxx, the EU puts a spotlight on the US' attempts to sway the course of the Internet.

Whether that's true or not, it still leaves one furious owner of ICM Registry, Stuart Lawley, who has sunk millions into the project and been consistently stymied at the last minute by unusual delays

From the Financial Times

Even by Chinese standards, the situation at Chongqing Normal University is unusual.

In the summer the teaching school, in a part of south-west China being transformed by a feverish market economy, drafted a rule threatening its 30,000 students with expulsion if they were found to be involved in prostitution or the escort business, had become mistresses or even had one-night stands - behaviour the university believes harms its image.

The draft rule sparked a stir in the local media and on the internet, pitting conservative administrators eager to shield students from what they see as corrupting outside - or foreign - influences, against a generation of young Chinese growing used to more freedom and privacy.

Even though prostitution is illegal in China, it thrives in plain sight in places such as karaoke clubs, massage parlours and some hotels. At its root the rule - which has yet to be adopted by CNU or other institutions - gets to the heart of a real dilemma in modern China: how to maintain control over a society while encouraging free market activity. Officials at CNU argue that the new rule is necessary. An administrator said it was still a draft and the university was open to student feedback.

The feedback is likely to provide a mixed picture, with some students supporting the rule and arguing that such behaviour demonstrates problems of "personal character". Others interviewed believe the rule is unenforceable and their private affairs should not be the concern of the school.

The controversy has drawn attention from other parts of the country, prompting the Shanghai Daily to argue: Our public morals have already declined. We have seen too many married people flirting with men or women. If society has failed to rebuild public morals because of the invasion of western values, China cannot afford to lose one of its last battlegrounds: the college campus.

Shanghai's prestigious Fudan University recently said that students engaging in non-marital sex could be punished with a warning and those discovered to be involved in prostitution would face expulsion.

The changed atmosphere on the campuses coincides with reports that three brothers were convicted of luring 70 students into an escort service called the "Student Business Club" in the Chongqing college district.

The men reportedly posted advertisements on campuses looking for "smart, outgoing and fashionable" girls. Students reported seeing similar postings from karaoke establishments seeking "private room princesses". A district court sentenced the men to up to six years in prison "for the crimes of luring women into prostitution and living off immoral earnings", according to one report.

From Aftenposten

A long-running battle to modernize Norway's censorship laws reaches its climax next week when porn  magazine editor Stein-Erik Mattsson presents evidence and arguments to the Supreme Court.

Mattsson, who published an issue of Frie Aktuell Rapport in the summer of 2002 with a lack of the black bars that Norwegian law demands be placed over depictions of active genitalia, has been trying to force a reexamination of the country's censorship laws.

Mattsson printed 13,000 copies of the magazine, which included depictions of hetero and homosexual acts, as well as an older Finnish couple in action. Besides handing the magazine out, he sent a copy to every member of parliament to provoke a reaction.

Eventually hit with a complaint and a fine, Mattsson refused to pay and has argued that Norway's sex censorship laws are outdated. He was acquitted in an Oslo court and also in an appeals trial, but authorities now want a decision from the Supreme Court.

On Tuesday Mattsson will present a 45-minute long film to the Supreme Court, but not a porn film per se, newspaper Dagsavisen reports. Mattsson's film will be a collage of sex scenes clipped out of films that have been approved by the National Board of Film Censors. All of these films show as many erect penises and sex organs in movement as the magazine I have been charged for, Mattsson told Dagsavisen.

The long legal battle has taken its toll on the editor, and he has lost his job. Mattsson recently tried to end the process by paying the fine, but found the case had already been scheduled for review by the Supreme Court. Now he is ready to fight on again: I hope the process ends here, but I am prepared to take this all the way to the human rights tribunal in Strasbourg. This is about freedom of speech.

Limey, half the world will be jailed if angry comments are criminalised like in Singapore

From the Bangkok Post

A Singapore blogger who described Malays and their Islamic faith as "the second Holocaust" is not going to jail but has been ordered to perform community service while on probation for two years, news reports said Thursday.

