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FIle under: And you thought American politicians were crazy … from today’s CAP Newswire:
March 27, 2009 (CAP Newswire) — On a Q&A program aired on Australian television last night, Australia’s Communications Minister, Senator Stephen Conroy, finally admitted error regarding the leaked blacklist of websites that the government is reportedly considering blocking.
According to the Sydney Morning Herald‘s recap of the session, more than 2,000 questions were submitted regarding the Aussie government’s “hugely unpopular policy” of Internet censorship. The audience even ridiculed and laughed at the senator’s responses, according to the article.
The main point of controversy regarding the blacklist is the inclusion of many sites that are perfectly legal, including gambling sites. When asked why the blacklist, which is supposed to focus on illegal activities, included a number of non-criminal websites, “Senator Conroy said it was the result of a ‘Russian mob’ that targeted small businesses and published questionable content on their websites,” wrote Asher Moses in the Sydney Morning Herald article.
“The admission by Senator Conroy on ABC television’s Q&A program last night casts significant doubt on the Government’s ability to filter the internet without inadvertently blocking legitimate websites,” the article continued.
Nick Minchin, a spokesman for the Opposition political party, was also quoted in the article: “This error only came to light because content from the secret blacklist had been publicly leaked. Under Senator Conroy’s regime how many similar errors will result in the wrongful filtering of legal sites and content?”
“When he wasn’t blaming the Russian Mob, the Minister was still invoking hateful, extreme content and protesting that they don’t intend to censor ‘political’ content,” commented Colin Jacobs, spokesman for Electronic Frontiers Australia, in the article.
“But this doesn’t address questions of how the secret list is administered, how the Government hopes to classify millions or billions of web pages without making any mistakes, or why an expensive national filter has to be applied at the ISP level in the first place.”
Click here to read the article in the Sydney Morning Herald.
Some of the legal sites that have been placed on this “blacklist” should take legal action against the government, that is if that is still allowed in Australia.
Did Senator Stephen Conroy think about the potential consequences of what impact his statement might bring from our friends in Russia, or the Russian community here at Bondi Beach, Sydney, Australia? I don’t think his statement is going to help race relations. The Australian Foreign Affairs Minister might do well to have a quite chat to Mr Conroy and perhaps them to the Australian Minister of Defence. Just as I forecast, this jackass policy and policy on the run by our ‘Minister of Silly Lists’ (thanks The Sydney Morning Herald for the watered down version of my term) is likely going to cause more damage than it does good. Jail the kiddie porn criminals and leave the rest of the adult websites and online poker websites alone, and get off artist Bill Henson’s back. WTF will they blame the Russians with next? When a government says “trust us” it’s time to be concerned. “They” are the thought police. I’ve got a movie for the CAP community… ‘They Live’ directed by John Carpenter and staring Roddy Piper. Watch the movie and look at some of GW’s and current Australian government policy, and we shall look forward to your report. If this website wasn’t a favorite of Government spooks it may be now.
Best Regards
Greg Tingle
Director
Media Man Australia
Casino News Media
Australian Casino News@NathanCAP 201049 wrote:
FIle under: And you thought American politicians were crazy … from today’s CAP Newswire:
March 27, 2009 (CAP Newswire) — On a Q&A program aired on Australian television last night, Australia’s Communications Minister, Senator Stephen Conroy, finally admitted error regarding the leaked blacklist of websites that the government is reportedly considering blocking.
According to the Sydney Morning Herald‘s recap of the session, more than 2,000 questions were submitted regarding the Aussie government’s “hugely unpopular policy” of Internet censorship. The audience even ridiculed and laughed at the senator’s responses, according to the article.
The main point of controversy regarding the blacklist is the inclusion of many sites that are perfectly legal, including gambling sites. When asked why the blacklist, which is supposed to focus on illegal activities, included a number of non-criminal websites, “Senator Conroy said it was the result of a ‘Russian mob’ that targeted small businesses and published questionable content on their websites,” wrote Asher Moses in the Sydney Morning Herald article.
“The admission by Senator Conroy on ABC television’s Q&A program last night casts significant doubt on the Government’s ability to filter the internet without inadvertently blocking legitimate websites,” the article continued.
Nick Minchin, a spokesman for the Opposition political party, was also quoted in the article: “This error only came to light because content from the secret blacklist had been publicly leaked. Under Senator Conroy’s regime how many similar errors will result in the wrongful filtering of legal sites and content?”
“When he wasn’t blaming the Russian Mob, the Minister was still invoking hateful, extreme content and protesting that they don’t intend to censor ‘political’ content,” commented Colin Jacobs, spokesman for Electronic Frontiers Australia, in the article.
“But this doesn’t address questions of how the secret list is administered, how the Government hopes to classify millions or billions of web pages without making any mistakes, or why an expensive national filter has to be applied at the ISP level in the first place.”
Click here to read the article in the Sydney Morning Herald.
