“Censorship reflects society’s lack of confidence in itself. It is the hallmark of the authoritarian regime” (Stewart. 2001,pg 50)
The Sydney morning herald released an article on the 23rd of September, 2006 entitled ‘censors come calling’. This got me thinking censorship is happening, it isn’t some sort of proverbial boogie man let lose to scare citizens to shut their traps and re consider what they put up on the internet. No this is happening, and yes I know what you’re thinking, and the answer is no we cannot stop it!
The very idea of censorship sends me into a fit of palpitations, flare nostrils and so much anger that i feel that i feel like wildly destroying a beavers dam, just to see the look of disappoint and horror on his face when he realises that the house that he believed he was going to raise his kids in, yep the one that he spent hours on and valuable resources, had just been destroyed by my size 6 (eur36, uk4) feet.
Countries like Iran, Libya, Tunisia, Syria, Egypt and Vietnam all employ some form of censorship and it’s no surprise that Australia is going to be joining that list. That’s right Australia, Australia!...who would’ve guessed. The executive director of electronic frontiers Australia (EFA) says that Australia has some of the toughest rules in the world concerning censorship and the filtering of cites the contain content deemed as ‘harmful’ for viewers.
Well I’m sorry Australia but this just isn’t good enough, internet censorship is an evasion of privacy and strips society of its basic human right of freedom of speech and information. The very notion of internet censorship is not only evasive and unethical but it is also anti- democratic. Censorship may start with the censoring of pornographic sites but where the hell does it end?
