Despite Wikileaks, Clinton still preaching on an open internet
In January last year, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton gave a landmark speech entitled “Remarks on Internet Freedom“. The speech was noteworthy for its clear and unambiguous rejection of all forms of censorship and network control. Coming on the heels of Iran’s presidential elections and Chinese cyber-attacks, it seemed the U.S. was drawing a […]
Conroy not fooling anyone on an open internet
The internet freedom business is doing a roaring trade these days. Things started picking up early last year with Hillary Clinton’s landmark speech, “Remarks on internet Freedom,” which equated an open internet with human rights and condemned state-sponsored censorship of the net. Then came the revelations by Wikileaks, starting with the “Collateral Murder” video and […]
Time to retire classification
(From an opinion piece published on ABC Online). Before it came along, we were served by a revolving series of moral panics, changing censorship ministers and a patchwork of different state systems. Many books and films were banned that today would hardly warrant a mention – I wonder how many high schools would not allow […]
Europe gets it: Filters don't protect children
The European Internet Services Providers Association (EuroISPA) has spoken out against ISP internet filtering, saying that it is an ineffective band-aid that leaves illegal material online and in the wild. EuroISPA has called on the European Parliament to focus instead on permanently removing the material at its source. Forcing ISPs to block access to sites, […]
R18+ games – down but not out
The Standing Committee of Attorneys-General (SCAG) met on Friday, with the creation of an R-18+ category for computer games a top agenda item. Because changes to the classification code require unanimous agreement by all states and the Commonwealth, this is the body where the games reform is going to live or die. With the commonwealth […]