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by **admin_pornrev** » Sun Feb 28, 2010 3:51 am

Australian censorship law collapses under public disapprobation

FROM: http://www.boingboing.net/2010/02/02/au ... eviouspost

By Cory Doctorow at 12:25 PM February 2, 2010

South Australia's thin-skinned candy-ass politicians passed a law prohibiting any anonymous political commentary on blogs (but not "real" news-sources) prior to elections on penalty of a fine of AU$1250. Defending the measure, South Australia's Attorney General, Michael Atkinson claimed that a poster on AdelaideNow, Aaron Fornarino, was a fictional construct created by his political opponents to smear him. Turns out that Mr Fornarino lives just down the street from Atkinson's office. Humiliated, Atkinson rescinded the censorship law: "From the feedback we've received through AdelaideNow, the blogging generation believes that the law supported by all MPs and all political parties is unduly restrictive. I have listened. I will immediately after the election move to repeal the law retrospectively... It may be humiliating for me, but that's politics in a democracy and I'll take my lumps."

"I'll give you an example: repeatedly in the AdelaideNow website one will see commentary from Aaron Fornarino of West Croydon. That person doesn't exist," Atkinson said on the air. "That name has been created by the Liberal Party in order to run Liberal Party commentary."

This morning, AdelaideNow took great delight in posting a picture of Fornarino posing with a Mac and his young daughter. He's a second-year law student who moved to the area last year and "lives in a flat on Port Rd, about 500m from Mr. Atkinson's electorate office."

Internet uprising overturns Australian censorship law
(Image: AdelaideNow)
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14 Comments
| Leave a comment

Xenu | #1 | 12:35 on Tue, Feb. 2 | Reply
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That's hilarious. But to give the guy credit, at least he admitted his mistake and backed down, even if it was only after public humiliation.

Pam Rosengren | #2 | 12:37 on Tue, Feb. 2 | Reply
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Now all we need to do is overturn that other Australian internet censorship law, the federal one propsed by Stephen Conroy.
But this is a good start.

thequickbrownfox | #3 | 12:52 on Tue, Feb. 2 | Reply
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Michael Atkinson is also the reason we can't get an "Adult" rating for computer games in Australia.Anonymous | #4 | 13:05 on Tue, Feb. 2 | Reply

Anonymous #4 12.57 on Tue, Feb. 2 Reply
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where that guy used the word retrospectively in the quote did he mean retroactively?

Anonymous | #5 | 13:05 on Tue, Feb. 2 | Reply
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Now that's some brilliant strategy on his part.
1) The law is still in effect, exposing his enemies.
2) To get rid of it, voters have to reelect Atkinson so he can keep his campaign promise of repealing the law.

notthemessiah | #6 | 13:49 on Tue, Feb. 2 | Reply
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this was never a "censorship" issue and completely beaten up by the Rupert Murdoch owned daily paper in South Australia. It has always been a fact that any public printed comment made during an election campaign period must include the name and address of the person making the comment. This stops unknown third parties spending huge sums of cash either supporting or deriding the candidates. The most recent case where this proved necessary was in Tasmania during the 2006 election, the Exclusive brethren cult, published adverts on behalf of one party criticising the green party. Its also important to remember that we in Australia do not have a right to free speech as we do not have any sort of bill of rights. We are also about to have internet censorship foisted upon us by our christian socialist government, please help us stop this happening by creating a worldwide campaign against it - please go to http://www.getup.org.au/campaign/SaveTheNet/442

ill lich | #7 | 14:34 on Tue, Feb. 2 | Reply
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Democracy is messy, get used to it.

