Category Archives: Free Speech

Andrew Bolt Monday, March 05, 2012 at 07:41am

THE Gillard Governments media inquiry threatens not only our freedom to speak, but to hear and decide for ourselves. But why?

Its report last week, by retired judge Ray Finkelstein, proposes a super media-cop, funded by government, to police all thats said and written in the media.

It would even have the power to disappear you - or, rather, your words - by requiring offending artilces to removed from the Internet, never to be read again.

But what suddenly happened that free speech is thought a threat, needing even more oppressive controls?

Finkelstein offers five striking instances of wrongful harm caused by unreliable or inaccurate reporting, breach of privacy, and the failure to properly take into account the defenceless.

Its list is astonishingly thin.

A minister of the Crown has his homosexuality exposed. He is forced to resign.

(The NSW minister was found visiting a bath house, is not defenceless and was not forced to resign, but chose to.)

A chief commissioner of police is the victim of false accusations about his job performance fed to the news media by a ministerial adviser ... He is forced to resign.

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Column - Stifling free speech won’t guarantee good speech

Andrew Bolt Saturday, March 03, 2012 at 09:21am

A government-funded policeman for the media. What could possibly go wrong - I mean, apart from the murder of free speech and the death of dissent?

PRINT and online news will come under direct federal government oversight for the first time under proposals issued yesterday to create a statutory regulator with the power to prosecute media companies in the courts.

The historic change to media law would break with tradition by using government funds to replace an industry council that acts on complaints, in a move fiercely opposed by companies as a threat to the freedom of the press.

The proposals, issued yesterday by Communications Minister Stephen Conroy, also seek to widen the scope of federal oversight to cover print, online, radio and TV within a single regulator for the first time.

Bloggers and other online authors would also be captured by a regime applying to any news site that gets more than 15,000 hits a year, a benchmark labelled seriously dopey by one site operator.

The head of the review, former Federal Court judge Ray Finkelstein, rejected industry warnings against setting up a new regulator under federal law with funding from government.

It is so shameful, so embarrassing, so astonishing that this kind of thing is now proposed in Australia. It is a fundamental attack on one of the most charming, important and enduring characteristics of Australia - the tradition of free speech that has nurtured the larrikin and the teller of unpopular truths. That has exposed charlatans and tormented politicians too full of their self-importance.

Yet complacency rules in those too close to power. For instance, ABC favorite Alan Kohler is certain that people with his own outlook will get to define and suppress bad journalism:

PUBLISHERS and practitioners of quality journalism should have nothing to fear from regulation, as it provides a distinction between serious journalism and the foot-in-door end of the market, one independent publisher says in response to the Finkelstein review.

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Even an online site read just by your relatives is threatened

29-02-2012 19:08 The Center for Security Policy presented its 2012 National Security & New Media Conference and Mightier Pen Award in New York City. The theme of the conference was "Under the Gun: Reporting News in a Dangerous World," and featured participants of this panel were: Sam Nunberg (Middle East Forum-The Legal Project), Brooke Goldstein (The Lawfare Project, author of "Lawfare: The War Against Free Speech") and Andrew McCarthy (National Review). Moderated by the Center for Security Policy's Fred Grandy.

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Mightier Pen 2012: The Growing Censorship of Free Speech - Video

BEIRUT: Im not here to entertain you, says Rayess Bek. Neither am I going to start a revolution Im just fighting for freedom of speech.

Formerly one-half the hip- hop duo Aksser, known to his mum as Wael Kodeih, Rayess Bek raps in Lebanese Arabic and French and is regarded to be an Arabic hip-hop trailblazer.

A Paris resident these days, the trailblazer was back in Beirut where he performed a number of shows around last weeks Laique Pride protestations. This four-day-long series of shows was also the occasion for the launch of his newest CD. Khartech 3a Zamann/ lHomme de gauche (Scribbling out the Past and The Leftist) is a collection of songs divided into two parts one in French and one in Arabic.

He may be living in Paris, but Rayess Beks roots are in Lebanon. Like many who have studied and worked overseas, the rapper says his constant state of transition sometimes makes him feel a little schizophrenic.

His lyrics are expressive of Lebanons politics, wars, confusion and identity. Local audiences sometimes consider these lyrics harsh and theyve long felt the weight of the censor.

The tunes are aimed the younger generation, one that, in Rayess Beks view, often finds itself drowned by disillusionment, blinded by consumerism and searching for some clarity.

Rayess Bek says that his aim is not to change peoples views but simply to express the frustrations that people would like to express, but which, more often than not, they are unable or unwilling to voice. I dont write about fiction, he continues. I write about boundaries.

He means political boundaries not just physical barriers like walls and borders, but moral, social and cultural ones.

These are the boundaries that remain engrained in our minds, like the Green Line, like the line between the occidental and oriental, he said. These, he continues, are the ones that affect the social spaces that we inevitably have to share.