Unlike two previous bloggers who were jailed under the city- state's sedition law for their web diary comments, Singapore District Judge Bala Reddy's ruling was aimed at correcting Gan Huai Shi's "misguided dislike for the Malay community".

Gan, a 17-year-old student, caused a furore between April and July, when he posted his Internet remarks in the predominantly Chinese city-state, which includes 14 per cent Malays.

The judge suggested that Gan's probation officer should be a Malay who can "act as a positive role model" for the youth, whose hatred stemmed from the death of his baby brother 10 years ago. Then 7, Gan was with his mother trying to get a taxi to rush the 1-month-old infant to a hospital. They were unable to persuade a Malay couple to give up the cab. It took another 20 minutes before they flagged down a taxi, and the baby was pronounced dead on arrival.

In his ruling on Wednesday, the judge said that Gan's 180 hours of community service would take place at Malay welfare organizations. He also ordered Gan to undergo counselling and psychiatric evaluation to help him come to terms with the death of his brother.

From the Bangkok Post

Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra is preparing to declare another "war" against pornography, which some nutters claim is a major cause of rising sexual abuse of youngsters.

The initiative is expected to be declared on Children's Day in early January.

Police and provincial governors nationwide will start cracking down on pornographic materials, VCDs, and the Internet next month, said government spokesman Surapong Suebwongle.

Meanwhile, he said, the government would give financial support to "creative media" with contents promoting morality and good conduct, produced by universities and non-governmental organisations.

Thaksin vowed to block all access to website pornography by year-end, although details on how the government will do so remain fuzzy.

Watana Muangsook, Thai Minister of Social Development and Human Services, told reporters that the prime minister had instructed him to find the means to block access to Internet porn by the end of December.

The minister will hold a meeting on November 30 with various Internet related authorities such as the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Ministry to discuss means of carrying out the prime minister's instructions.

Watana estimated that there are currently 800,000 foreign websites available in Thailand, of which one third carry pornographic images.

From Digital Spy

A Canadian government minister has called for 50 Cent to be banned from his country. The rapper is due to play seven venues in Canada, starting with Vancouver on December 3.

Dan McTeague, a shameful junior foreign minister, said he glorifies gun crime. This is not a question of censorship, he explained. BUT... This is a question of trying to protect impressionable young men.

50 Cent was involved in a gang shooting in 2000. The release of his semi-biographical movie Get Rich or Die Tryin' has been surrounded by controversy, with protests against its posters and a man shot outside a showing.

McTeague said: Under our laws he would be deemed criminally admissible.

From The Times

The European Commission has toned down plans to regulate the internet, but still wants websites showing television online to be subject to new regulations.

Viviane Reding, the Information Commissioner, has prepared a draft directive including the proposals, which is being circulated among the 25-member Commission for comments. A spokesman for Reding said that she intended to introduce a “liberal” set of proposals, although Ofcom, the British communications regulator, and some internet groups will be concerned that Brussels aims to regulate at all.

An Ofcom spokesman said last night that it would study the proposals once they became public, but he added: We have expressed concern about the regulation of internet content in the past. We believe that there are alternative and potentially more effective measures of regulating content on the internet short of direct regulation, such as self-regulation and user-empowerment.

Reding’s draft directive includes a distinction between “push content” and “pull content”. Push content is conventional broadcasting, which is “pushed out” to consumers over any medium, including the internet — and this will remain subject to heavy regulation.

However, it also brings into the net “pull content” — television clips on websites that are selected by consumers. It is proposed that this type of material be subject to three basic rules. Reding’s spokesman said: We believe that there should be a ban on the incitement to racial hatred and rules to protect minors, to be detailed by member states. If there is any advertising, that should be clearly identified as such.

However, the text portion of websites will remain exempt from regulation, meaning that newspapers and radio websites will not come under Europe’s jurisdiction, unless they use video clips to illustrate a story.

