EU Censorship News

Japanese manga comics depicting children in sexual poses are not child pornography, Sweden's Supreme Court has ruled, overturning a high-profile conviction of a Swedish translator.

In a ruling issued on Friday, the court acquitted Simon Lundstrom, who had been found guilty of child pornography crimes by two lower courts before appealing his case to Sweden's highest court.

According to the Supreme Court's ruling, the drawings are pornographic and they do portray children. However, because the cartoons represent imaginary figures there is no way they could be mistaken for real children.

The criminalization of possession of the drawings would otherwise exceed what is necessary with regard to the purpose which has led to the restriction on freedom of expression and freedom of information, the court said in a statement.

The Hungarian press law is again drawing fire from the European Union; the amendments adopted by the Hungarian Parliament on May 24 have not placated Brussels.

In an interview published on June 7 in the Budapest weekly Figyelo, Neelie Kroes, EU Commissioner for the Digital Agenda and vice-president of the European Commission, said the recent changes failed to address the concerns of the EU and of the Council of Europe. The Hungarian media law remains embarrassing, Kroes added. It only addresses 11 of 66 recommendations made by the Council of Europe without guaranteeing the independence of the Media Authority or clarifying all ambiguities.

The media law that came into force in January 2011 established a Media Council appointed by parliament, meaning it would be packed with close allies of the ruling Fidesz party, with members serving a renewable nine-year term.

On May 25 Dunja Mijatovic, the OSCE representative for freedom of the media, although acknowledging some improvements, criticized major provisions that legislators left in place. She mentioned in particular the ways of nomination and appointment of the president and members of the Media Authority and Media Council and their power over content in the broadcast media, as well as the prospect of very heavy fines that can lead to self-censorship among journalists.

Not only did the Hungarian government not follow most of the EU and the Council of Europe recommendations, but it also introduced new controversial clauses, like exempting the Media Council from concluding contracts for public tender in broadcasting.

One of Spain's leading underground artists is due to appear in court over a film short he made in 1978 on How to cook Jesus Christ (Cómo cocinar un Cristo).

Javier Krahe has been taken to court by a Catholic legal association, the Centro Juridico Tomas Moro, for supposedly offending religious feelings . The Catholic association says the law has never before been applied in Spanish legal history.

Banned under Spain's strict censorship laws in 1978, Krahe's 54-second film was finally broadcast on television in 2004 as the backdrop to an interview with the artist.

The film uses culinary language and images to show viewers how to remove the nails and separate him from the crucifix, which we leave to one side before the white ebony figure of Christ is shown being lightly smothered in butter, placed on a bed of aromatic herbs in a glass tray, and popped into an oven. Another culinary guideline recommends using a proportion of one gaunt Christ for each two potential diners. After three days inside, he comes out of the cooker by himself! is the film's punch line .

Two previous attempts to prosecute Krahe over the film ended up being dropped.

Krahe, who has sought to expose the darker and more hypocritical facets of Spanish society for nearly half a century through acerbic anti-establishment humour, said he considers the trial over a film he made 34 years ago, and its much later broadcast, to be absurd.

Montserrat Ferna'ndez Villa, the producer of the television programme in which Krahe's film was aired, is also on trial for the same crime

Update: Reflecting badly on Spanish 'justice'

6th June 2012. See article from spainreview.net . See also How to cook Jesus Christ on youtube.com

Veteran Spanish singer-songwriter, Javier Krahe, was in court on Monday charged with offending religious feelings with a film he made back in 1978.

The 68-year-old artist told members of the press waiting outside the Madrid courtroom that he was innocent and misunderstood and that if he were found guilty, he would go into exile in France.

Film director Alex de la Iglesia, a friend and neighbour of Krahe described the whole trial as regrettable, anachronistic and absurd adding that it reflects badly on Spanish justice.

One of Spain's leading underground artists is due to appear in court over a film short he made in 1978 on How to cook Jesus Christ.

Javier Krahe has been taken to court by a Catholic legal association, the Centro Juridico Tomas Moro, for supposedly offending religious feelings . The Catholic association says the law has never before been applied in Spanish legal history.

Banned under Spain's strict censorship laws in 1978, Krahe's 54-second film was finally broadcast on television in 2004 as the backdrop to an interview with the artist.

