International Censorship News

Iran said that it planned to launch a crackdown on rap music, complaining that the words used by rap artists were "obscene", the state IRNA news agency reported.

"There is nothing wrong with this type of music in itself," the official for evaluation of music at the Culture and Islamic Guidance Ministry, Mohammad Dashtgoli, was quoted as saying: But due to the use of obscene words by its singers this music has been categorised as illegal.

In coordination with the police, illegal studios producing this type of music will be sealed and the singers in this genre will be confronted, he said.

The Islamic republic's hardline officials have repeatedly complained about a "cultural invasion" by "decadent" western music which they believe diminishes Islamic values. The culture ministry official expressed his frustration that rap artists were finding low-cost ways to publish their music on the Internet. We should find a solution for this.

Producing albums and holding concerts in Iran requires official permission from the culture ministry and, needless to say, rap music is an underground phenomenon in the Islamic republic. Nevertheless, rap albums are widely available on the black market with artists drawing inspiration from the Persian-language rap of the Iranian diaspora based in Los Angeles.

Ömer Asan appealed to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) after his book Pontus Culture was confiscated for allegedly containing "separatist propaganda". The ECHR has sentenced Turkey to paying 1,500 Euros compensation.

The book was first published by Belge Publications in 1996. The first edition was not stopped. The second edition came out in Turkey in 2000. The then State Security Court decreed the confiscation of the book in January 2002.

The ECHR questioned why the second edition was confiscated if the first one was not and there had been no changes in law. According to the ECHR, the only difference was that the media had pounced on the publication of the second edition.

The court said that it was not convinced that it was necessary in a democratic society for the government to limit the freedom of expression of Asan. It further recorded that the book did not contain any political theses but rather ethnological, cultural and linguistic information.

The book was allowed to be sold again in August 2003, after the ban on the book had been lifted.

In a separate case, the ECHR found no grounds for the six-month closure of Nur Radio station and TV channel by the Radio and Television Supreme Council (RTK). A person at the radio station had described the earthquake of August 1999 as "a warning from Allah". However, the ECHR did not consider it necessary to sentence Turkey to compensation or investigate a claim of discrimination in this case.

When the radio station reported the opinions of a spokesperson of the Mihr Community, who had said that the 1999 earthquake was "a warning against Allah's enemies" and that "Allah had decided on it", RTK had closed the station for six months in October 1999.

The station appealed to the ECHR on 27 January 2003. The court found the 160-day broadcasting ban too extreme a penalty.

A prosecutor is investigating whether to press charges against the Turkish publisher of a bestselling book by atheist writer Richard Dawkins for inciting religious hatred.

Publisher Erol Karaaslan said yesterday that he would be questioned by an Istanbul prosecutor as part of an official investigation into The God Delusion , written by the British expert in evolutionary biology.

Karaaslan could go on trial if the prosecutor concludes the book incites religious hatred and insults religious values, and faces up to one year in prison if found guilty, Milliyet newspaper reported.

The prosecutor started the inquiry into the book after one reader complained that passages in the book were an assault on "sacred values", Karaaslan said.

The publisher said he would be questioned today and faces prosecution both as the book's publisher and translator. The book has sold 6,000 copies in Turkey since it was published by his Kuzey publishing house in June.

The EU, which Turkey hopes to join, is pressing Ankara to change laws that curb free expression and do not fit within the bloc's standards of free speech. Turkey has said it will soften a law which makes it a crime to denigrate Turkish identity or insult the country's institutions.

Douma (puppet) was a Street Fighter style game set in Lebanese politics. The online game lasted only a day before authorities compelled its creator, known only as “Z.F.”, to take it down.

Douma’s designer ZF told the Daily Star: We tried, with a medium we know [games], to give the people their given rights as citizens, to control the attitude and decisions of the politicians they elect … We tried to find another way for the fans to relieve their anger.