The new directive, which will have the force of law across the European Union when introduced, revises the 1989 Television without Frontiers legislation. That created a common framework for regulation, but it has become outdated amid rapid changes in technology.

updated 22nd November
see below

From Payvand

The Paris-based Reporters Without Borders has created a list of countries it considers "enemies of the Internet." Heading that list are China and Iran. Regimes in Belarus, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan also are singled out as repressive governments who are trying to control the Internet in order to silence the political opposition.

Julien Pain heads the group's section on Internet freedom. He says the biggest threats to human rights in cyberspace are repressive governments: The most repressive regimes in terms of press freedom start trying to control the Internet, as well. It's the case in China. It's the case in Iran. Every dictator around the world is now trying to spy the web, track down dissidents on the Internet, and filter the web [to prevent the spread of uncensored information].

Reporters Without Borders presented a list of countries that are "enemies of the Internet" at the Tunis summit: The Chinese are, by far, the most repressive government in terms of Internet freedom [and] the most efficient at censoring the Internet. They have acquired technology from American companies which enable the Chinese authorities to censor very efficiently the Internet and to block access to every political voice which disagrees with the government's official position.

Pain says Iran and Belarus are on the "enemies" list because the governments there apply Internet censorship strategies similar to those used in China. In contrast are Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, whose approaches to the Internet Pain compares to those in Cuba or North Korea: Basically, there are two solutions to controlling the Internet. The first one is the Chinese one. You buy lots of equipment to control the Internet, but at the same time you try to develop this new media because it is important economically. And the other solution is the Cuban or North Korean solution. You don't even let people access the Internet.

Pain notes that in Iran, authorities for the past two years have been arresting people who post critical remarks about the government on Internet sites known as weblogs, or blogs: Iran is already censoring thousands and thousands of websites. And now it is trying also to control weblogs and bloggers because many political weblogs have appeared in recent years. What the Iranian government is trying to do now is prevent them from talking politics and prevent them from criticizing the government. That's why many, many bloggers went to jail in the past two years just because of a few posts on their weblog.

In Belarus, investigations into Internet usage is easier than in other countries because the servers that provide Internet access are controlled by state firms that willingly provide private information to police. Last summer, Belarusian authorities launched investigations into the Internet activities of a youth organization called The
Third Road after it posted political cartoons on its website ridiculing President Alyaksandr Lukashenka.

Third Road member Pavol Marozau notes that Belarusian law also forces anybody who wants to use the Internet at a computer cafe to register using their passport and home address. Belarusian computer cafes also have security programs that record all information about a visitor's Internet activity.

Pain describes Turkmenistan's government as a repressive regime that has prevented the Internet from developing. The Internet is accessible only to a minority of people in Turkmenistan. It is very similar to what is happening in Cuba where only government officials and a few businessmen can access the Internet freely. In Turkmenistan, if you don't work for a foreign company or if you are not a government official, you won't be able to access the Internet.

Uzbek President Islam Karimov has spoken positively about developing the Internet in his country. He says it would be impossible for his government to censor the Internet: I disagree with the opinion that information coming via Internet has a negative impact on the situation [in Uzbekistan]. Why? Because the Internet is like a huge supermarket where you go and buy what you need. Shutting the Internet down is a silly idea. It's absolutely impossible. Who tries to do so is a fool because an attempt brings no results.

But Pain says Karimov is only paying lip service to the concept of freedom of information on the Internet: For Uzbekistan, we know that President Karimov is making statements about how he wants to develop the Internet. But at the same time, he is also well aware of the power it has and the threat it could be to his own power. So he's been trying to control the Internet at the same time. The security services in Uzbekistan are very involved in controlling the Internet and putting pressure upon the ISPs -- the Internet service providers -- so that they block opposition websites.
.
Pain, director of the Internet Freedom section of Reporters Without Borders, spoke as well about the situation for Internet users in Kazakhstan: In Kazakhstan, many scandals were revealed on the Internet. That's why it is a very important [form of] media in Kazakhstan because President [Nursultan] Nazarbaev really realized that if he wanted to prevent scandals about corruption [from being] revealed he had to control the Internet. We've had many, many stories recently about websites which were harassed by the authorities [in Kazakhstan]. The authorities first just tried to sue the websites.

