Just like home, really

Posted by Jenni Colwill on 13 April 2010 | 0 Comments

Tags: mandatory internet filter, censorship, democracy, Wikileaks

Years ago, after living in a country where democracy didn't exist, I returned to Australia full of democratic zeal and fervour, but it didn't take long to realise that even in our wonderful country, democracy can come under threat.

What a lot of people forget is that democracy only exists where there are citizens who are willing to participate in public life and to speak out on issues that concern them.

But you can't speak out on issues that you don't know exist.

Some years ago the Rudd government announced legislation to support mandatory internet filtering. The stated purpose is to filter out child pornography, which no-one in their right mind would argue against.

However, what is not being discussed is the fact that a whole lot of other content will be filtered - including topics that are controversial, and topics that pertain to important political and social issues. According to Professors Lumby, Green and Hartley, authors of Untangling the Net: The Scope of Content Caught by Mandatory Internet Filtering only 32% of the sites on the Australian Communication and Media Authority (ACMA)'s blacklist were related to child pornography.

Other banned sites included content that can be purchased offline including a web site that contained dialogue and excerpts from literary classics such as Nabokov's Lolita.

On Crikey.com.au we also learn that the government was considering allowing sites such as Youtube to be exempt from the filter if they agree to either prevent Australians looking at 'bad stuff' or take it down themselves.

Recently Wikileaks leaked a video of the killing in Afghanistan of Reuters staff and Iraqi citizens by US soldiers in US military helicopters.

It was bad. Really bad.

It showed the world what it is like for people living and working in Afghanistan.

Needless to say, the Americans are pretty cross that this video was leaked, and agencies like the CIA and the FBI have done everything possible to suppress it's publication.

You can be pretty sure this is the type of information that would be filtered out of our lives if the federal government gets the mandatory internet filtering legislation that it wants.

After all, the Australian government already tried to censor Wikileaks when it published the proposed list of sites that would be banned under their mandatory internet filtering legislation. You see, we aren't supposed to know what is banned under the proposed legislation.

If this legislation comes in as proposed, it is just possible that, to some of our resettled refugees, Australia will look a bit more like the home they have risked their lives to leave.

If you think this is as important as I do, let me know.