09 Apr 10 | Index Index, minipost, Uncategorized
A draft decree by the Fiji’s military-backed regime calls for tighter control of the media and increased press censorship. The proposals, announced on Wednesday, would require daily monitoring of all news stories, as well as new restrictions on cross-media ownership. This would directly affect Fiji Times, one of the nation’s oldest and largest newspapers which is owned by the Australian company News Limited. Breaches of content regulation could result in media organisations, publishers and journalists being fined and imprisoned for up to five years.
31 Mar 10 | Index Index, minipost, Uncategorized
The American games company Envoy has dropped its libel suit against the English blogger Bruce Everiss. Envoy was suing Everiss for libel in an Australian court over a series of blogposts on Everiss’ website, bruceongames.com, in which he had claimed that Envoy had previously been owned by a Chinese company, UMGE, linked to a Chinese “gold-farming” business. Everis alleged UMGE employed low-paid workers to earn virtual money in online games, and then sold it, against the game’s rules, to other players. Envoy dropped the case, halfway through its second day, telling reporters that the decision was driven by criticism from its customers.
30 Mar 10 | Index Index, minipost, Uncategorized
Plans for a mandatory ISP-level filtering system for internet users in Australia has come under attack from leading business giants such as Google, Yahoo as well as the US government. US State Department spokesperson Michael Tran stated that they have raised their “concerns” over the matter with Australian officials. Critics have commented that if such a programme were to be implemented, it would “put Australia in the same censorship league as China.”
21 Dec 09 | Digital Freedom, Index Index, minipost, News and features
The Australian internet company, auDA that runs the .com.au domain registry has been accused of censoring a website satirising Australian communications minister Stephen Conroy’s proposed internet censorship laws. On Friday, Sapia Pty Ltd, the company behind the website, was told by auDA that they had three hours to explain its use of the domain or it would be withdrawn. The firm said on its new site Stephenconroy.com.au was subsequently taken down a few hours later. Read more here