Pain also spoke about the situation for Internet users in Afghanistan: You can access the Internet quite freely now in Afghanistan. So there is no problem. The Internet in Afghanistan is not censored. People are using it more and more. And there are even people who have started blogging in Afghanistan. So it is very interesting information. In Afghanistan, a few bloggers are doing a good job trying to dig out and bring different kinds of information [to the attention of people]. It shows that the Internet in Afghanistan is developing well, even if, of course, it is a poor country.

  Italy added to the list of enemies of the Internet

Thanks to Alan

At least one major democracy, Group of Seven member to boot, has controls similar to Belarus on use of internet cafes. Italy requires a passport or identity card from users of internet cafes. ("Terrorism" is the excuse.)

Also their TV set up excludes dissenting voices particularly as the prime minister not only controls RAI, the equivalent of the BBC, but is also a media tycoon with a range of private channels. An example of conveniently silenced voices is Sabina Guzzanti ,a satirist booted off the TV and Viva Zapatero, a documentary film she  made.

From the Globe and Mail

A Vancouver gay bookstore has been given the go-ahead to argue in front of the Supreme Court of Canada that the government should fund its legal dispute with Canada Customs.

Yesterday, the top court granted Little Sisters Book and Art Emporium leave to appeal a lower-court decision that cut its funding lifeline for the legal fight. Jim Deva, a co-owner of Little Sisters, said fighting Canada Customs in court could cost the store $500,000 to $1-million, which he characterized as an impossibly high figure for a bookstore, or almost anyone else, to come up with.

The bookstore has been fighting Canada Customs because the federal agency blocked the importation of several books and magazines at the U.S. border, claiming they were obscene. The seized material included two series of Meatmen comic books and two books that depicted bondage and sadomasochism.

In July, 2004, a B.C. judge ordered the federal government to pay the bookstore's court costs, because it was an important constitutional case that touched the interests of all book importers, big and small. That ruling was seen as the first non-aboriginal application of a Supreme Court decision that said the government had to finance a B.C. native band's forestry dispute, because the band did not have enough money and there were key constitutional issues to be dealt with.

In February, however, the B.C. Court of Appeal reversed the lower-court ruling and killed the funding, saying that Little Sisters had assumed the role of "watchdog" over Canada Customs, but that the public had not appointed the bookstore to this role.

Now, the Supreme Court of Canada will hear an appeal of that ruling, and will likely provide some guidance on what kind of cases are important enough to get "advance funding," when the litigants can't afford to carry the costs.

Joseph Arvay, a lawyer for Little Sisters, said that if the bookstore had not been granted the chance to take its case to the top court, it would have had to give up the fight. There was no one who was willing to take up the challenge, and Canada Customs would continue to ban books at the border without any review by the courts.

Arvay said the case is important beyond the interests of his client or the bookstore. It has much broader implications for all citizens who believe that their Charter rights and freedoms are being infringed, and yet could not possibly afford the cost of litigation.

The decision creates a rematch for Little Sisters and Canada Customs at the top court. In 2000, the court criticized the agency for using arbitrary and inconsistent policies when seizing material the store was trying to import. The court did not strike down Canada Customs' powers to censor material, but said it needed to fix its procedures.

But changes implemented by the agency were done without consulting anyone in the book business or people with expertise in gay and lesbian sexuality, worsening the situation, Deva said. The agency adopted specific rules about what was not allowed into Canada, he said, but he questioned the logic behind the guidelines. Suddenly, out of the blue, the licking of boots was not acceptable, he said, as an example. If they had known more about that fantasy, and about that sexual act, perhaps they wouldn't have thought of it as dehumanizing and degrading.

If only...

"Adolf, your New Socialist chums are here to see you"....
"Sorry mum, I'm too busy playing CounterStrike"

Based on an article from The Guardian

The country's incoming government is seeking a complete ban on violent games. That's right, not just legislation that would prevent games from being bought by minors, but an outright ban on virtual killing altogether. Whether or not this ban actually will happen remains to be seen.

