 The Alliance has written to the federal, state and territory
attorneys-general to express its concerns over plans to introduce
additional censorship laws. Newspapers have reported that the federal
Attorney-General Philip Ruddock would put the banning of books and
increased restrictions for TV programs on the agenda for the national
meeting of attorneys-general in Melbourne today.
The reports said that Mr Ruddock was concerned that only two out of
eight books he submitted for consideration by the Classification Review
Board has been banned. Mr Ruddock also wishes to restrict live and
reality TV programming in response to the “turkey slapping” incident on
the Big Brother reality TV program last month.
The books, already been cleared by police as being neither seditious
nor inciting violence, were also subsequently cleared by the
Classification Board of the Office of Film and Literature
Classification, which found they did not "promote, incite or instruct
in matters of crime or violence".
Mr Ruddock appealed that decision to the Classification Review Board
that subsequently found that two of the eight books - Defence of the
Muslim Lands and Join the Caravan – breached the guidelines.
The Big Brother incident has, reportedly, already been fully
investigated by the Australian Communications & Media Authority
which rated the screened footage as suitable for viewers aged 15 or
over after 9pm. Newspaper reports say Mr Ruddock is seeking tighter
controls for reality and live television than exist for film.
The Alliance believes that there are already too many harsh laws
that curb freedom of expression in Australia. Indeed, censorship powers
are often out of step with public opinion and are often absurdly
heavy-handed. Alliance federal secretary Christopher Warren says: “In
the two instances cited by Mr Ruddock, proper scrutiny of the material
has taken place by the various authorities who found nothing that
required additional censorship provisions to be put in place. Indeed,
it was only after the persistence of the Attorney-General that two
books out of the eight in question were found to breach of the
guidelines. The system worked.
“Australia doesn’t need yet more laws to strangle freedom of
expression – there are already sufficient powers in existence and those
powers have already been fully utilised in the instance of the books
that Mr Ruddock objects to,” Warren says.
“What’s more, our history is littered with examples of the quite
absurd lengths that are taken to censor material. Viewers of capable of
applying their own censorship standards to TV by simply changing
channels. No additional laws are necessary,” he says. |
The Alliance 