Players could choose their combatants from among seven prominent political figures. An eighth announces each round by riding across the battleground on a moped. From the newspaper account:

Each zaim (”chief”) has a special move with particularly devastating effects. The Hajj Hassan character’s secret weapon, for example, is a battery of Katyusha rockets, while Geagea’s is a kneeling prayer that summons the crushing fist of “God.”

ZF is hopeful the game may return soon: We are working on it, and fast, we’re just looking for the right way to do it.

The northern community radio network will protest to the Chiang Mai governor after two of its 10 member stations broadcasting in a hilltribe dialect were forced off the air for supposed security reasons. 

Sangmuang Mangkorn, coordinator of the Chiang Mai-based Migration Action Programme, said a man claiming to represent the Third Army called up the two stations, in Fang and Chom Thong districts, and ordered them to stop broadcasting, citing security reasons. The stations broadcast in Karen dialect.

He said there might be a political motive behind the closure order as the Dec 23 general election was approaching. It is widely known that the majority of hilltribe people who have Thai ID cards were key supporters of the dissolved Thai Rak Thai party, which has been resurrected as the People Power party.

Sangmuang said his radio station in Chiang Mai's Muang district, which broadcasts in the ethnic Shan dialect on FM 99 MHz, had also been warned that it might be shut down even though the station's programme content focuses on health and law issues.

A graphic video that shows the final minutes of Robert Dziekanski's life before he was shot by police Taser stun guns appears to be too shocking for YouTube.

YouTube has banned 24 hours from the online video sharing site, after the newspaper posted the highly publicized video of the incident Wednesday. In a statement e-mailed to 24 hours, the company called the video "inappropriate": Our policy prohibits inappropriate content on YouTube and our community understands the rules and polices the site for inappropriate material.

The company appears to have taken issue with the video, in which Dziekanski can be seen and heard screaming after he is shot without good reason by Canadian Police Taser guns. Dziekanski, who had arrived hours earlier at Vancouver International Airport, died shortly after he was shot on Oct 14.

Real violence on YouTube is not allowed. If a video shows someone getting 'hurt, attacked, or humiliated,' it will be removed, the statement read.

But 24 hours Editor-in-Chief Dean Broughton questioned YouTube's decision to censor the clip, saying it's in the public's interest for the video to be shown as widely as possible: This was a major news story that has captured the attention of people worldwide. This video is the only publicly available depiction of what actually happened to Robert Dziekanski. For YouTube to arbitrarily censor it defeats the purpose of citizen driven media."

Broughton said 24 hours would appeal the decision with YouTube.

Online games that involve violence, fantasy, cop-shooting, stripping and abducting young women are popular among Thai youths, while some use the Internet as a means to hook up with others for sex, a poll revealed yesterday.

Meanwhile the National Committee on Safe and Creative Media is gathering information on Internet cafes and computer game shops to implement a red (dangerous) or green (safe) sticker to identify these venues next year.

Ladda Tangsupachai head of the Culture Ministry's Cultural Surveillance Department, said the committee, on which she served as secretary, had assigned the Thai Health Promotion Foundation (ThaiHealth) and the Abac Poll to survey Internet use and impact among 1,114 Thais aged 15 to 24 in Bangkok and surrounding areas.

Most youths used the Internet to search for information, play online games and download music or movies, the poll found. The respondents also went online while at schools and educational institutions (75%) followed by shopping malls (58%) and homes (48%). Slightly less than a third said their parents knew in detail which websites they had visited while some 74% said they did not.

The online-game-playing respondents also ranked their favourite themes as fighting, fantasy worlds, cop-shooting, stripping and abducting young women.

Over half (53%) of the youths said they had seen obscene or pornographic materials on the Internet, including downloading porn pictures or clips (64%), playing games on pornographic sites (16%), chatting about sex with others (13%), uploading sexual pictures or message onto websites (11%), and using webcam services such as camfrog (6%).

Moreover, 27% of male respondents and 8% of female admitted they had sex with people they had met online. Of this group, 28% of males and 59% of females said the sex was not consensual.