While the video game industry in the US. is currently dealing with legislation seeking to ban the sale of Mature video games to minors, and time limits are being imposed on  players by the Chinese government, things could be worse.

According to the Deutsche Welle, it appears that in Germany, as plans for the country's next four years are prepared, the powers that be would like an outright ban on all violent video games that simulate brutal killings. Apparently the government has a "vision of harmony" in which it sees Germany's youth growing up in a society completely free of violence.

The government is looking into ways of reducing child abuse and neglect and it wants to abolish violent games, such as the internationally popular CounterStrike. The first-person shooter has been a prime target for Germany ever since a student in the German town of Erfurt went on a rampage shooting 16 people before turning his weapon on himself—not unlike the events at Columbine and elsewhere in the U.S. that led people to blame games such as Doom or GTA for the tragedies.

Andreas Scheuer, a member of parliament for the conservative Christian Social Union, is in charge of youth protection. Scheuer said that violent video games have no place in Germany's bedrooms, according to Der Spiegel magazine. Scheuer added that although he recognizes that parents need to take responsibility for their children as well, he believes that some of the less media savvy parents need the government's assistance, and therefore a full ban should be implemented.

We're not entirely sure how the law works in Germany, but we're fairly certain that this sort of proposal would be quickly thrown out here in the states as a violation of the First Amendment.

Naturally the video game industry in Germany is vehemently opposed to any ban of its games. Olaf Wolters, manager of the German interactive entertainment software association, explained to Der Spiegel that the coalition's pact had some unfortunate vocabulary and that the game industry would like to work with Germany's incoming government to address its concerns: As far as we are concerned, there are no such things as killer games, but adult games.

It's one thing to prevent games with sex and violence from getting into the hands of children, but it's entirely another to propose an outright ban on said media. Imagine if the US. congress told Hollywood that they no longer could make R-rated movies or if the music industry had to make its recording artists remove any "explicit lyrics" from its CDs. This kind of censorship would likely produce mass protests and riots in our streets.

Based on an article from The Guardian

The European Union has made a formal complaint to the Tunisian government on the eve of a world internet summit in Tunis over heavy-handed police tactics.

The British ambassador to the UN, Nicholas Thorne, complained to the Tunisian foreign ministry yesterday afternoon of behaviour that was "not in the spirit of the summit" and warned that the eyes of the world were on them.

The complaint comes after a number of international organisations highlighted Tunisia's poor human rights record and questioned whether the country is a suitable location for a summit on the future of the internet. The summit has been designed to address crucial questions relating to global access to internet technology and information.

The argument itself surrounds a violent scuffle at the German cultural centre in Tunis on Monday morning, which involved the German ambassador to the UN and representatives of more than 30 local and international human rights bodies.

About 70 plainclothes police thugs physically prevented representatives from a number of non-governmental organisations from entering the Goethe Institut. They were meeting to review plans for an alternative "citizen summit" in the capital after their booking at a conference venue was cancelled at the last minute.

The police did not provide an official reason for their actions, according to the representative for the World Association for Community Radio Broadcasters and chairman of the Tunisian monitoring group, Steve Buckley, a Briton. We were physically pushed away from the institute. I saw one person frogmarched down the street and one colleague pushed over.

In an effort to quell the situation, German ambassador Michael Steiner, in town for the world summit, arranged to meet a group of just three representatives but, as they approached the building, they were again prevented by police from entering. When the meeting moved to a nearby coffee shop, the owner was told to eject the group or face closure.

The EU agreed to make its Tunis offices available and the meeting was held there with representatives of the European Union, the US and Switzerland. Despite the fact that the UN summit confers immunities to official participants, the meeting in question was outside its jurisdiction, the International Telecommunication Union said later.

From The Register

An extraordinary criticism of Tunisia’s approach to the Internet was fired at its president Zine Ben Ali at the opening ceremony of the World Summit in Tunis this morning.