Anonymous | #8 | 15:13 on Tue, Feb. 2 | Reply
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Clearly Australian law is still hampered by its oldest history (as most younger western nations are)
The unfortunate fact of Australia's history is that it was a completely authoritarian construct -- citizens were prisoners and therefore free labour, and the ruling class had absolute authority in a way the oldest monarchies of Europe have since abandoned.
Dictatorial edicts from on high are therefore still possible, if mostly imprudent.
As for Atkinson, he will be reelected by his base if history is any indication, and he will not do as he now promises. This is a fake mea culpa designed to blow off the issue.
It is interesting that where anonymous commentary is allowed, it carries less weight with a lot of people because of the author's unwillingness to own it. While those who forbid anonymous speech give it a weight and power it may or may not deserve.
-
-GimpWii
Babau | #9 | 15:29 on Tue, Feb. 2 | Reply
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I hate that every time I see Australia on BB it's on the censorship-police-state beat. Not a problem with BB, but a sad reflection on our political situation the past couple of years.

cubicblackpig | #10 | 18:23 on Tue, Feb. 2 | Reply
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The unfortunate fact of Australia's history is that it was a completely authoritarian construct -- citizens were prisoners and therefore free labour, and the ruling class had absolute authority in a way the oldest monarchies of Europe have since abandoned.
Errr, yeah, I guess... Still better than being founded by a pack of disagreeable religious fanatics, though.
-----
The funniest thing about the South Australian law was that the requirement for providing a name & address for all on-line comments on the election did not apply to "the publication in a journal (including a journal published in electronic form on the Internet) of a leading article". (Yes, that's right: bloggers, commenters, letter-writers - no anonymity; newspaper managers writing editorials: anonymity. Do what now?) I was waiting to see heaps of people claiming that their online musings were effectively the same thing as a "journal" editorial, and therefore had the same right to anonymity; it would have made some interesting test cases.
Actually, that's the second funniest thing. The funniest is that this is the same government with the worst record for campaign donation transparency in Australia. So you can't criticise political parties in SA anonymously, but you can buy them anonymously.

notthemessiah | #11 | 00:35 on Wed, Feb. 3 | Reply
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the interesting thing is that the Colony of South Australia was not a convict construct but a free colony settled by paying people and was originally a progressive a forward thinking State, including such reforms as the first state to give women the vote in 1894, the end of 6pm closing in our pubs and decrimilisation of gay relationships in the 1960's. As a former South Aussie, it saddens me to see them bending to the lunatic christian fringe with moves such as having all R rated, not porn, just any R rated film in a seperate curtain section of Blockbuster and trying to suppress what little free speech we have. Like all South Australian's with a brain, I now live in one of the most liveable cities in the world, Melbourne, Victoria.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_australia

Michael Smith replied to comment from notthemessiah | #12 | 00:46 on Wed, Feb. 3 | Reply
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11,
I'm a Melbournian too. I get the impression that Adelaide has an ageing population, possibly due to many people in middle age leaving the city and returning when they retire, so I suppose politics follows the demographics.

Anonymous | #13 | 01:04 on Wed, Feb. 3 | Reply
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I'm so glad to see Atkinson humiliated. He is a throw-back to a bygone era, fearful of any new or different technology.
The fact he is a member of the Labor party just goes to show they're no different from the bible-bearing Libs after-all.
The sooner he's gone, the sooner we'll get a proper video game classification system. Or maybe not... Australia in general seems to be going down a fearful TSA-style censorship path.

Anonymous replied to comment from cubicblackpig | #14 | 01:34 on Wed, Feb. 3 | Reply
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I agree about the religious fanatics -- I'm in the 'favoured spoilt child' country myself. In the narrow corridor between Lakes Ontario and Erie, though, we have more people than that whole state, so surely everyone knows who these supposedly 'anonymous' media types are?
@messiah,
Hmm sounds like Canada too, except if it aimed for zero unemployment, did they evict the unemployed?
Fascinating and progressive history, maybe a victim of its own success? I've often noticed that those who are progressive in their youth can be overtaken by the better society they create.
ie. Roddenberry's 60s female captain vs. 90s male skirt
or Will & Grace's 'gays are people too' vs. genuine acceptance
Sounds to me (from both far away and close) that Atkinson the individual is the biggest problem, universal veto the next.

--GimpWii
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Australian censorship law collapses under public disapprobat

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