Ladda said the Safe Media Committee also assigned the Culture Ministry to conclude the issue about Internet cafés and computer-game shops, as they planned to launch a campaign persuading business-owners to adjust Internet café and computer-game services to be of the same standard.

Next year the committee and officials will visit Internet cafés and computer-game shops and allocate the safe and creative green sticker, which should get more parents and children to use the services there. Meanwhile, Microsoft and Asiasoft said they would lower the programme prices for these venues.

Those given a red sticker, indicating inappropriate services, will face legal action by the police.

Film-makers in Indonesia have brought a case before the constitutional court, asking for the censorship board to be disbanded.

They say that the film law is outdated, and that the board is trampling on their constitutional rights.

The petition has been backed by some of the biggest names in Indonesian cinema.

The board describes its goals as unifying society and preparing it for change, while protecting it from any negative impact.

The film law which provides the legal basis for the censorship board was last updated under the repressive rule of former President Suharto in 1992. The board has jurisdiction over all movies, commercials, TV films and music videos released in Indonesia.

Many independent film-makers complain that it routinely cuts scenes, including some related to historical events.

One of the country's foremost directors, Nia Dinata, told the BBC that the board was still scared of film's influence over people, and that it was holding back the industry's creativity.

A Japanese publisher who tried to print images of male genitals taken by late US photographer Robert Mapplethorpe said he was hopeful the top court will lift an eight-year ban on the book.

Pornography is widely available in Japan and legal for personal use. But laws on public morals forbid the import of material that clearly depicts genitalia, causing frequent disputes as censorship is at officers' discretion.

The Supreme Court agreed this week to hear an appeal by Takashi Asai, who was barred from bringing into Japan a book of photos, including some showing men's organs.

Asai's publishing company, Uplink, had reproduced the photos in a book of Mapplethorpe's collection printed in 1994.

But when Asai took a copy to the United States and then brought it back to Japan in 1999, customs officers seized it as obscene and Asai agreed to suspend sales.

Asai told AFP: I really don't understand the government's decision to ban importing a book which had already been published for five years.

In Asai's case, the Tokyo District Court had sided with him, ruling that the ban be lifted and that the government pay him 700,000 yen (6,300 dollars) in compensation. The Tokyo High Court, however, overturned the lower court decision, and Japan's highest court will now hear the case on January 22.

Google cannot and will not censor the information which appears on its search engines. What is and isn't proper internet content is for governments and courts to decide, not for us, said Meir Brand, CEO of Google Israel.

Brand spoke at a conference held by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), titled Poisoning the Web – Hate on the Internet, which included a special panel on Google's refusal to censor anti-Semitic results that pop-up on its search engines.

I'm a firm believer in the ADL's values, but we believe radicalism and racism can be curbed through open discussion, not censorship, added Brand.

Wolf brought as an example a website called Jew Watch, which presented itself as an online library for Jewish history, but in fact held anti-Semitic content. The site was able to obtain the coveted first-on-the-list spot in Google's search engine. Once Jew Watch's true nature was exposed, tens of thousands of Google users signed a petition demanding the removal of the site from the search results. Google chose instead to add an annex to the site's link, explaining its nature.

The world, said the ADL is turning a blind eye to online racism, when alongside websites like Jew Watch, the world wide web is filled with so-called charity sites belonging to white-supremacy groups, Nazi memorabilia websites and online computer games which allow their users to kill the Jewish leader of their choice.

The internet, stressed Brand, can not be blamed for the existence of racism: Google mirrors the real world, including some of its uglier images, like racism. I'm an Israeli Jew and my family survived the Holocaust. This isn't an easy topic for me, but removing results form our webpage will not solve the problem.

The Internal Affairs Department has begun working alongside Internet service providers to block access to websites dedicated to child pornography.

Censorship manager Steve O'Brien says the department has drawn up a list of more than 7000 websites that host illegal material. Two Internet service providers agreed to block access to the sites in a trial which has been running for several months but which is still at "the very early stages".