Swiss president Samuel Schmid drew huge applause from the back of the room when he directly criticised Tunisia’s controlling Internet policies. It is unsupportable that the UN still has members that imprison their own citizens because of what they have written on the Internet or in the press. Everyone should be able to express their views freely.

Ben Ali shifted uncomfortably in his chair and refused to look at Schmid when he sat down next to him after finishing his speech. However, Schmid’s speech was followed up by even more direct criticism from Shirin Abadi from the International Federation for Human Rights. Certain governments that are not genuinely elected by their people do not reflect the people’s desire on Internet matters. It is important to make sure that non-governmental organisations are not manipulated by creating so-called NGOs that transmit false information on the situation prevailing in their country.

That was a direct reference to a diplomatic incident that happened in Tunis on Monday, when Tunisian police forcibly prevented local and international human rights organisations from meeting to organise an alternative "Citizen Summit". The German ambassador to the UN became involved, as did several World Summit participants who have immunity in Tunisia while the Summit continues. The trouble sparked an official EU complaint to the Tunisian foreign ministry yesterday afternoon.

Abadi went on to slam countries that suppress an author that expresses any criticism of their government - to which Ben Ali, acting as chair of the ceremony, shook his head.

The extraordinarily frank criticism followed Ben Ali’s own opening speech to the Summit in which he spoke at some length about his view of the Internet. Its content clearly irritated the other speakers. We look forward to the adoption of practical decisions and proposals to solve the questions put forth by the information society, These last few years have witnessed the emergence of some types of use that shake call into question the credibility of information. Some arouse racism, hatred, terrorism. Others disseminate allegations and falsehoods."

He went on to describe how society would have to make individuals "commit to responsible use" of the Net, and how it was necessary to "set ethical standards". The current culture of the Internet, he argued, was not a true representation of the world’s people as a whole and how there was a "collective moral responsibility" to change this.

UN secretary-general Kofi Annan’s address was less directly critical but nevertheless made a strong statement. Freedom, he said, was the information society’s lifeblood. It is freedom that enables citizens everywhere to benefit from knowledge, for journalists to do their essential work, and citizens to hold government accountable. He added  that by having the conference in Tunisia it had in fact "put a spotlight on the issues here".

Suddenly it seemed that rather than the UN being wrong for hosting the event in Tunisia, it was Tunisia that had most to lose from the deal.

From The Register

The United States has won its fight to retain control over the internet, at least for the foreseeable future.

[Presumably because nobody wants the internet controlled by a body which has such repressive members as Tunisia]

The world's governments in Tunisia finally reached agreement just hours before the official opening of the World Summit this morning. In the end, with absolutely no time remaining, a deal was cut. That deal will see the creation of a new Internet Governance Forum, that will be set up next year and decide upon public policy issues for the internet. It will be made up of governments as well as private and civil society, but it will not have power over existing bodies.

The deal represents a remarkable victory for the United States and ICANN : only a month ago they were put on the back foot by an EU proposal that turned the world's governments against the US position.

But following an intense US lobbying effort across the board, the Americans have got their way. Countless press articles, each as inaccurate as the last, formed a huge public sense of what was happening with internet governance that proved impossible to shake.

Massive IT companies - again, mostly US and thanks to intense US government lobbying - came out publicly in favour of the status quo. And the EU representative, David Hendon, confirmed to us last night that in political and governments circles - at every level - the US had pushed home its points again and again.

A letter from US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice sent to the EU just prior to the Summit also had a big impact. Hendon said the UK's position was pretty much set by then, but that it may well have had an impact on other EU members. The exact wording of the letter has yet to come out but it is said to be pretty strong stuff.

And so without the EU forcing the middle ground, and with the US backed by Australia, the brokering - pushed in no short measure by chairman Massod Khan - was led by Singapore and Ghana. The result was that Brazil, China, Iran, Russia and numerous other countries were stymied.

The shift to an international body will still happen but it will now be at least five years down the line. The plus point of all this great theatre however is that the world, and its governments, are now infinitely more aware of how this internet thing really works

From Asian Tribune

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