The film uses culinary language and images to show viewers how to remove the nails and separate him from the crucifix, which we leave to one side before the white ebony figure of Christ is shown being lightly smothered in butter, placed on a bed of aromatic herbs in a glass tray, and popped into an oven. Another culinary guideline recommends using a proportion of one gaunt Christ for each two potential diners. After three days inside, he comes out of the cooker by himself! is the film's punch line .

Two previous attempts to prosecute Krahe over the film ended up being dropped.

Krahe, who has sought to expose the darker and more hypocritical facets of Spanish society for nearly half a century through acerbic anti-establishment humour, said he considers the trial over a film he made 34 years ago, and its much later broadcast, to be absurd.

Montserrat Ferna'ndez Villa, the producer of the television programme in which Krahe's film was aired, is also on trial for the same crime

Cannes Film Festival has banned a controversial comedy by French comedian/provocateur Dieudonne. L'antisEmite (The Anti-Semite) was scheduled to play not in the official festival but in the Cannes Film Market, but 'outrage' over its content, including mockery of Auschwitz and Dieudonne in Nazi dress, led the organization to scrap screenings.

Produced by the Iranian Documentary and Experimental Film Center, The Anti-Semite stars Dieudonne, who has been charged numerous times for violating European laws with his controversial statements and performances.

The Cannes Film Market's Jerome Paillard explained the ban:  

Our general conditions ban the presence of all films threatening public order or religious convictions, as well as pornographic films or those inciting violence

According to web site Geneva Lunch, the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) quietly suffered another setback in Switzerland where the Swiss Federal Council said it would not sign the agreement.

The Federal Council noted that since negotiations for the treaty concluded criticism of ACTA has continued to grow in a number of countries. The Federal Council went on to say that they are taking fears expressed about ACTA seriously because they concern fundamental liberties and important legal provisions.

Update: Judicial Review

18th May 2012. See  article from  gamepolitics.com

The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) will get a judicial review in Europe's highest court, according to the Wall Street Journal. The European Commission has asked the European Court of Justice - the highest court in Europe, to review the treaty and make sure that it is compatible with current European treaties and the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union.

The Court's opinion is vital to respond to the wide-ranging concerns voiced by people across Europe on whether ACTA harms our fundamental rights in any way, said John Clancy, the spokesman for EU trade commissioner Karel de Gucht.

Journalists in Ireland have raised concerns about the country's draconian gagging orders on police officers talking to the media, including allegations that the state is monitoring their mobile phone calls to try to reveal sources.

Dublin-based reporters have told MediaGuardian that the Irish police force, Garda Siocha'na, has questioned them about police contacts, threatened them with arrest and has been checking their mobile phone calls to suspected sources.

Ian Mallon, the deputy editor of Dublin's Evening Herald newspaper, said the gardai appeared more interested in who was the source of his stories than in acting against a crime boss who put a EUR20,000 bounty on the head of his colleague Mick McCaffrey. Mallon described the Garda's ongoing pursuit of journalists' sources in the Republic as Stasi-like .

The human rights organisation Index on Censorship said the Irish Republic's 2005 Garda Siochana Act, especially clause 62 of the legislation outlawing most rank and file police contact with the media, was not the behaviour of a European democracy . Under the act, Irish police officers who speak to journalists without authorisation from their superiors can face fines of up to EUR75,000, dismissal from the force or even seven years in prison.

Index on Censorship described the act and the recent upsurge in gardai pursuing journalists over their sources as akin to the kind of behaviour one would expect in an unreconstructed dictatorship .

...Read the full article

I was overjoyed to see that Wolfenstein 3D has been released again as a free to play browser version. I was less pleased to find out that as I'm in Germany I am not able to actually play it. It's an interesting reminder that this World Wide Web isn't quite all as worldwide as we might think.

The game that paved the way for Doom was released by iD Software 20 years ago, and Bethesda has written it up in handy cross-platform browser form.

The original Wolfenstein 3D was banned in Germany because of the Natzi-related content. And it is still banned: attempting to use the browser version tells me that I cannot because of the country I'm in. Wolfenstein cannot be even given away in Germany.

