Australia Censorship News

Australian police, encouraged by ongoing denunciations of artist/photographer Bill Henson by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, New South Wales (NSW) Premier Morris Iemma and a small group of right-wing commentators, have ramped up their witch-hunt of the internationally-acclaimed artist following the seizure of 20 of his photographs from a Sydney art gallery last week.

NSW police are currently threatening Henson and the Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery owners with prosecution under a recently introduced section of the NSW Crimes Act, which covers the production, dissemination and possession of child pornography. If found guilty, the artist could be jailed for a maximum of 10 years and the gallery owners for five years. The accusation of child pornography against Henson, who is represented in major galleries around the world, is ludicrous.

Henson has more than 250 photographs in state-funded Australian galleries. However, since Prime Minister Rudd'
s declaration on national television that the artist/photographer'
s work was “absolutely revolting”, the police have begun visiting local venues to intimidate curators and dictate what they can or cannot display.

NSW police officers told the Albury Regional Gallery that unless it took down several Henson photographs and removed images from its web site, it could be prosecuted. Three days later police raided Newcastle Regional Art Gallery and “advised” management to take down some Henson photographs—one of which was in a staff room and not even on public display.

Police have also visited Melbourne'
s National Gallery of Victoria and the National Gallery of Australia in Canberra. Although no photos were removed from these prestigious galleries, the purpose of the visit was clear. National Gallery of Australia director Ron Radford was questioned by police over the gallery'
s collection of 79 Henson photographs, despite the fact that the pictures were all in storage.

If we determine there are offences disclosed, then we will go through the process of seizing whatever needs to be seized in order to prove the offence, a police spokesperson told the media. If you'
re in possession of child pornography, whether you have it on your computer and whether you view it or not, that'
s an offence.

Online media outlets reporting the witch-hunt and using digital versions of Henson'
s photographs could also be prosecuted after they were referred this week to the federal censorship authorities by the Australian Communications and Media Authority, which investigates complaints about internet content. In this coercive atmosphere, the publishers of Art World, a new art magazine, were forced to pulp 25,000 copies of its June-July issue. The magazine featured a cover story on Henson and contained photos of the naked girl that prompted the police raid of the Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery. The survival of the bimonthly magazine, which only began publishing three months ago, has been jeopardised by the additional $100,000 required to reprint the edition.

Artists challenge Rudd

Not a single elected Labor politician—state or federal—has opposed this escalating assault. On the contrary, appeals by leading members of the artistic community—many of whom had been recent supporters of Rudd—have been arrogantly rejected by the Labor government and attacked by radio shock-jocks and a collection of thuggish media commentators.

On May 27, for example, actor Cate Blanchett and 42 other leading writers, dramatists, filmmakers, musicians and artists issued an open letter to the prime minister. The letter rejected allegations that Henson'
s work was child pornography and called on Rudd and Premier Iemma to “rethink” their previous comments.

The courts, the letter declared, were not the “proper place” to debate the merit of Henson'
s work. If those demanding charges against the artist were not pushed back there would be further attacks, which would, in turn, encourage a repressive climate of hysterical condemnation, backed by the threat of prosecution.

We are already seeing troubling signs in the pre-emptive self-censorship of some galleries, it continued. This is not the hallmark of an open democracy nor of a decent or civilised society. We should remember that an important index of social freedom, in earlier times or in repressive regimes elsewhere in the world, is how artists and art are treated by the state.

The letter called on the Minister for Arts and former Midnight Oil rock singer Peter Garrett to stand up for artists against the encroaching censorship, which has resulted in the closure of this and other exhibitions.

Rudd arrogantly dismissed the appeal a day after it was published and told the media that his opinion about Henson'
s photographs was unchanged . The issue, he continued, would be decided through the legal processes of the land.

Not surprisingly, arts minister Garrett simply ignored the open letter. On the same day, NSW Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione, echoing Rudd, told a Sydney radio station that Henson'
s photographs were “offensive” and “objectionable” and fully endorsed their seizure by his officers. And on May 29, Rupert Murdoch'
s Australian newspaper published a letter from so-called child protection activist Hetty Johnson, declaring that she was “committed” to bringing Henson and the gallery owners to trial.

