MIDDLE EAST
NEWS 07
23 November 2008
ONLINE
Controls for Australian web
Trouble brewing in Australia as a controversial plan to filter the internet mobilises free-speech supporters
By CLAIRE CAVELL/Correspondent
the filter, and every time it blocks legiti-
mate content.
AUSTRALIA The IT industry, adult enter- Six different filters the government has
tainment industry and civil liberties groups already tested failed to block all black-
in Australia are all vowing to fight govern- listed sites, while they degraded network
ment proposals which would see thou- performance from between 20 and 75 per
sands of “unwanted” websites blocked. cent. There is already a “No Clean Feed”
The two-tier scheme includes an optional campaign, and the System Administrators
clean feed for children, and a mandatory Guild of Australia has put out statements
filter of blacklisted sites that no one will be opposing the filtering. The Australian
allowed to access. Computer Society has also set up an e-
But Australia’s communications min- security task force to look into the scheme.
ister, Stephen Conroy, has so far failed to The Australian Sex Party claims the filter
specify exactly what the unwanted sites will put the country’s online adult industry
will be. Child pornography is expected to out of business within five years.
be the main target, but there are fears of The blacklist, set to be around 10,000
“scope creep” to websites covering eutha- sites, will be run by the Australian Com-
nasia, gambling and legal adult pornog- munications and Media Authority. Groups
raphy. The filtering will be introduced at such as Electronic Frontiers Australia claim
internet service provider level. there is no transparency or accountabil-
Industry experts warn it will drag down ity for ACMA’s current, smaller blacklist,
Australia’s already notoriously slow in- nor any formal appeal process for getting
ternet speeds and block many legitimate wrongly-blocked sites off the list.
sites, while failing to effectively keep out Chairman Colin Jacobs says that, techni-
content such as child pornography. They One of his policy advisors wrote to the to take part in the filtering trials solely to cally speaking, the filtering model “involves
are also angry at Conroy’s claims that Brit- Internet Industry of Australia trying to get show the government “how stupid it is”. more technical interference in the internet
ain, Sweden, Canada and New Zealand all it to silence IIA member Mark Newton Malone says the government is not listen- infrastructure than what is attempted in
have similar filtering systems, when it is, in from voicing dissent on internet forums. ing to experts, the industry or consumers Iran, one of the most repressive and regres-
fact, voluntary in all those countries. Con- Michael Malone, CEO of major ISP iiNet, “so perhaps some hard numbers will actu- sive censorship regimes in the world”.
roy has also come under fire for attempts to has described Conroy as the worst minister ally help”. He plans to publicise every occa- Filtering trials are due to begin by
gag critics of the plan. in the history of the internet. He has vowed sion that someone manages to get through December 24.
Yahoo! CEO quits after a year News Corp takes
USA Yahoo! was plunged into confu- per cent since Yang took over as CEO
sion with news that CEO Jerry Yang on June 18 2007. The figure falls well
Indian bride
(pictured) is stepping down from the below Microsoft’s offer of $31 per
company he co-founded as soon as share in February.
the board can find a replacement. In a leaked memo to employees
Yang’s year-long position at the Yang wrote: “All of you know that I
helm has been marked by on-off have always, and will always, bleed
merger talks with Microsoft, a col- purple. I will always do what I think
lapsed search engine deal with is right for this great company. I will
Google, as well as other failed at- continue as CEO until the board se-
tempts to halt the portal’s decline. lects a new CEO. Once a successor is
On the day his resignation was an- named, I will return to my previous
nounced, the company’s shares were role as Chief Yahoo! and continue to
trading at $10.63, down more than 60 serve as a director on the board.”
BBC’s Jonathan Ross to return in 2009
UK Controversial television presenter Jonathan Ross (pic- INDIA Rupert Murdoch’s Asia-based STAR television
tured) has been given a date for his return from suspension, group has signed a joint venture with Jupiter Enter-
even though the findings of the BBC’s internal enquiry have tainment Ventures, and the resulting operation will
not been published. broadcast in Kannada, Malayalam and Telugu lan-
Ross, who is the BBC’s highest paid star, was suspended for guages, with additional channels provided by Star’s
12 weeks without pay for making offensive prank phone calls Tamil entertainment channel Vijay.
to Fawlty Towers’ actor Andrew Sachs. Ross’s co-prankster was Jupiter Entertainment is owned by BPL Mobile pio-
comedian Russell Brand, who resigned following the fallout, neer Rajeev Chandrasekhar. The new JV will be called
alongside two senior Radio 2 executives. Star Jupiter Entertainment Television Limited (Star
BBC director general Mark Thompson and BBC Trust chair- Jupiter) and will hold at least 51 per cent of the cable
man Sir Michael Lyons were scheduled to face a select commit- network Asianet Communications. The deal does not
tee of MPs to be questioned over the incident, which has raised include Asianet’s news business, which is only allowed
more questions over the use of the licence fees, following fixed 26 per cent foreign direct investment by regulators.
viewer phone-ins and “staged” documentaries. Murdoch (pictured) has long highlighted his inter-
Both Ross and Brand have just been nominated in this est in focusing on India as a growth market, with ad
year’s British Comedy Awards, which will be announced on revenues for regional broadcasters tipped to increase
December 6 on ITV. Ross will resume his weekly BBC Radio 2 20 per cent a year until 2015. The predicted growth
slot on Saturday January 24. for international broadcasters is 12 to 14 per cent.
Meanwhile, the BBC Radio Bristol presenter Sam Mason During a recent visit to the country, the News Corp.
has been fired for making a “racist” off-air phone call, and chairman said his company would be investing $100
Talksport’s Jon Gaunt has been suspended for calling a local million in six regional channels.
politician a “Nazi”.
www.mediaweekme.com
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