XPost: alt.nanny.helpme.help.help.help, aus.politics, talk.politics.guns   
   From: no_guns@nofreedom.com   
      
   Content   
   Introduction   
      
   A brief history of censorship in Australia   
      
   Internet censorship in Australia   
      
   Is censorship necessary?   
      
   Freedom of the press   
      
   Pornography, censorship and freedom of speech   
      
   Conclusion   
      
   Bibliography   
      
   Introduction   
   The debate about censorship takes place on various levels. Internet kids   
   curse against governments who try to restrict access to Internet sites.   
   Radical feminists want to ban every form of pornography as they believe it   
   degrades and dehumanizes women. Liberals on the other hand call for the   
   abolition of censorship because it violates the human right of freedom of   
   speech and expression. Newspaper journalists and editors fear retaliation   
   through defamation trials and by the almighty proprietors of the media   
   organizations they are working for if they do not report along the   
   mainstream.   
      
   In this essay I will examine all these facets of the censorship debate. I   
   will start with a history of censorship in Australia. Exemplary and due to   
   restriction of space, I will focus merely on book censorship. Then will   
   follow a discussion of two current issues in the debate: First, the   
   argument surrounding the Australian government's attempt to restrict   
   access to pornographic content in the internet by legislation. Second, the   
   issue of pornography, censorship and freedom of speech. This will take   
   place on a more general level and less related to current Australian   
   problems.   
      
   A brief history of censorship in Australia   
   The right of freedom of speech is not codified in the Australian   
   Constitution. However, it has been recognized by the judiciary through   
   several rulings of the High Court, especially in recent time.[1] Since the   
   time of European Settlement, print publications have been subject to   
   censorship through customs and defamation laws. This chapter will give a   
   brief overview of the changes and processes in the Australian censorship   
   legislation.   
      
   Newspapers were among the first publications to be censored by the   
   government. In the early years of settlement, the administration tried to   
   ban everything that could insult the mother country England, the Queen and   
   everything else that would in their perception disturb the social order or   
   that was labeled 'obscene', 'indecent', or 'immoral'. The first Australian   
   newspaper to be censored was the Satirist and Sporting Chronicle. In 1843,   
   its publishers were charged with printing   
      
   'a supposed dialogue between a number of lewd women, of a most obscene and   
   disgusting description. The offence was charged to be to the high   
   displeasure of Almighty God; to the scandal and reproach of the Christian   
   religion; in contempt of our Lady the Queen and her laws; and to the great   
   offence of all Civil Governments; to the evil and pernicious example of   
   all others; and against the peace of our said Lady the Queen, her crown   
   and dignity.'   
      
   (Sydney Morning Herald, 19 April 1843)[2]   
      
   In 1875, Victorian magistrates were entitled to issue search warrants for   
   police to seize obscene publications. In addition, they could order the   
   destruction of such material.[3]   
      
   Books were also frequently censored. While mostly imported, the   
   responsible control body was the Customs Department. Its officers would   
   seize books that they found objectionable and the importer would be   
   charged before a jury that ruled on the publication's confiscation due to   
   indecency.   
      
   After federation, this practice was institutionalized in the Federal   
   Customs Act of 1901. Some of the more controversial cases of censorship   
   concerned books of non-English origin.[4] This was due to a general   
   suspicion in Australian society towards cultures other than the English.   
   Gott and Linden note that this suspicion prevailed until the 1960s.[5]   
   After two years of rather arbitrary censorship, and widespread criticism   
   from the press and the publishing industry, the customs department adopted   
   a more liberal policy and withdrew almost completely from censoring books   
   for a period of nearly thirty years. Coleman, explaining this policy,   
   states that '...in England during most of that period there were no police   
   prosecutions of serious novelists.'[6]   
      
   A change in the Customs Department's censorship policy occurred with the   
   beginning of the economic crisis 1929. In a climate of increased   
   uncertainty and fear of depression a need to protect the values and the   
   lifestyle of Australian society from everything that might challenge or   
   question them emerged. The ban of James Joyce's Ulysses in 1929 is seen as   
   the starting point of this period of more rigid censorship.[7] Again, in   
   response to that, public disagreement and criticism aroused, which forced   
   the Customs Department to revise its approach to censorship once more. As   
   early as in 1933 the Department had established the Book Censorship   
   Advisory Council, a board that was created to give expert advice to the   
   Minister, if he sought it, and in 1937 it was finally replaced by the   
   Literature Censorship Board. The establishment of this body formalized the   
   censoring process, however it still had only advisory status and the   
   Minister of Customs was not obliged to seek this advice. Nevertheless,   
   during this third period of censorship a number of formerly banned books,   
   including Ulysses[8], were released. The system prevailed until after the   
   Second World War.   
      
   In 1957 the then Minister for Customs, Senator Denham Hently, ordered that   
   in the future, all books under consideration of a ban must be submitted to   
   the Censorship Board. The Board was extended to four members, one a woman,   
   and in 1960 an Appeal Board, consisting of three members, one of which was   
   also a woman, was established. Furthermore, the Censorship Board was   
   ordered to regularly review the list of banned books that led to the   
   release of all 178 publications on that list. Last, all university   
   libraries were allowed to import any books they wished, provided the   
   restriction of censored issues.[9] This formalization was upheld during   
   the 1960s.   
      
   Another major leap towards a further liberation was taken in 1971 by Don   
   Chipp, then Minister for Customs. He brought forward a whole new approach   
   towards the issue of censorship. In calling it 'evil' and stating that   
   '[it] is to be condemned', he called for a reduction in government action   
   and called upon the people to take censorship in their own hands:   
      
   'People should censor more and more. The individual, the bookseller,   
   should have a responsibility, the television station, the radio station,   
   the parent, the individual; Governments should censor less and less, move   
   more and more out of the field and leave it to individual choice. I would   
   have thought that is liberalism.'[10]   
      
   Chipp was convinced that one man/women, respectively one minister, could   
   not decide what his/her fellow citizens should be allowed to read. This   
   new way of thinking reflected in a sense the beginning transition in   
      
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    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)