O'Brien says the idea is based on very successful approaches to combating child porn in Norway and Sweden.

If the trial is expanded, people who try to access sites identified by Internal Affairs as hosting child porn may see a webpage telling them the site has been blocked and inviting them to contact the department if they have any queries. At the moment, they will find the sites will simply not load, he says.

During September and last month, the two ISPs that are part of the trial processed six million website requests from customers, of which 3351 were blocked.

O'Brien says Internal Affairs will not try to identify who tried to access the censored sites, because that would defeat the purpose of what it hopes to achieve: We are trying to show to average New Zealanders that we are trying to prevent harmful material going on to people's screens, not waving a big stick at them.

Internal Affairs is not blocking sites that are "borderline", he says, but only "known child-abuse sites".

So the saga of the new Film Act continues, with an increasing degree of weirdness, or even lunacy.

On Thursday, the National Legislative Assembly held the first-round deliberation of the new Film and Video Act. And if, under the influence of dementia or the approaching election, they pass the law in the second meeting next week, we will have a film act that contains a rating, for the first time in the world's history, that forbids people under 25 years of age to see certain movies.

Such perversity is unthinkable, and it is carrying the ongoing debate of the new law into the realm of comedy - no, actually it's tragicomedy, and not only for moviemakers but for the general audience, whose basic human rights would be violated by this absurd conservatism.

No country in the world (except some Taliban-ruled badland) takes away the right to choose to go to a movie from its 24-year-old citizens. Generally, the international threshold is 18, and even in a bastion of enforced civility like Singapore, the toughest rating restricts people under 21 from entering some movies. To elevate the bar to 25 is phenomenally laughable, and it raises questions about the integrity and intellect of certain bureaucrats in the ministry.

Other disturbing points remain unchanged in the latest draft, chiefly the state's ultimate right to ban films that touch on "the nation, the religion and the monarchy". Existing laws, such as the lese majeste law and anti-obscenity law, provide enough ground to cover the offence should some cretins make a movie about our sacred institutions. To literally spell out that power in the film bill reeks of the dark intention to control freedom of expression.

Article 34 of the new draft stipulates that no movies can be sent to screen outside the Kingdom before receiving an approval from the Film and Video Committee. This means independent directors will need to seek permission - like artists in China - before sending their films to international film festivals, and any movie that portrays Thailand, Thai politicians, Thai cops or Thai monks in a bad light is unlikely to get a nod.

State regulators have summarily pulled off the air Malawi’s first private television station, citing an alleged regulatory violation. The ruling, targeting a fledgling station close to opposition leader Bakili Muluzi in the lead-up to presidential polls in 2009, appeared to violate Malawi’s media laws, according to CPJ research.

Joy Television has remained off the air since receiving a letter from the Malawi Communications Regulatory Authority ordering the station to cease all operations on grounds that its license expired on May 31, 2007. The station must remain closed until it applies for an “appropriate radio and broadcasting license,”

 The station had been running test transmissions and entertainment programming in recent weeks ahead of a launch, according to Peter Chisale, director of sister station Joy Radio.

Yet Joy TV’s license—granted in 2002, according to Chisale, was not set to expire until 2009 under Malawi’s 1998 Communications Act, which grants licenses for a period of seven years, according to CPJ research.

This ruling, which does not appear to have a basis under Malawi’s laws, amounts to censorship and threatens to undermine the democratic credentials of Malawi as the country prepares for elections in 2009, said CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon.

Heavily armed and gun tottering Malawi security forces stormed Joy TV transmission station in the commercial city of Blantyre and confiscated TV transmitters.

Armed police, according to journalists at the media house who witnessed the whole scenario, came with a search warrant from Blantyre Magistrate court obtained by Malawi Communications Regulatory Authority (MACRA).

Station Manager, Peter Chisale confirmed to Nyasa Times about the development: This is continued harassment that Joy TV has been facing from the regulator for quite some time now. This is despite the fact that the matter is in the High Court of Malawi for a Judicial Review to determine the validity of the Joy TV license.