Im more of a journalist than an artist, the rapper adds, but not in the objective sense. That doesnt exist.

Link:
Lebanese hip-hop pioneer rapping for free speech

The lobby group Free Press, a self-styled public interest organization, has worked hard over the years to forge alliances with corporate players and federal bureaucratsdirectly involved in the political intrigues of DC technology and media policy.

Documents made public through past Freedom of Information Act requests and those obtained by The Daily Caller through an undisclosed source reveal a well-funded, ideologically motivated organization with close ties to Google, the White House, and several federal agencies, including the Federal Communications Commission, the Federal Trade Commission and the State Department.

The regulatory policies Free Press advocates, including net neutrality, benefit the organizations corporate allies, in addition to the investment portfolios of philanthropists including the groups most well-known financier, George Soros.

The net neutrality debate was largely one about how to best solve the dilemma of meeting continually increasing consumer demand for the data-intensive services of corporations like Google and Facebook. That growing demand for online bandwidth developed in parallel with the communications technology industrys own problem: the ever-decreasing supply of available electromagnetic spectrum to license to Internet providers like AT&T, Verizon, Comcast and Sprint.

The ideological rhetoric of political players on both sides of the debate, however, seemed to force consumers and bureaucrats to choose between free speech and free markets.

John Fund, the senior editor of the conservative American Spectator, explainedin a2010 Wall Street Journal column that the concept of net neutrality was birthed as part of a well-funded and intentional effort by a network of liberal foundations, and that Free Press co-founder Robert McChesneys ultimate goal as stated in a 2009 interview on the Canadian socialist website SocialistProject was to get rid of the media capitalists in the phone and cable companies and to divest them from control.

The policy coordination between McChesneys group and Google can physically be traced back as early as March 2009. Free Press co-founder and former president Josh Silver had sent out a memo,obtained by TheDC, an invitation to the home of Google General Counsel David Drummond which advertised a reception where attendees would discuss all things related to the Internet policy of the new Obama Administration:

David Drummond is hosting a small reception at his home in San Francisco on March 25th, and I hope you will join us, wrote Silver, who is still a current board member of Free Press, as well as the current CEO of the campaign finance reform organization United Republic. (RELATED: Full coverage of the tech world)

We will discuss how the new Administration will be driving major policy changes that will shape opportunities for, access to markets, and the quality of network infrastructure, wrote Silver. Well touch on universal broadband access, Net Neutrality, privacy, wireless spectrum allocation, and openness standards.

David has graciously invited me and our Policy Director Ben Scott to speak with a small group of individuals who share an interest in theseissues, wrote Silver. Joining us will be Free Press board member Larry Lessig who is Professor at Stanford Law School and Founder and Director of the schools Center for Internet and Society.

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Documents show ‘Free Press’ interest group leveraged ties to Google, Obama administration

NEW YORK, March 1, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Amnesty International today announced its line-up of 35 of the world's most talented comedians and musicians who will stand up for free speech and celebrate 50 years of Amnesty International at the upcoming Secret Policeman's Ball, March 4, 2012 at Radio City Music Hall.

Comedians and actors announced today include: Matt Berry, Jimmy Carr, Eddie Izzard, Taran Killam, Rex Lee, Bobby Moynihan, Liam Neeson, Chris O'Dowd, Jay Pharoah, Tim Roth and Burmese comedian Maung Thura Zarganar.

They join previously announced all-star American comedians Fred Armisen, Hannibal Buress, David Cross, Bill Hader, Rashida Jones, Seth Meyers, Bob Odenkirk, Paul Rudd, Andy Samberg, Sarah Silverman, Statler & Waldorf from Disney's The Muppets, Jon Stewart, Jason Sudeikis, Reggie Watts and Kristen Wiig, with British comics Russell Brand, Noel Fielding, Micky Flanagan, John Oliver, Peter Serafinowicz, Jack Whitehall and musical acts Coldplay and Mumford & Sons.

Also joining the cast is internationally celebrated Burmese comedian and director, Maung Thura Zarganar, who uses his talents to speak out about human rights abuses in Burma. In 2008, Zarganar led a movement that collected money and supplies for the victims of Cyclone Nargis. He also publicly criticized the government's response to the disaster. As a result he was given a 35-year prison sentence. On 12 October 2011, Zarganar was released from prison.

"Amnesty International's Secret Policeman's Ball is an opportunity to demonstrate to a new wired audience that the freedoms we enjoy every day - to post, tweet, blog and email - are under threat in every region of the world," said Suzanne Nossel, Amnesty International USA executive director. "New technologies have triggered new forms of repression of basic rights such as freedom of expression and assembly. It may sound far-fetched, but comedy is truly life-threatening in many places in the world, as it was for Zarganar in Burma. The best way to stand with those who are denied freedom of speech is to use our freedom to demand theirs."