Extreme right demands more attacks

Right-wing commentators are now celebrating Rudd'
s denunciations of Henson and fulminating against anyone who comes forward to defend freedom of artistic expression. Those challenging the censorship are accused of supporting or providing sustenance to pedophiles.

This was spelled out in an op-ed piece in the Sydney Morning Herald, by columnist Paul Sheehan on May 26. Under the headline, Artists crying out for martyrdom, he declared that Australia'
s artistic community was the equivalent of a claustrophobic, reactionary one-party state,” which was providing sustenance to “pederasts and child sexploiters.

Sheehan suggested, however, that the issue was broader and that the real problem was Australia'
s privacy laws, artistic licence, freedom of expression, and Aboriginal rights , which, he said, were helping to mask, exacerbate or even rationalize, child sex abuse. He concluded with a threat: while the Bill Henson exhibition may be the wrong time and wrong place for this particular battle ... it is the right time and right place to reinvigorate this particular war.

In other words, the war on fundamental democratic rights should not be confined to Henson.

Sheehan'
s rhetoric is chillingly reminiscent of the language and anti-democratic measures that led to the Nazi book burnings and the Nazis'
 characterisation of virtually all modernist art as Entartete Kunst or Degenerate Art. The fact that it is published unchallenged in what passes as Sydney'
s “small l”-liberal daily, and encouraged by the Rudd government'
s endorsement of the current witch-hunt, should be taken a serious warning to artists, intellectuals and all working people.

Rudd and the rest of the Labor leadership have seized on the Henson issue as a diversion from mounting social tensions resulting from the rapid rise in the cost of living and growing hostility—just six months after its election—to the Labor government. Like the Howard government before it, Rudd Labor is trying to develop a political constituency among the extreme right, Christian fundamentalists and other disoriented layers to use as a means of intimidating and suppressing critical thought, as it ramps up its assault on the social conditions of the working class.

Online photographs used by media websites to report the investigation into Bill Henson have been referred to the Classification Board, the Minister for Home Affairs, Bob Debus, said.

Canberra police were also assessing 79 Henson photographs at the National Gallery of Australia, some of which were seized as the investigation into the artist widened and owners of works, including Parliament House, were questioned by phone.

Several online images of Bill Henson photographs from media websites reporting on the exhibition at the Roslyn Oxley9 gallery in Sydney have been referred to the Classification Board, Debus said.

The images were referred to the board by the Australian Communications and Media Authority, which investigates complaints about online content.

They do not involve content published online by the Oxley gallery as the gallery voluntarily removed images from its website last week, Debus said. He would not name the news sites.

While several Canberra galleries have been investigated, only the National Gallery had Henson photos featuring naked children. The National Portrait Gallery in Canberra owns three Henson works.

Australia's Imparja Television has decided to ban advertisements for x-rated chat-lines.

Outgoing chairman Owen Cole says the local community has expressed concern about the advertisements. It seemed a logical decision, given the problems faced by remote Indigenous communities.

He says the broadcaster was making a statement by giving up revenue from the sexually explicit advertisements: Now the effectiveness of whether it's going to stop people from downloading pornography, that's questionable, but nevertheless sometimes you have to take a principle stance and that's what we've done.

Cole is calling on the Federal Government to take a more pro-active role in raising public awareness about the effects of pornography, domestic violence and sexual abuse in communities.

The debate over photographer Bill Henson's controversial pictures of nude 12- and 13-year-olds continues in Australia.

Cate Blanchett, along with Elizabeth Ann Macgregor, director of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney, and writer Larissa Behrendt, has signed an open letter to Prime Minister Kevin Rudd urging him to rethink his stance on the photographs, which he called "absolutely revolting."

The open letter argues that Henson's work itself is not pornographic, even though it includes depictions of naked human beings. It is more justly seen in a tradition of the nude in art that stretches back to the ancient Greeks, and which includes painters such as Caravaggio and Michelangelo.

Blanchett joined 42 other leading arts figures in signing the open letter slamming Rudd.

