Wasting Space…After years of wasting money proposing internet censorship, the government is now crowing about how much will be saved by dropping the idea

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See article from theaustralian.com.au

The axing of Stephen Conroy’s other pet project, the controversial mandatory internet blocking scheme, will save the government more than $4 million. According to Budget 2013 papers, the government will achieve savings of $4.5m over three years by not proceeding with mandatory filtering legislation, a move announced in November. The plan would have forced ISPs to filter web pages that contain refused classification-rated content based on a government blacklist. Instead, major internet service providers will be required to block child abuse websites on Interpol’s worst of child abuse list, and anything else banned by government bodies such as the financial regulator. Senator Conroy mooted the ea in the lead up to the 2007 election but it has been fraught with delays ever since. The methods employed by the government were deemed impractical and seen as an attempt to censor the internet.

The Australian Film Censor Recommends…Short film Morgue Street banned from showing at a horror film festival

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See article from horror-movies.ca See article from facebook.com See article from horrorsociety.com

Morgue Street is a 2012 Italy short horror thriller by Alberto Viavattene. With Mario Cellini, D้sir้e Giorgetti, Roberto Nali. Morgue Street was slated for screening at the A Night Of Horror Film Festival in Sidney, but the Australian Classification Board banned it with a ‘Refused Classification’ rating, two days before the screening, claiming its material that is considered to offend against the standards of morality, decency and propriety generally accepted by reasonable adults. Morgue Street is based upon the story The Murders in The Rue Morgue by Edgar Allan Poe. It tells the story of two prostitutes, mother and daughter, struggling against a mysterious creature that breaks into their home. Brian Yuzna called it An original artistic horror while cult author Jack Ketchum blessed it as impressive and perverse . By the way of a hint about the reasons for the ban, as well as horror film festivals, it was also screened at the Berlin Porn Film Festival.

Wicked!…Wicked Campers stand up to the bullies of Australia’s advert censors

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See article from perthnow.com.au

Australia’s easily offended advert censors of the Advertising Standards Bureau are seeking police assistance in forcing Wicked Campers, to remove amusing slogans that it has deemed somehow obscene, discriminatory and derogatory in decisions dating back to 2008. It is also pursuing the company over an internet promotion offering discounts to customers who identify as marijuana smokers or massive pot heads . ASB Chief bully Fiona Jolly said Wicked Campers, whose controversial graffitti-style painted vans have been the subject of 39 advertising complaints since 2008, was Australia’s biggest serial offender when it came to ignoring the censor’s rulings. Jolly said the company was refusing to comply with ASB decisions to remove three slogans with supposedly obscene language. Jolly said she had this week written to Queensland Police Minister Jack Dempsey to seek police and government assistance in having the vans painted over. Wicked Campers are our one and only problem advertiser in terms of compliance. Ninety-eight per cent of advertisers will withdraw their ad immediately after a board decision, in other cases if an ad is on TV or on a billboard or on radio we have an arrangement so the actual media company or network will withdraw the ad. But Wicked are in the very small category of an advertiser who a) doesn’t want to comply and b) their marketing is their own van, so there’s no broadcaster or publisher that can help. A Queensland Police spokesperson said the van slogans might constitute a public nuisance offence under state laws, and it would consider any complaint made on its merits . Wicked Campers spokesperson Ross Dudgeon, whose witty official title is junior executive vice president of awesomeness , declined to comment.

Australian Film Censors Don’t Want I Want Your Love…Gay film banned from film festival screenings

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See article from theage.com.au

I Want Your Love is a 2012 USA drama by Travis Mathews. With Jesse Metzger, Brontez Purnell, Ben Jasper. A feature film that includes explicit scenes of gay male sex has been banned by the Australian Film Censorship Board. I Want Your Love , written and directed by young American filmmaker Travis Mathews, was due to screen at queer film festivals around Australia. Festival films are generally granted exemptions from the censorship process. Festivals provide synopses of the works they are screening but the board can then ask to see individual films. Melbourne Queer Film Festival director Lisa Daniel says that in her 15 years at the festival, I Want Your Love is the first film that has been refused an exemption. It has been seen in many festivals around the world, and its distributors have told her this is the first time it has been banned. Mathews is a well-known filmmaker, and the decision is an embarrassment for Australia, she says. The film focuses on a young gay man who is preparing to leave San Francisco after living there for 10 years. The film shows his last 36 hours in the city, and a party thrown for him by his friends, in which his ambivalent feelings about departure are clarified. The film was also on the program at Sydney’s Queer Screen and the Brisbane Queer Film Festival. Jain Moralee, director of Queer Screen, said she was very disappointed that she would be unable to show the work. The sex scene, she says, is a six-minute montage of friends, housemates and partygoers that is part of the narrative context of the film. She describes Mathews as a filmmaker who explores the line between narrative and documentary.