The Court of The Hague has handed down another ruling that restricts access to The Pirate Bay website. The Court has forbidden the Dutch Pirate Party from linking to, operating or listing websites that allow the public to circumvent a local Pirate Bay blockade. The political party is further ordered to shutdown its reverse proxy indefinitely and block Pirate Bay domains and IP-addresses from its generic proxy.

After two Dutch ISPs were ordered to censor The Pirate Bay earlier this year there was an influx of visitors to Pirate Bay proxy sites. In an attempt to take these proxies offline the Hollywood funded anti-piracy group BREIN obtained an injunction against one of the sites and used this to convince others to shut down as well.

The list of secondary targets included the local Pirate Party, who initially refused to give in to the demands but were later ordered to take their reverse proxy offline by the court. The Pirate Party claimed that the case against them amounted to a restriction of their freedom of speech, and sued BREIN over the order.

The Court of The Hague then delivered its verdict, which confirms most of the earlier injunction. The Pirate Party is now forbidden from encouraging the public to circumvent the Pirate Bay blockade and from listing or hosting tools that can enable others to do so. Should the Pirate Party fail to comply with the Court's ruling it faces fines of EUR5,000 per day to a maximum penalty of EUR250,000.

Pirate Party chairman Dirk Poot told TorrentFreak:

For many who where hoping for the law to come to the rescue of basic civil liberties, today must be a rough awakening. This ridiculously broad verdict allows BREIN to take down any site that is posting information that displeases their censors.

A first in Dutch law is that a judge has now also ordered a generic proxy to filter internet traffic as well. BREIN has created jurisprudence that will now allow them to come after any open proxy they have set their sights on.

The European Commission is considering setting up an age-based authentication system that limits where children can visit online. It says children are in danger of finding inappropriate material because ways to control where they can go are fragmented .

The system is part of a series of proposals Brussels has put forward to make the net safer for children.

In its draft proposals, the commission warns that neglecting protections for children could have a profound impact on European societies. Current child safety measures taken by member states covering parental controls, rating content and reporting illegal content are insufficient , according to the report. Many controls, such as filters for web pages, only work well for English, it says, and in some sectors - such as mobile apps - rating, filtering and control systems are almost non-existent.

The report also says there is a dearth of sites specifically aimed at children where they can go to learn and play, or ones which stimulate creativity and critical thinking.

More details of the proposals are expected to be published on the 30th of May.

A representative for freedom of the media at the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) said that governments across the world are posing a threat to internet freedom. The governments in the US and UK, known for their willingness to blame their political partners for violating human rights and freedoms, have turned out to be particular tough in suppressing internet freedom.

The OSCE says that one of major threats to internet freedom is inability of governments to adopt effective laws. Dunja Mijatovic, the representative for freedom of the media for the OSCE, thinks that governments are still trying to restrict or suppress internet freedom and censor online content.

Practically complete internet freedom is a matter of deep concerns for governments both in the developing countries, where opposition bloggers and journalists are often persecuted, and in the leading western democracies. All attempts to censor online content are usually described as measures taken as part of the war on cyberterrorism. The US and the UK have been particularly active in using this term to justify their tough online censorship.

Offsite Article

2nd May 2012.See  article from  guardian.co.uk

Head of global media observation group, OSCE, says many countries are trying to restrict internet freedom in name of security

...Read the full article

The publisher behind forthcoming fantasy video game Tera has responded to the angry fan response to news that the European version had been censored to secure a 12+ PEGI age rating.

Frogster's community manager has assured players that the publisher had been taking the complaints seriously. He said:

We sincerely ask you to understand that we take all these issues very seriously, he wrote.

As you have all noticed, the blood effect slider was removed from the OBT client. We want first of all to apologise to you for not communicating this change as it should have been. We understand the importance of being transparent with our community.

He then confirmed that Frogster has decided to reinstate the aforementioned slider, via a post-launch patch due in May. But then added that the game would still be censored:

The European release version of the game will still have to be slightly different from the North American and Korean build: the only threat to our 12+ classification was the blood splattered on your screen when you are slaying certain monsters. This effect is slightly modified in the European version..

Raven also clarified that changes had been made to the appearance of the game's Elin race.

[It was] not to comply with a demand from any official board, but because those characters in particular could have attracted to the game a population of unsavoury users, and it is part of our responsibility to protect our younger audiences from them, he explained.