A number of Henson's former models have also stepped forward to voice support for the photographer via the Sydney Morning Herald.

High-profile Opposition frontbencher Malcolm Turnbull has spoken out in defence of artistic freedom after revealing that he owns works by controversial photographer Bill Henson.

The Opposition treasury spokesman say  he has two of the artist's photographs - one depicting a face in profile and the other of a sunset.

New South Wales police are considering laying charges against Henson after they raided a Sydney exhibition of his work, which included a photograph of a naked 13-year-old girl.

Turnbull says he has not seen the controversial photographs but says artists should be able to express themselves freely: I don't believe that we should have policemen invading art galleries. I think we have a culture of great artistic freedom in this country.

We've got to be very careful. Freedom is a very precious thing. And before we have policemen tramping through art galleries, tramping through libraries, going into newspapers offices, we've got to think, freedom is what makes this country great. That is what enables us to be the type of nation we are.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has described the photographs as absolutely revolting but Greens Senator Bob Brown says Rudd does not understand art.

Senator Brown has compared the furore to censorship in Soviet Russia: I think the Prime Minister and others have overreacted and have not been very judicious in their use of words or their understanding of creative art and what it gives to society. You have to wonder whether the next thing is we're going to have people pointing out children on the beach who aren't fully clad and having that forbidden on beaches."

The National Gallery of Victoria is at the centre of a third investigation surrounding controversial artist and photographer Bill Henson.

Henson's work is under investigation after about 20 photographs of naked teenagers were confiscated from a Sydney art gallery last week.

The images depicted the teens in a number of different poses, with police receiving complaints over the planned exhibition.

The National Gallery of Victoria also has a number of Henson's photos with police yesterday attending the gallery to assess the works, News Limited newspapers report.

However police did not remove any of the photographs.

Police are now likely to investigate whether the photos breach pornography or indecency laws.

While the photos have sparked varied levels of community outrage, artists have labeled the police investigation as a "witch hunt" and " overbearing political correctness".

A gallery spokesman said that Henson was one of the greatest photographers of our time.

Betty Churcher, former director of the National Gallery of Australia, says debate sparked by a Bill Henson exhibition is misguided.

Twenty of Henson's photographs, featuring a naked girl under the age of 16, were confiscated during a police raid on Sydney's Roslyn Oxley9 gallery late last week.

Police are considering whether to lay criminal charges against those involved with the exhibition, which was condemned by many - including Prime Minister Kevin Rudd

But Ms Churcher has defended Henson's shots, saying they are works of art and depict a sense of innocence: There is absolutely no suggestion of pornography in these photographs. They are breathtakingly beautiful, they are about the vulnerability of life.

Police said they expect to file charges over a Sydney art exhibition that the Australian prime minister called revolting for its portrayal of nude 12- and 13-year-old children.

The exhibit by leading Australian photographer Bill Henson was suspended by police just ahead of its scheduled opening Thursday night, following public outrage.

Police removed more than 20 photographs from the Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery on Friday.

Police are investigating this matter and it is likely that we will proceed to prosecution on the offense of publishing an indecent article under the Crimes Act, said Local Area Commander Allan Sicard. He would not specify who was likely to be charged.

Henson and the gallery agreed Thursday to temporarily suspend the show to allow investigators to speak to the children and their parents, police said. Henson's exhibition consisted of 41 photographs.

The Web site for the gallery went off-line to remove the photos. It was back online Friday afternoon, with a statement saying the exhibition will reopen without the controversial images.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd weighed in on the issue during a morning interview on Nine Network television: I find them absolutely revolting, he said when showed the photographs: Whatever the artistic view of the merits of that sort of stuff — frankly I don't think there are any — just allow kids to be kids.

Henson's work is on display in all of Australia's major art galleries and also forms part of collections in New York's Guggenheim Museum, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris and other venues.

Public pressure has forced a Sydney gallery to cancel the opening night of an exhibition featuring photographs of naked 12 and 13 year olds..

The exhibition, by Australian photographer Bill Henson, was scheduled to open at Roslyn Oxley9 gallery.

However, a note on the door advised patrons the official opening would not go ahead.

