South Australia Outlaws Anonymous Political Speech

Sabriel writes "If you're online in South Australia and want to comment about the upcoming state election, be prepared to hand over your real name and postcode first — because this month it becomes illegal to do so anonymously (even under a pseudonym). Media organizations must keep your details on file for six months and face 'fines of $5000 if they do not hand over this information to the Electoral Commissioner.' This abomination was passed with the support of both major parties (Labour and Liberal), and to quote its sponsor, Attorney-General Michael Atkinson, 'There is no impinging on freedom of speech, people are free to say what they wish as themselves, not as somebody else.' Apparently incapable of targeting a few impostors without resorting to 'nuke it from orbit' legislative tactics, Atkinson has forgotten that protecting anonymity is important to the democratic process; hopefully both major parties will get a reminder come the polls on March 20."

Comments

Re:I'm not Australian but...

[TheSpoom]

I think the right to be anonymous is more important than knowing who said what. You just know that the politicians put this law in place so that they could harass or politically destroy those who would speak against them. It's a "strategic *law* against public participation".

Censorship is the road to fascism.

Re:Australian citizens, PLEASE do the right thing.

[Reziac]

Here's a question for you:

If democracy works so well, why is it devolving into this same sort of scenario everywhere we look?

If democracy works so well, why are we now in the position of having to vote the bastards out? how did they get voted in to start with??