All partners involved in the project decided to ask Bluehole Studios for a solution, so they created new textures and designs for Elin wear. We are sure you all agree that this effort for child protection was the right thing to do.

The main change is to change the lower body armor skin to give the appearance that the young looking female characters are wearing trousers as opposed to knickers. See article from terapvp.com .

The game will be released in Europe on 4th May 2012. with a PEGI 12 rating. The game is rated as Mature (M) in the US which is a '17' age rating.

Norwegian Media Authority (Mediatilsynet) banned three movies for sale and show among only four films which were censored.

The three films that were banned were Obsession - Buckstuck , Pure and A Serbian Film , writes TV2.

• The German Obsession - Buckstuck , which is a sadomasochistic film, was considered to be in violation of Penal Code. We can accept any SM movies, but this went too far, the censor reported. In fact the DVD covers suggests something scatological
   
• The American Pure is a traditional hardcore movie with extraordinary violence. According to the censor, it was the violence that invoked the ban, not the sex.
   
• The Serbian Film was banned because it contains violence with the sexualisation of children. Ove Wathne of Mediatilsynet told daily Dagens Naeringsliv that it is usually an ingredient that provides a basis for an assessment of the Authority.

In Norway films are self rated by the distributors. The Norwegian media censors step in on demand, presumably in response to complaints or controversy.

France's conservative government has unveiled new counterterrorism measures to punish those who visit extremist websites or travel to weapons-training camps abroad, in the wake of killings by an suspected Islamic extremist in southern France last month.

The measures now go to Parliament, where they may face resistance from the Socialists, who say France's legal arsenal against terrorism is already strong enough and that the proposal is a campaign ploy to boost President Nicolas Sarkozy's chances at a second term.

Sarkozy's Cabinet gave its go-ahead to measures that would make it illegal to travel abroad to indoctrination and weapons-training camps for terrorist ends or to regularly visit websites that incite or praise deadly terrorism.

Sarkozy's government insists the measures are needed to fight the relatively new phenomenon of lone wolf terrorism by extremists who self-radicalize online via jihadist Web sites, and are hard for authorities to track.

Israel has declared the German Nobel laureate, Gunther Grass, persona non grata following the publication of his poem suggesting that the Jewish State poses a greater threat to world peace than Iran.

The celebrated author, 84, noted for The Tin Drum , was forced to defend his poem, explaining that his criticism was directed at Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and not Israel as a whole.

After the work was published in a German newspaper last week, Netanyahu accused the author of shameful moral equivalence and suggested that his criticisms derived from his time in the Waffen-SS during the Second World War.

Reflecting the bitter official mood in Israel, Interior Minister Eli Yishai said that Grass would in future be barred from entering the country. Grass's poems are an attempt to guide the fire of hate towards the State of Israel... and to advance the ideas of which he was a public partner in the past, when he wore the uniform of the SS, Yishai said.

In his poem What must be said , Grass said that Israel endangered a fragile world peace and warned that it could wipe out the Iranian people with a first strike to stop Tehran's nuclear ambitions.

Under pressure from the German government, media censors at BLM have initaiated an action to remove Iran's international English Channel, Press TV, from SES Astra.

In an email sent to the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting officials, Vice President of the SES Platforms Services, Stephane Goebel, noted that the BLM has asked Press TV be immediately removed from the platform.

The authority has claimed that Iran's English-speaking channel does not have a license for broadcast in Europe. Goebel added that his company will be no longer able to keep the Press TV signal on air and will need to shut down the service without further notice.

The channel was turned of on 3rd April.

Press TV has responded that the decision to remove Press TV is a flagrant breach of regulations and a disproportionate act. The channel has said that it will be demanding compensation unless transmissions are restored by April 5.

Update: Legal Channels

8th April 2012. See  article from  english.farsnews.com

Iranian Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance Seyed Mohammad Hosseini said that Tehran will not sit silent about the ban on Iran's International English Channel, Press TV, and will pursue the case through legal channels. He said:

We will legally pursue the case with (Germany's) taking Press TV Network off the air. We too enjoy leverages and will use them, and we won't keep quiet,

We don't want to reciprocate this move, rather we will condemn it. We condemn those who claim to be advocates of the free flow of information and democracy but are not ready to tolerate a network of ours.