Sources say Macra were acting on orders from the Head of State to paralyse Joy TV which would have become the second terrestrial station after state controlled TVM.

Government is believed to be targeting the station because of its links to former president Dr Bakili Muluzi in the lead-up to presidential polls in 2009, which opposition United Democratic Front is hawking his name for return to power.

Joy TV remained off the air since receiving a gagging order from the regulator after it had been running test transmissions and entertainment programming ahead of a launch.

Committee for the Protection of Journalists (CPJ) executive director Joel Simon is on record to have said that the actions by the state on Joy TV amount to censorship and undermines the democratic credentials of the country in the run-up to 2009 polls.

Instead of ripping out the offending pages like they normally do, Saudi Arabia has outright banned the latest issue of the Arabic language version of Forbes magazine. The reason the magazine is banned is an article that talked about the wealth of the King and other Arabic country leaders.

Refaat Jaafar, managing editor of Forbes Arabia, which is based out of Dubai, said The reason was a two-page report on the wealth of 15 ruling dynasties, seven of which are Arab.

The report in Forbes ranked King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia third, behind the rulers of Brunei and the United Arab Emirates. Apparently, Saudis shouldn't know this kind of information.

This is not the first time that Forbes Arabia has been censored by the Saudi government. Authorities have ordered columns written by Khalid al-Dakhil, a well-known Saudi analyst and university lecturer, to be ripped out of the magazine twice this year already.

In what appears to be another blow to Iranian intellectual life, police in Tehran have recently shut down six bookshop-cafes, and others may be in line for closure.

The head of the Tehran police information department, Mehdi Amahdi, justified the closures on October 27 by saying the booksellers' union does not allow two separate professions, namely, selling books and selling refreshments, to be practiced together.

But the sudden strict enforcement of regulations seems to target the writers and intellectuals who gather at literary cafes, rather than the business owners.

Hafez Mussavi, a writer and publisher in Tehran, told Radio Farda that he believes the crackdown is linked to a broader pattern in which Islamic authorities have stepped up efforts to suppress dissent across all segments of society: I think this is part of moves that include, for example, the closure of newspapers. It means that they are just waiting for an excuse to prevent cultural activities or limit them .

Another Tehran-based publisher, Farid Moradi, noted that many other businesses in Iran, such as swimming pools, cinemas, and sports clubs, have coffee shops aside from their primary line of business, but those establishments have not yet run into legal problems.

The son of murdered Turkish-Armenian writer Hrant Dink has been found guilty of insulting "Turkishness", along with another newspaper editor.

Arat Dink and Serkis Seropyan were convicted after printing Dink's claims that the killing of Armenians by Ottoman Turks from 1915 was genocide.

The verdict came a day after a US congressional committee backed a bill labelling the killings as genocide. Turkish leaders reacted angrily, but the decision was welcomed by Armenians. The non-binding US vote, passed by 27 to 21 votes by members of the congressional House Foreign Affairs Committee, is the first step towards holding a vote in the House of Representatives.

Arat Dink and Mr Seropyan, who both work as editors at Agos, a leading bilingual Turkish and Armenian weekly newspaper, were given one-year suspended sentences for printing comments made by Hrant Dink during an interview.

Dink, the editor-in-chief of the newspaper, was one of Turkey's most prominent Armenian voices. He was shot dead outside his Istanbul office in January 2007. At the time he was appealing against a prior conviction for the same offence - insulting the Turkish identity under Article 301 of the country's penal code.

Turkey faces ongoing international pressure to scrap the offence, under which dozens of writers who have been charged, often for articles dealing with killings of Kurds or Ottoman Armenians.

The Turkish government says it will change a controversial law restricting freedom of expression.

Justice Minister Mehmet Ali Sahin said a new bill would be put before the Turkish parliament in the coming days.

The law being reviewied, Article 301, bans perceived insults to Turkish identity or the country's institutions.

It has often been invoked by nationalists against those who argue the Ottoman empire committed genocide against Armenians.

