Another Stupid Censorship Attempt!

We read:

"New legislation from Congress would block access to social-networking sites like MySpace and Facebook in schools and libraries, including instant-messaging services.

The bill known as the "The Deleting Online Predators Act" introduced by Rep. Michael G. Fitzpatrick, R-Pa., aims at protecting minors from online child predators..."

Source

Since most access to such sites is probably NOT via school computers, what good is it going to do? At best it will bar poor kids from accessing a useful social resource that they may well need. Kids in well-off homes will just access the sites from their own computers.




Leniency towards Hate Speech in Australia

Although Australia has no equivalent of America's first Amendment, Australia seems to make far fewer attempts to restrict free speech than America does. Recent Australian Federal legislation on hate speech evoked shrieks of hysteria from the Australian Left but in fact banned incitement to violence only.

Sometimes it is how laws are enforced that matters, however. The U.S. Supreme Court is of course notorious for enforcing the provisions of the U.S. constitution in what are sometimes seen as outrageous ways.

So it is interesting to see how the Australian authorities treated a recent complaint about certain Muslim books on sale in the State of New South Wales. What the books said was hate speech by any definition but since they did not explicitly incite violence, the authorities declined to prosecute.

Quite a lot of Australians feel that Muslim hate-speech SHOULD be prosecuted but I personally think that Australia's laws strike the right balance. It seems to me too that incitement to violence is the only sort of speech that should be restricted.

Details of the books concerned and the reasons given not to prosecute are given here.

It should be noted, however, that there is one Australian State -- Victoria -- which DOES have very restrictive legislation about "hate speech" so it will be interesting to see what happens if the same or similar books are found on sale there.




The California Version of Free Speech

At first this sounds good:

University administrators would be prohibited from censoring student newspapers at California's colleges and universities under a bill approved yesterday by the Assembly. California would be the first state to extend First Amendment protections to college journalists if the bill becomes law.

Very good of them to "extend" to someone a right they already have under the constitution! And, reading further, we find:

"Under the bill, campus administrators still could discipline students for publishing hate speech. Campus newspapers also would be subject to libel and slander laws, Yee spokesman Adam Keigwin said"

So, given the very broad definition of "hate speech" that now seems customary, all the usual restrictions on free speech will still apply!