A gallery spokeswoman told AAP the exhibition would proceed, but public criticism of tonight's event forced organisers to cancel the official opening.

Police tonight said an investigation into the exhibition was in its early stages.

Hetty Johnston, founder and executive director of Bravehearts, a child sexual assault action group, today called for Henson and the gallery to be prosecuted over the images.

The gallery's website had also featured the images from the exhibition, and the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) confirmed it had received a formal complaint and are investigating. The images have now been removed from the website.

Earlier this month, there was another 'outrage' following the publication of images showing a topless 16-year-old model sharing a bath with a 15-year-old male model in Russh Australia magazine.

The Classification Board ruled the magazine was not a submittable publication and therefore does not need to be classified.

Electronic Frontiers Australia (EFA) has expressed its disappointment at the Federal Government'
s decision to fund its mandatory “clean-feed” Internet in the 2008-09 federal budget.

At a time when the Government is cutting services to fight inflation, it'
s bewildering that they would decide to spend tens of millions of taxpayer dollars on a filter before feasibility trials are even complete, said EFA spokesman Colin Jacobs: Given the manifest impracticality of the clean-feed scheme, I'
m sure this money could have been put to much better use.

The 2008-09 budget allocates $24.3 million to the Government'
s “cyber-safety” initiative, with the number to rise to $51.4m in the 2009-10 financial year. A media release from the Communications Minister, Senator Stephen Conroy, confirmed that the clean-feed remains a budgetary priority for the Government. Some funding will come from the Government'
s now-defunct NetAlert filter scheme, which made PC-based software filters available for free to all Australian homes. Funding will be redirected to support ISPs making available a filtered internet service, or ‘clean feed'
, to all homes, schools and public internet points accessible to children, said the Minister.

Australians are very uncomfortable with the idea of having the Government decide what'
s appropriate for them and their families, said Jacobs. In fact, in a survey of 18,000 Internet users, only 13% agreed with the policy. That'
s why we feel it is a shame, when the Government has identified real needs for better education and policing, that their approach to Internet policy is so skewed towards the filter initiative. There are greater risks to Australian children online, and real steps can be taken to mitigate these risks. That'
s where the funding should be going.

The Minister'
s announcement will undoubtedly rekindle concerns amongst the Internet industry about the priority the national filter has been given, and the effect this will have on data services in Australia.

EFA has launched a web site to highlight the concerns and educate Internet users about the Government'
s plans, at http://nocleanfeed.com

Adultshop.com has lost a legal challenge to Australia's film classification system after arguing that most adults are no longer offended by seeing actual sex in movies.

The Federal Court today dismissed an appeal by Adultshop.com against an X rating given to the adult film Viva Erotica .

Adultshop.com had been fighting a legal battle for the movie to be given an R18+ rating, following a 2006 decision by the Classification Review Board to give Viva Erotica the more restrictive X18+ rating.

The application by Adultshop.com for a review of the board's decision was unsuccessful and in November last year Federal Court Judge Peter Jacobson upheld the board's ruling.

Today the full bench of the Federal Court dismissed Adultshop.com's appeal against Justice Jacobson's judgment.

In its appeals, Adultshop.com argued the guidelines for the classifications of films were invalid because they failed to properly consider whether most adults would be offended by Viva Erotica

Adultshop.com argued that community standards have changed and that most reasonable adults would not be offended by the depictions of actual sex in Viva Erotica , which had led to its X-rating, rather than simulated sex.

But the court today ruled there were no inconsistencies in the guidelines and they were still broadly representative of current community standards.

Adultshop.com's managing director Malcolm Day said the Office of Film and Literature Classification should commission new research into community views and update the guidelines. He said governments were imposing their own "puritan' views on all Australians: The guidelines are simply a reflection of the conservative, subjective views of the (state and federal) attorney generals .

Adultshop.com is considering an appeal to the High Court.

Online business Adultshop.com has appealed against the failure of its legal bid to reduce the X rating given to an adult film.

In November last year, Justice Peter Jacobson dismissed the online store's application for a judicial review of the Classification Review Board's decision to rank the film Viva Erotica as X18+.

