Slashdot Mirror
New Australian Laws To Censor Terror DVDs
An anonymous reader writes "Within a few weeks, Australia may introduce new laws to censor films and literature deemed by the government to be supportive of terrorism. This is not the first time material has been censored in Australia, which has previously censored films and banned publications, including one titled Defence of the Muslim Lands (censored in mid 2006 by Attorney-General Phillip Ruddock). The proposed laws are aimed to target material such as a DVD by Feiz Mohammad containing some of his past controversial sermons calling for jihad and comparing Jews with pigs. The Office of Film and Literature Classification previously classified this DVD as 'PG', suitable for viewing by anyone under 15 years of age with parental guidance."
Does that mean they're going to outlaw anything that's Pro-US?
-1 Uncomfortable Truth
This is just an idiotic election ploy. Clearly this isn't going to affect the distribution of radical Islamic material, nor should that be a valid goal. But for those who have fallen prey to the bullshit propaganda that goes with the 'war on terror', hoWARd's is seen to be much stronger than Rudd, so it's obvious that he'll be looking to beat his chest on the issue in an election year.
Just how many people have been prevented from downloading movies via P2P software with all the efforts of the DVD cartel? Not many. So how many will be prevented from getting access to this material that hoWARd deems to terrible for our eyes and ears? Most likely, none. There is, of course, the chance that some Muslims will be charged over distributing said material, again, because this is an election year. But is this going to prevent terrorism? Not at all.
The biggest factor in raising the threat of terrorism in Australia is not radical Islamic material, nor is it the lack of security, nor the lack of invasions of our privacy, nor the lack of attacks on our civil liberties. The biggest factor in raising the threat of terrorism in Australia is our foreign policy, and the degree to which Dubya's dick is being rammed up our collective arses in the name of democracy.