Several drafts have been prepared in line with proposals by civic groups. The cabinet will discuss them at first opportunity, select one and submit it to parliament, Sahin told Anatolia news agency.

He did not give details of how the law would be reformed.

Earlier on Tuesday the European Commission said restrictions on freedom of expression were blocking Turkey's progress towards EU membership.

It is not acceptable that writers, journalists, academics and other intellectuals... are prosecuted for simply expressing a critical but completely non-violent opinion, EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn said: The infamous Article 301 must be repealed or amended without delay .

If the recommendations of the parliamentary standing committee were to go through, you might as well pull the shutters down on the net in the country, because the committee seeks to raise the liability of internet service providers for any third party content in a manner that it will become difficult to run the service and stay away from jail.

Over 85% of internet deals with third party content. This includes search engines, mail services, messengers, blogs, communication and community sites. If they were to be held responsible for the sites searched, mails sent, blogs filed or scraps on community sites then service providers would be hauled up by the police for acts they are not even faintly responsible for.

Why, then, is the committee proposing this insanity? The answer is simple — the committee has failed to understand the internet. In its report last month on the Information Technology (Amendment) Bill 2006, the committee headed by Congress MP Nikhil Kumar has called upon the government to abandon the proposal to reduce the liability of service providers or intermediaries in the wake of industry outrage over the 2004 arrest of Baazee.com’s CEO for the auction of a CD containing an infamous student porn MMS.

The bone of contention is Section 79 of the IT Act 2000 which says that no service provider shall be liable for any third party information if he proves that the offence was committed without his knowledge or that he had exercised all due diligence to prevent the commission of such contravention.

Since the existing safeguard failed to save Baazee.com CEO Avnish Bajaj from being subjected to the ignominy of arrest and detention, the government sought to reduce the liability further in its 2006 Bill. The Bill raises the bar for taking action against ISPs by stipulating that they are not liable unless it is proved that they have conspired or abetted in the commission of the unlawful act.

To the industry here, the proposed amendment seemed a fair safeguard. But the standing committee, far from endorsing the change, has recommended that the existing Section 79 should be strengthened by casting “a definite obligation” on the service providers to ensure that the third party information was within the parameters of the law especially because it is very difficult to establish conspiracy or abetment on their part.

So, which way should Indian laws go? The way the advanced countries have gone, or in accordance with the wishes of some misinformed MPs that would spell the death of Internet in India?

The Indian Information and Broadcasting ministry will soon issue a warning to television channels against airing programmes that promote superstition and occult practices.

Shows on occult and superstition on Hindi and vernacular language channels are said to garner high television ratings.

The viewership is believed to be high among people in the lower strata of society as also in rural India, though several social action groups are opposed to such programmes.

The government had planned to ban such programmes under a proposed content code, but the move failed to take off in the wake of resistance from the television industry.

As there are no specific guidelines for such programmes, the I&B ministry has asked an inter-ministerial committee to look into the whole matter. Last week, the committee met decided to issue the warning.

Officials in ministries from home affairs to women and child development, social justice and empowerment as well as health are unanimous that channels need to be warned as these programmes were having an adverse impact on society.

I&B minister Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi had earlier hauled up news channels for showing special programmes allegedly propagating superstition and occult practices. However, news broadcasters said such programmes were being shown only to create awareness among viewers against such ills. So far, the ministry has showcased only a couple of channels on specific programmes like Kal Kapal Mahakaal on Zee News.

Meanwhile the Indian government are discussing the new TV content code which will be a part of the new Broadcast Regulation Bill .This is likely to be introduced in Parliament during the monsoon session and aims to clear out the greys, and lay down a specific frame within which broadcasters should function.

The code puts programmes into nine categories, for children, women among others, and prescribes the dos and don’ts in each category.

The code specifies that adult content, programmes certified by the Censor Board as ‘A’, would be allowed on TV between 11 p.m. and 4 a.m. Until now, only movies or music albums certified as universally adult (UA) were allowed.