All comedians and musicians performing on Sunday are standing up for free speech.

"It's good there is freedom of speech. This means I can say that I find Prince Charles sexually attractive and that the U.S. presidential elections are a meaningless spectacle to distract us from the mercantile skullduggery of the cabals that control our planet and no one can do anything about it. Thanks Amnesty," said Russell Brand.

Amnesty International also announced a limited inventory of production kill tickets will be released to the general public today at http://www.ticketmaster.com for the Ball at New York City's Radio City Music Hall Sunday, March 4, 2012.

In the U.S. EPIX, the Ball's exclusive US broadcast partner, will telecast the event LIVE and commercial free in the United States on Sunday, March 4 at 7PM ET/4PM PT/6PM CT. In addition, EPIX is offering the event free to all U.S. viewers by hosting the first-ever live stream of the charity event on EpixHD.com and across EPIX apps on Xbox and Roku.

Channel 4 will exclusively broadcast the show in the UK on Friday, 9th March at 10pm.

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Cast Announced for Amnesty International's Secret Policeman's Ball; 35 of the World's Most Talented Entertainers Stand ...

28-02-2012 10:33 Brian Todd reports on a fiery debate over free speech based on a Muslim confrontation with an Atheist.

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CNN: Free speech rights debated over Atheist vs. Muslim - Video

28-02-2012 17:22 the liberal left's agenda against free speech.

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The President's Security Force....the liberal left's agenda against free speech. - Video

By Patricia Hurtado - Wed Feb 29 17:38:41 GMT 2012

Lynne F. Stewart, the lawyer imprisoned for helping an incarcerated Egyptian cleric pass messages to his terrorist followers, told a U.S. appeals court her 10-year sentence is punishment for exercising her free- speech rights.

The attorney was found guilty by a jury in 2005 of helping her former client, the blind sheik Omar Abdel Rahman, smuggle messages out of a high-security prison after he was convicted in 1995 of plotting to blow up the United Nations, an FBI building, two tunnels and a bridge in New York.

Prosecutors complained that Stewarts initial sentence of 28 months in prison was too lenient. The U.S. Court of Appeals in Manhattan ordered U.S. District Judge John Koeltl to reconsider the term, questioning whether it was appropriate given the magnitude of the offense. Koeltl later resentenced Stewart to 10 years.

Herald Price Fahringer, Stewarts lawyer, told the appeals court today that the original term was appropriate. Stewart is being punished for statements she made after she was first sentenced which are protected by the U.S. Constitutions First Amendment, he said.

Upon leaving the courtroom after she was initially sentenced in 2006, Stewart told supporters outside the Manhattan Federal Courthouse that she could serve her 28-month sentence standing on my head. She also said in interviews with the media that she would do it again and not do anything differently.

Fahringer told the appeals court today that Koeltl punished Stewart for the comments to her supporters. Upholding Koeltls amended sentence would result in a chilling effect upon free speech uttered outside the courthouse for fear that the same thing could happen to them that happened to Lynne Stewart, Fahringer said.

Judge Robert Sack, one of the three judges on the Second Circuit Court of Appeals who have heard both challenges of the case, said he was concerned that Stewarts comments reflected a lack of remorse.

Fahringer countered that Stewarts statements were ambiguous.

And if it is ambiguous, under the First Amendment, you have to give the speaker the benefit of the doubt, he said.

Excerpt from:
Lawyer Stewart Claims Terror Sentence Punishes Free Speech

The Coalition says it would repeal laws used to prosecute Herald Sun columnist Andrew Bolt. Picture: Trevor Pinder Source: Herald Sun

UPDATE: THE Greens have hit out at the Coalition's plan to change free speech restrictions in racial discrimination law.

Opposition Leader Tony Abbott has revealed the plan to change the laws if he was made prime minister.

The plan would see sections of the Racial Discrimination Act that were used to prosecute Herald Sun columnist Andrew Bolt last year, after he wrote about light-skinned Aborigines, repealed by the Coalition.

Greens legal affairs spokeswoman Penny Wright said the Oppositions proposal to allow people to express views that could be offensive would lead to ''distortions of the truth''.

''If the Coalition have their way we will see a situation where an influential commentator may use errors of fact, distortions of the truth and inflammatory and provocative language to offend or insult people of a certain race, colour or ethnic origin, with impunity,'' Senator Wright said.

''Yes, there is an important balance to be struck between the right to freedom of expression and the right to be protected against discrimination. But we think that the Act in its current form gets that balance right.''

The Australian newspaper reports shadow Attorney-General George Brandis saying that the changes would mean the removal of provisions that prevent the use of words that could offend or insult.

"We consider that to be an inappropriate limitation on freedom of speech and freedom of public discussion as was evident in the Andrew Bolt case," he said.

"Offensive and insulting words are part of the robust democratic process, which is essential to a free country."

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Greens attack Coalition free speech plans