For a film to fall under this classification it must contain real depictions of actual sexual activity ... in a way that is likely to cause offence to a reasonable adult'.

from a comparison of the Australian version and the UK version:

Firstly, when picking up a hooker in the Australian version you'
ll notice that you'
re unable to select your services (i.e. hand job, blowjob or standard intercourse) and the sex animations for these services have been completely removed. You'
ll merely see the car bounce from a locked rear-view. Although there are glitches one can perform to get a front view of the action, the animations are still non-existent. Therefore as in previous GTA games you'
re only able to see the hooker and Niko sitting side by side doing absolutely nothing. In the uncut version you'
re able to select your services after driving a hooker to a secluded location by cycling through the three different services. For which ever you choose the hooker will begin performing the act on Niko and you'
re be able to rotate the camera to see the action as you see fit.

Secondly, in the Australian version no blood pools appear beneath a dead person after shooting or stabbing them to death. Although there are blood splatters, there are no blood pools. In the uncut version blood will slowly ooze out from under a body and you'
re able to create bloody footprints by walking through it or bloody tire-tracks by driving through it.

Finally, when Niko or other NPCs are injured in the uncut version light blood patches appear on their bodies which basically represent bruises/bullet wounds. After having played through both versions of the game I can confirm that no other alterations have been made. Although the changes to the sex scenes come as no surprise one must wonder why Rockstar censored blood pools and body injuries. These elements are present in numerous other games which have been released totally uncut in Australia.

Australia's Catholic church has taken a swipe at foul-mouthed British chef Gordon Ramsay and demanded his reality television shows be either taken off air or shown at a later time.

The move comes as Australia's Parliament holds an inquiry into swearing on television, prompted by Ramsay's antics in his series Kitchen Nightmares and Hell's Kitchen.

One episode broadcast recently featured Ramsay using a four-letter expletive more than 80 times, while he also shouts at a chef saying: You French pig.

There can be no excuse for vilification of this sort. We conclude that this episode should never have been aired on Australian television, the Catholic church in the southern city of Adelaide said in a submission to the parliamentary inquiry.

Ramsay's reality programmes are popular ratings drawcards in Australia, but they have also prompted complaints from schools and parent groups who are angry that the shows are broadcast at times when children may be watching television.

Two of the Ramsay programmes air at 8.30pm, while one of the shows, Hell's Kitchen, where contestants compete to win a restaurant, is aired at a later 9.30pm time slot.

Conservative Senator Cory Bernardi initiated a Senate inquiry into swearing after his office received several complaints about Ramsay's programmes.

The inquiry has received more than 50 public submissions, with the overwhelming majority in favour of tighter regulation and calling for the Nine television network, which broadcasts the programmes, to censor Ramsay.

But the Council for Civil Liberties in Australia's largest state of New South Wales said it has no problems with Ramsay's programmes, which regularly attract more than one million viewers: This inquiry is yet another attempt to restrict the freedom of expression of ordinary Australians. Not everyone is offended by coarse language .

The Australian censored version of Grand Theft Auto IV doesn't show player sex, though the act remains implied with "car rocking" visuals and potty mouth dialogue.

According to GameSpot, in Australian versions of GTA IV, Niko can indeed pick up prostitutes, but once he takes said sex worker to a secluded area, the game camera shifts to a tight shot of the rear of the vehicle the pair are in and cannot be moved.

Prostitution upgrades resulting in superior player health have also been removed from the Australian version.

The US and international versions of GTA IV take the implied sexual act a step further, however, by showing fully clothed dry humping (also called frottage) scenes that simulate the motions of intercourse. There is no nudity in the Mature rated game, however, only scantily clad women.

As an alternative to traditional food power ups found in video games, Grand Theft Auto III introduced the concept of prostitution power-ups back in 2001.

New South Wales police have raided a number of adult shops in Sydney's Blacktown and St Marys over the last week, ostensibly looking for X18+ videos and DVDs.

It is illegal to sell films that have been classified X18+ by the Federal government, in NSW. Most people do not know that non-violent, sexually explicit films showing consenting adults, are illegal to sell in NSW or any of the Australian states for that matter.