Babes in Australia…Interesting article outline how Australian TV tried out babe channel programming

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See article from mumbrella.com.au

Australia’s TV censor has thrown out complaints made against Channel Nine for broadcasting live phone sex content on its infomercial channel. BabeTV Live went out on Extra in Queensland and regional NSW after 10pm on 8 October, with some viewers complaining that the exploitative and degrading content should have come with a (softcore) R18+ adult rating. BabeTV Live features two scantily clad female presenters who encourage viewers to call in at a cost of $4.75 per minute, using provocative language and suggestive actions. Before it begins, the message the following program is for ADULTS ONLY appears on screen. In its findings on its website, the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) ruled that BabeTV Live is advertising, since the presenters continually refer to the phone number displayed on the screen, including direct verbal requests to the camera to phone in, using phrases such as ‘call me’. Even though BabeTV Live aired for four hours and 43 minutes, ACMA maintained that the content was advertising. This is considerably longer than the usual duration of a televised advertisement. However, the Act does not specify the minimum or maximum duration of content to qualify as advertising or sponsorship material. To the point of Nine airing explicit content on Extra, one complaint read: I would have thought it breaches the general licence conditions that state ‘licensees will not transmit datacasting content that has been classified as RC or X18+ by the Classification Board, and that R 18+ must be modified or subject to a restricted access system’. This program is clearly in the 18+ category supported by the fact that you need to be 18+ to participate! The broadcaster said that BabeLive TV had not been classified because it was live-to-air content — so the Classification Board could not have seen it before it went to air. Nine said that BabeLive TV followed MA 15+ guidelines, and had taken steps to ensure this sort of content did not get any racier than material suitable for viewers above the age of 15. Nine stated its rules for presenters of this sort of content to ACMA: They must be wearing no less than bra and panties/swimwear/etc. and no see-through underwear or nipple covers. Breast cleavage may be visible but not the whole breast, no nipples and no nipple shadow. No pubic hair or nude genital area. No nude rear. No actual or implied sexual activity between the Presenters. May include sexually suggestive touching or position but cannot include the handling, kissing, licking or sucking or sex toys or phallic-like objects. Nine also said that it had introduced new, stricter rules for presenters, as follows: The Presenters must not touch each other at any time, including kissing. The Presenters must not mention, talk about or refer to any sexual acts or sexually [suggestive] acts. The Presenters must not consume any drink or food on camera. Even though Nine did not breach any of ACMA’s rules, the broadcaster has since stopped airing BabeTV Live.

Classification: Content Regulation and Convergent Media…Australian law Reform Commission publishes its report on rationalising media censorship

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See article from victorharbortimes.com.au See full report [pdf] from alrc.gov.au See summary report [pdf] from alrc.gov.au

All media in Australia should be classified, and censored, in the same way, according to a landmark report published today. Conducting the first review of Australia’s classification laws in 20 years, the Australian Law Reform Commission found that the rapid rise of new forms of media had overtaken existing classification laws. The review would have far-reaching implications for Australia’s media. Radio and television broadcasters are subject to regulation by the Australian Communications and Media Authority. Television broadcasters are also subject to guidelines under the Commercial Television Code of Practice. The report recommended: One set of laws establishing obligations to classify or restrict access to content across media platforms.Clear scope of what must be classified: feature films and television programs, as well as computer games likely to be MA 15+ or higher, that are both made and distributed on a commercial basis, and likely to have a significant Australian audience. A shift in regulatory focus to restricting access to adult content, by imposing new obligations on content providers to take reasonable steps to restrict access to adult content and to promote cyber-safety. Co-regulation and industry classification, with more industry classification of content and industry development of classification codes, but subject to regulatory oversight. Classification Board benchmarking and community standards, with a clear role for the Classification Board in making independent classification decisions that reflect community standards. An Australian government scheme that replaces the current co-operative scheme with enforcement under Commonwealth law. A single regulator with primary responsibility for regulating the new scheme. Professor Flew of the ALRC said: Classification criteria should also be reviewed periodically, to ensure they reflect community standards, One category that may no longer align with community standards is ‘Refused Classification’ or ‘RC’. The scope of this category should be narrowed, and the ALRC suggests changes for government to consider. [So it is recommended that hardcore porn be legalised for sale across Australia with self classification by the industry. But all this in return for the adult industry taking on board strict conditions to ensure that the material is not sold to under 18s. In fact, any such restrictions will apply equally to softcore and even mainstream R18+ horror films for adults].

Floating New Ideas for Censorship…Australia bans TV from showing asylum seekers arriving in boats

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See article from pri.org

Australian media companies are angry that immigration officials have pushed through new government media censorship that would ban them from showing video of asylum seekers in Australia. The Australian Communication and Media Authority says television stations will no longer be allowed to show video of asylum seekers reaching the country by boat. But media companies are crying foul, saying the the restrictions, implemented at the behest of immigration officials, amount to censorship. Chris Warren, federal secretary of the Media, Entertainment & Arts Alliance, said this amounts to an effort to prevent asylum seekers from telling their stories to the Australian people: It’s an unnecessary restriction, which will get in the way of Australians really understanding what asylum seekers go through. Warren said while there are valid concerns about privacy behind the measure, it’s not appropriate for the immigration authorities to step in and, in a heavy-handed way, try to impose restrictions on the media.