Police yesterday arrested two men at the 12th Book Expo Thailand 2007 who were selling erotic novels and seized hundreds of the titillating tomes.

Special Branch Police commander Maj-General Sombat Supacheeva spouted that although these works contained no photos, they used sexually explicit language and could incite lust.

The victims of the police nonsense could each face a maximum three years in jail and/or a fine of Bt6,000.

Ladda Tangsupachai, prudish director of the Culture Watch Centre, praised the police for cracking down on salacious material. The Culture Ministry will convene a meeting of agencies next week to tackle the spread of adult material, she said.

The book expo runs until October 28 at the Queen Sirikit National Convention Centre.

The Thai print media has won a major concession in its protracted struggle to free itself from the shackles of the draconian Press Act B.E. 2484. Thanks to the government and the National Legislative Assembly the obsolete law which empowered authorities to close down a newspaper, censor news or ban the import or distribution of any publication they deemed a threat to public order or good morals, has been repealed and replaced with a new and media-friendly law, officially called the Press Registration and Notification Act.

The abrogation of the Press Act B.E. 2484 represents a big step forward in the realisation of free expression in Thailand, a fundamental right guaranteed in the 1997 Constitution and also in the existing charter which was approved in the recent national referendum. The new press law, which will come into effect after royal endorsement by His Majesty the King, will do away with censorship and the once powerful press officers who could close down a newspaper or any publication. It will also make it easier to start a publication without the need to apply for a licence.

Yet, there still remains another major problem that has stood in the way towards the realisation of free expression. That is the criminal defamation provisions as stipulated in the Criminal Code, which is as obsolete as the recently-repealed Press Act and thus in need of modification in conformity with the prevailing democratic atmosphere, or else completely abrogated.

In reality, the laws have been abused by politicians as a means to intimidate or to muzzle criticism against themselves by the media.

The use of criminal law in defamation cases represents a disproportionate means of addressing the problem of unwarranted attacks on someone's reputation. It exerts an unacceptable chilling effect on freedom of expression, particularly in relation to statements regarding public figures or on matters of public interest. Civil defamation laws, on their own, provide adequate redress for harm or damage done to the reputation. Thus, civil defamation laws are preferable to criminal defamation laws. There is no denying there is a need to protect the reputation of individuals, just as it is necessary to protect free expression. The point is how to balance free speech with the need to protect reputation. One extreme option is to repeal the criminal defamation laws. The other is to do away with the imprisonment penalty for defamation charges. Whichever the option, the existing criminal defamation laws are out of time and out of place and go against the spirit of democracy. It is time they were amended. Or completely repealed.

A tiny political party that promotes sexual freedom in Canada complained in Federal Court it was discriminated against by the country's postal service.

The Sex Party is upset that Canada Post refused to distribute a flyer during the 2006 federal election that outlined the group's philosophy, after deeming some its contents to be pornographic.

We are advocating for rights established for any citizen, said Sex Party leader John Ince, who told a judge in Vancouver that the pamphlet was intended to help recruit new party members and raise donations.

The Vancouver-based party, which advocates liberalization of Canada's prostitution laws among other issues, says its political mailing ran afoul of rules aimed at prohibiting use of the postal system to distribute mass-mailing flyers for hard-core pornography or other illegal material.

That is not what our material is, Ince told the court. Ince, a former lawyer who owns an erotica shop, said the Sex Party does not oppose restrictions on mailing hard-core porn, but said postal officials have been inconsistent in applying their own rules.

Canada Post said it has an obligation to refuse material that could be seen by children or others who might find it offensive.

Canada Post has denied its motives were political.

It seems banning books has become contagious in Thailand. The Thai government has now ordered censorship of the Thai translation of Nine Commentaries Criticising the Chinese Communist Party .