It is estimated that up to 50 police officers spent at least 10 hours each performing these raids and that at least another 200 police hours will be spent on classifying and processing the thousands of DVDs that were seized. Approximately 30 robberies and a dozen assaults would have taken place in the Blacktown and St Mary'
s precincts during the time that these raids were enacted.

Mostly this is not the fault of the police. It'
s the fault of the state government who would rather that they spend unnecessary amounts of time policing morality - like censorship breaches. What makes this situation worse is that many of the police raids are carried out at the request of the federal government'
s Censorship Board. The very same organisation that classifies X18+ films as OK for adults at a federal level.

The Board'
s Community Liaison Officer, Ron Robertson, is supposed to go around and visit retailers and inform them if they are selling material outside of the law. Instead, he now takes it upon himself to encourage state police to waste their time busting adult retailers for selling x18+ films that his own Board has classified! If this sounds like bureaucracy gone mad, you'
re right. The NSW Attorney General should get out and about and talk to a few of the 30% of the state'
s adults who regularly buy and watch X18+ films. And the Federal censorship Minister, ( former NSW Attorney General) Bob Debus, needs to have a serious talk to all state Attorneys about the massive waste of police resources in each state on policing the sale of adult films.

Australian parenting and education experts have savaged the release of a new video game based on schoolyard bullying, which features animated blood and violence, sexual themes, crude language, and alcohol and tobacco use.

Bully: Scholarship Edition pits schoolchildren at a fictitious boarding school against one another in a violent struggle for control of the campus.

The game's rating is listed on an Australian government classification website as M, meaning it does not carry the age restriction attached to the higher MA15+ rating.

Parenting Australia chief executive Jane King described the game as "disturbing" and said it should never have been released: It's scary, it's outrageous, it's gross . I do think the classification system needs to be reviewed. I would be very concerned if my 13-year-old son played a game like that. I think the message of solving violence with violence is extremely disturbing. Ms King encouraged parents not to buy the game.

Australian Education Union president Angelo Gavrielatos said teachers worldwide were vehemently opposed to the game and the union had joined a coalition of eight teacher organisations from countries such as South Korea, the United States and Britain denouncing its release: What we are concerned about is the continuing production and development of such games that glorify violence and bullying. There's a point where the corporate world must take some responsibility to regulate these games. In a world where the issues of bullying and violence are a concern, the production of these games is not acceptable.

A spokeswoman for the Australian Classification Board said the game was approved because the themes were: moderate in playing and viewing and were justified by context. During the game the player is not encouraged to attack innocent bystanders or undertake acts of bullying and is not rewarded for doing so. The missions players undertake are generally about thwarting acts of bullying, exploitation or discrimination. If the player does bully another player out of context a punishment type bar increases and when full it causes the character to be apprehended by authority figures.

Analyst and gamer John Greentree said critics of Bully: Scholarship Edition might change their tune if they played the game. The purpose of the game is not to be a bully but survive a school that is full of bullies. The point of the game is to show that all groups are capable of being bullies and bullied. It's pathetic that your scare-mongering will actually scare people away from this sort of game that actually has real lessons.

The Australian censor has issued a report on its decision to award a MA15+ rating for a pre-cut version of Grand Theft Auto IV.

The report does not identify what was pre-cut though. [Also Spoiler Warning!]:

VIOLENCE

Violence is relatively frequent and strong in playing impact.

During the game, the player (as lead character Niko Bellic) is required to undertake various missions, mostly involving criminal activity, in order to develop contacts, make money and protect his cousin Roman. These include pick-ups and drop-offs, killing / protecting various people, stealing, racing, chasing, eating, drinking, going out and dating. A number of tasks involve drugs (for example retrieving a stash of cocaine for a dealer) and violence (for example, rescuing Roman from a kidnapper).

