The AP reports:
In a televised speech, Chavez said: “The Internet can’t be something free where anything can be done and said. No, every country has to impose its rules and regulations,” Chavez said.
And Australia, which is supposed to be “freedom land”, is following along:
“The government does not support Refused Classification (RC) content being available on the Internet,” a spokeswoman for the minister told AFP.
“The government’s proposal will bring the treatment of overseas-hosted content into line by requiring ISPs to block overseas content that has been identified as being RC-rated,” she said. “There are no plans to block any other material that is not RC,” she added.
No plans… yet.
Chavez biggest supporter Sean Penn agrees, journalist with dissenting views should be jailed.
http://dailybail.com/home/sean-penn-tells-bill-maher-reporters-should-be-jailed-for-ca.html
A BIG MIDDLEFINGER to any country that censors and wants to regulate the internet.
FUCK YOU
I lived in Oz for many years. Great country… one of the best. But they have some quirks.
Example. You can’t buy hardcore porn in your state. But you can visit your local legal brothel.
I wish Oz would adapt their own bill of rights that explicitly guarantees freedoms. Right now, they are promised, with conditions, in the constitution. As as seen in this article, the right to the production and consumption of free speech is not there. In the long run, it will help keep Australia awesome.
If you want to keep up with the RC rating, bookmark this:
http://refused-classification.com/
Chavez is serious bad news.
And he’s stirring the pot again in Honduras.
Here in Oz we’ve had censorship for quite some time, as have most countries. This censorship is in the form of blocking sites dealing in kiddie porn and other stuff that EVERY government has a duty to stamp on.
However, refusing to let us buy computer games like Fallout 3 because it has drug use in it (even though such use leads to your character becoming addicted and suffering the side effects and withdraw symptoms) is just crazy.
Censorship is always a double edged sword.
I personally think that easy access to kiddie porn is something that no right minded person thinks should be available, but I’d still rather an internet where everything is accessible (even the vile filth) to one where political opinion is selectively quashed because a government of the day doesn’t like whats being written about it.
The Australian Pirate Party is currently on a membership drive in order to content the next election and bring this sort of thing to the public attention, the more attention the more outraged people will become.
pirateparty.org.au
However the anti-censorship movement has already been infiltrated by pro-censorship moles who have successfully screwed up the planned protests (turning them into ineffective family picnics) and misrepresenting the whole issue to a gullible media.
Chavez is an Australian?
The whole censorship issue is entirely political. Censorship protects no-one except the censors.
#2 – Marc – HERE HERE!
Those in power never want any other voice to be heard. They will try to enact laws to censor *any* form of opposition.
Information and knowledge = Power
A very scary concept for dictators and despots.
What Chavez doesn’t say is that the reasons he argues are based on rumors his own people (or the cuban G2’s) planted.
I explain: Chávez accuses a web forum of spreading rumors about high ranking government officials … but the users that initiated those rumors are suspiciously members only since the same day the rumors started, which brings suspicion to the fact that the users registered with the sole purpose of giving Chávez an excuse to attack and restrict internet access in general and http://www.noticierodigital.com, and more so, twitter in particular.
Dictators, lawyers, real estate agents, the list goes on… Anyone whose power can only be maintained by way of informational asymmetry is threatened by the free flow of information.
Good luck with that, guys!
“The Net interprets censorship as damage and routes around it.” John Gilmore (EFF).
#2 Agree.
Hell Yes!