On October 10, Thai daily “Matichon” reported news of the ban order for the book in Thai translated from Chinese. The book criticises the Chinese Communist Party. A Thai ‘Press Officer’ empowered to act as government book censor comments that the text of the book directly attacks the Chinese government and may affect peaceful relations between Thailand and China. Therefore the Thai government issued its ban order on October 8 under Article 9 of the Printing Act of 1941 as contrary to public order or good morals . Such an order may be issued by publication in the Government Gazette or any daily newspaper.

The Russian government has banned a photograph showing two policemen kissing each other passionately in a Siberian forest from going on display in Paris.

The image shot among the snow-covered forest of birch trees shows the two men, in full uniform, kissing on the lips and holding each other by the buttocks.

Its creators claim it is a homage to the British graffit artist Banksy but the work proved too controversial for culture minister Alexander Sokolov.

Russia's culture minister claimed Kissing Policeman ( An Epoch of Clemency ) was politically provocative and banned it and 16 other works from going on display in Paris

This is despite the fact they have all already been on display in Moscow's state-owned Tretyakov gallery. Sokolov said: It this exhibition appears, it will bring shame on Russia. In this case, all of us will bear full responsibility. It is inadmissible... to take all this pornography, kissing policeman and erotic pictures to Paris.

Another work by the same artists, the Blue Noses collective, which showed Vladimir Putin, George Bush and Osama bin Laden cavorting on a doube bed in their underpants, was also banned.

His actions prompted one of two artists in the Blue Noses, Alexander Shaburov, to say: The state is beginning to administer culture in the same way it did under Khrushchev.

Singapore's government says it will continue to maintain "ceremonial censorship" and "a light touch" on any censoring of the internet.

Singapore's Second Minister, Ministry of Information, Communications and the Arts, Vivian Balakrishnan said: It is not possible to censor the Net in its entirety or insist on a single perspective being dominant. But, we do draw some lines in cyberspace and we block a total of 100 basically pornographic sites. We call this ceremonial censorship. We block 100 to indicate to the public that as a society, we don't stand for this. We are not going to waste our time hunting down every site.

The only time we prosecuted anyone on the internet was two years ago when a few bloggers made disparaging racial and religious remarks.

The minister says the Internet provides huge opportunities to tap into creativity, innovation and the generation of new enterprises: That opportunity is too good to be missed simply because one is paranoid, thus we will not be paranoid about the Internet. But we will be sensible and pragmatic in understanding where the dangers and the threats are, and we will seek to make our own stand on issues of sensitivity and concern.

Thailand, which strictly enforces laws protecting the monarchy, plans to extend protection to royal advisers and other members of the royal family and restrict media coverage of cases, lawmakers have said.

Under the proposed amendments, to be debated by the army-appointed parliament on Wednesday, journalists could be jailed for three years and fined 60,000 baht ($1,750) for ignoring a court-ordered publication ban.

We don't want any offence to the monarch to be repeated in the news or become an issue of any criticism inside or outside Thailand, Supreme Court chief judge Pornpetch Wichitcholchai told Reuters.

Those protected by the expanded law would include sons and daughters of the monarch and royal advisers known as privy councillors, Pornpetch said.

Thailand's lese majeste law is already among the toughest in the world, with jail terms of three to 15 years for anyone who "defames, insults or threatens" the king, queen, heir apparent or regent.

Under the proposed amendments, those found guilty of lese majeste against royal children face up to seven years in jail, and up to five years if it is against royal advisors, Pornpetch said.

The most recent conviction was of a Swiss man jailed for 10 years in March for defacing pictures of the king. At the request of police, few Thai newspapers reported the case of Oliver Rudolf Jufer, who received a royal pardon and was deported.

The police were doing the right thing and the media made the right decision not to report the story, but we are going to put those judgment calls into law, Pornpetch said.

But a media rights advocacy group said the amendments would gravely violate people's freedom of expression, which should be debated widely in the public, not by army-appointed legislators.

The existing law is already very powerful to gag the people. There is no need to make it tougher, said Supinya Klangnarong of the Campaign for Popular Media Reform: They should let the democratically elected lawmakers decide what to do with the current law.