Violence includes hand to hand combat (basic punching and kicking) and more regularly involves use of various weapons. These include knives, baseball bats, a nightstick, pistols, machine guns, shot guns, rifles, grenades and rocket launchers. The player is able to use these weapons to inflict injury on other participants which results in frequent blood spray. Blood spray occurs as victims are attacked and is also depicted on objects such as floors and walls. Blood pooling occurs under bodies that are shot at after death however no post mortem damage (such as decapitation or dismemberment) is possible. These is also infrequent blood splatter on the camera lens as the player manoeuvres their way through missions involving killing.

A less frequent example of violence includes the ability of the player to set an enemy alight causing them to burn. The victim is shown flailing and on fire before they fall to the ground. Bodies remain as long as the player lingers in a particular scene, however after this, they disappear.

As the violence is relatively frequent, causing blood spray and injury detail, the impact is strong.

LANGUAGE

Coarse language is frequent. Aggressive and/or strong coarse language is infrequent.

During the game play the characters are heard to use "fuck" language, primarily in a naturalistic tone but occasionally in an aggressive manner. This, coupled with the infrequent use of the word "cunt" (as well as some visual use written on a strip club wall) creates an impact which is strong.

OTHER MATTERS CONSIDERED

In the majority view of the board the game contains drug and sexual references, which although moderate in impact, warrant flagging at the MA15+ classification.

These include a scene (with no player interaction) where a drug dealer is depicted implicitly, then explicitly, snorting lines of white powder (implied to be cocaine) from a table and the involvement of Niko in various missions dealing with drugs.

Further, there are sexual references which require flagging at the MA15+ classification. These include a scene (with no player interaction) at the beginning of the game depicting a woman in lingerie whipping a man in his underwear, tied to a bed and the general ability of the player to go on 'dates' and have sex with a 'girlfriend', to pick up a prostitute and have sex with her and the ability to attend a strip club and pay for a lap dance.

Australian Channel has received nine official complaints from the 1.25 million viewers who tuned each week into its gangland war series Underbelly .

But the network will still be investigated by the Australian Communications and Media Authority after a religious group alleged the show breached its 8.30pm M classification.

An ACMA spokesman confirmed Nine would be investigated after the South Australian branch of Christian group Festival of Light lodged a complaint.

Under the rules, viewers must first lodge a complaint with the networks, and if they are dissatisfied with the response in 30 days they can take it to ACMA, which is then obliged to act.

Nine's chief censorship officer Richard Lyle said the network would mount a strong defence and maintained the show fit within the strict ACMA guidelines: The sex scenes and language must be appropriate, but the fact is Underbelly is not fiction and it honestly portrays how they behaved and were able to get away with what they did .

The ACMA spokesman said the investigation would take three to four months, by which time the 13-part series would have finished.

Senator Steve Fielding is obsessed with pornography. His greatest direct contribution to public policy since he was "elected" was to badger the Howard Government into wasting tens of millions of dollars on the ludicrous Netalert internet filter scheme.

Now he has managed to impose the views of his bizarre monotheistic cult on other Senators and their staff. Since 28 March, Senators have been prevented from accessing "inappropriate" internet content at the request of Senator Fielding, who has convinced Senate President Alan Ferguson to impose the same filter as that in place for bureaucrats.

Accordingly, anything related to sex, drugs, weapons or other "inappropriate content", regardless of what it actually is, is blocked.

Senator Lyn Allison has written to Ferguson demanding to know why Fielding was permitted to impose his own reactionary view of the online world on other Senators, who determines what is "inappropriate" and how Senators are supposed to do their job properly.

Allison reels off a number of topics now blocked by the Fielding Filth Filter: reproductive health; sexualisation of children; drug abuse and rehabilitation, the opium crop in Afghanistan, weapons trading – all issues of legitimate interest to those engaged in the policy process, and all now blocked as "inappropriate".

The year's most highly-anticipated video game, Grand Theft Auto IV , hits stores on April 29 but many Australian gamers have cancelled their orders.

Already angered by the price of the blockbuster in Australia - $120 compared to $64 in North America - gamers have reacted with outrage to news that developer Rockstar has edited the game for Australia in order to obtain an MA15+ rating.

Many gamers said they cancelled their orders with Australian shops and will import a cheaper, uncut version, flouting the law.

A Rockstar spokesman says a censored version of GTA IV was developed to comply with the Australian classification system, which does not have an R18+ rating. The spokesman declined to reveal what was cut. [There have been unlikely sounding rumours that the game is cut to remove an object being rammed up somebody's arse]

A federal Labor MP has called on the Australian Government to follow France's lead and ban pro-anorexia websites.

Anna Burke said she had been calling for ban on anorexia websites for some time: It's something we really need to explore. This is dangerous information on the internet.

The Government is developing a cyber-safety policy that includes internet service provider filtering for all Australian homes, schools and public computers, but there is no indication that pro-anorexia sites would be included in the "black list" created by the Australian Communications and Media Authority.

Nicola Roxon, the federal Minister for Health and Ageing, said the Government would consider whether any action regarding the sites was appropriate.

But Bruce Billson, the Opposition spokesman for broadband, communications and the digital economy, said it would be difficult to regulate and it was the parents' responsibility: Parents should maintain an active interest in the use of the internet by members of their family .

Supporters and opponents of sex shops see an opportunity for change in the Queensland government's review of legislation on adult shops.

The review has been prompted by the siting of a sex shop opposite a Catholic school in the North Queensland town of Proserpine, which the government currently has no power to prevent.

Announcing the review, Acting Premier Paul Lucas questioned why New South Wales had laws prohibiting sex shops within 200 metres of schools and Queensland did not.

Bravehearts child protection nutter Hetty Johnson said even 200 metres was too close: They should not be put anywhere near schools, they should be in industrial areas . I think even the people that attend them and buy stuff from them might feel a bit more comfortable if it's sort of out of the way and not quite so visible. And we shouldn't be enticing children with these carrots all the time by sticking this kind of adult stuff around their environment.

Eros Foundation spokeswoman Fiona Patton wants the review to look at relaxing the current restrictions on what sex shops can sell: Currently magazines that are available in NSW newsagents are illegal to sell in Queensland, and in fact you can go to jail for selling one .

Following up on the Australian censors ban in February, Dark Sector 's local distributor, AFA Interactive has confirmed its intentions to release a build based on the sanitised Japanese version of the game down under.

AFA Interactive reveals it is simply waiting for publisher D3 Interactive to send out the new iteration of the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 title. With no decapitation and toned down... limb severing on humans (only) , AFA hopes this build will guarantee a MA 15+ reclassification under the ever hypocritical rules of the Australian censors.

While debate rages over an adult classification for video games in Australia, RockStar announce that they will bypass the furore by presenting a children's version of Grand Theft Auto IV to retail shelves.

With Grand Theft Auto IV slated for an April 29 release, RockStar Games have given an interview response detailing a special version for the Australian PAL market.

A Rockstar spokesperson confirmed that the company had produced a special version of GTA IV to comply with the Australian classification system, which does not currently contain an R18+ rating, but declined to reveal what material had been cut.

Race hate websites could be banned under an internet censorship proposal being considered by Australia's state and federal attorneys-general.

The plan, which is in its early stages, has aroused concern among civil libertarians who fear it could be used to stifle political debate.

The attorneys-general, meeting in Adelaide last week, commissioned a report on the viability of authorising the Australian Communications and Media Authority to combat race-hate sites by ordering internet service providers to take them down.

At present, ACMA polices websites that breach copyright, promote terrorism or publish extreme pornography.

There are racial vilification laws, but the problem with the internet is you can't trace down the people, NSW Attorney-General John Hatzistergos said. Any material that incites vilification and hatred is of concern. Material on the internet is a particular concern because it provides a cheap and easy means of dissemination to a very wide audience.

The proposal, which would be open for public consultation before any decision was made, followed a referral to the attorneys by state and federal police ministers, Hatzistergos said.

For the ACMA to be able to take down sites, it would require a new definition of the "refused classification" category used by the federal Government's Classification Board to deal with violent pornography and similar material.

But Dale Clapperton, from the online civil liberties group Electronic Frontiers Australia, said a problem with banning such sites was that it inevitably turns them into martyrs and gives more attention to the type of material you are trying to suppress"

The best cure for 'bad' speech is more speech, Clapperton said.