South Australian Government gags anonymous speech

R.A. Hettinga rah at shipwright.com
Wed Feb 3 06:45:57 PST 2010


<http://www.news.com.au/technology/south-australian-state-government-gags-int
ernet-debate/story-e6frfro0-1225825750956>



South Australian Government gags internet debate
		From:
AdelaideNow February 02, 2010 8:30am 327 comments

Web commenters will have to give their full details when discussing the SA
election. Picture: File.
		Anonymous comments banned for SA election
		Michael Atkinson says speech still free
		Media says censorship is 'draconian'
SOUTH Australia has become one of the few states in the world to censor the
internet.
The new law, which came into force on January 6, requires anyone making an
online comment about next month's state election to publish their real name
and postcode.

The law will affect anyone posting a comment on an election story on The
Advertiser's AdelaideNow website, as well as other Australian news sites.
It could also apply to election comment made on social networking sites such
as Facebook and Twitter.

The law, which was pushed through last year as part of a raft of amendments to
the Electoral Act and supported by the Liberal Party, also requires media
organisations to keep a person's real name and full address on file for six
months, and they face fines of $5000 if they do not hand over this information
to the Electoral Commissioner.

'Still free speech'

Attorney-General Michael Atkinson denied that the new law was an attack on
free speech.

"The AdelaideNow website is not just a sewer of criminal defamation, it is a
sewer of identity theft and fraud," Mr Atkinson said.

"There is no impinging on freedom of speech, people are free to say what they
wish as themselves, not as somebody else."

Mr Atkinson also said he expected The Advertiser to target him for sponsoring
the law.

"I am also certain that Advertiser Newspapers and News Limited will punish me
personally, viciously for being the attorney-general responsible for this
law," he said.

"You will publish false stories about me, invent things about me to punish
me."

The Advertiser's editor, Melvin Mansell, said: "Clearly this is censorship
being implemented by a government facing an election.

"The effect of that is that many South Australians are going to be robbed of
their right of freedom of speech during this election campaign.

"The sad part is that this widespread suppression is supported by the
Opposition.

"Neither of these parties are representing the people for whom they have been
elected to govern."

The Right to Know Coalition, made up of Australia's major media outlets
including News Limited, publisher of The Advertiser and parent company of
news.com.au, has called the new laws "draconian".

"This is one of the most troubling erosions of the right to free speech in
Australia for many years," Right to Know spokeswoman Creina Chapman said.

Ms Chapman also pointed out that newspaper blogs such as AdelaideNow were
moderated and publishers and broadcasters took responsibility for the material
they published.

Liberal doubts

Opposition justice spokeswoman Vickie Chapman said yesterday while the Liberal
Party had supported the amendment to the Electoral Act, she believed it would
be too broad to implement if it included Facebook and Twitter.

Ms Chapman said Mr Atkinson should introduce a regulation to limit its scope.

"It is clearly not the intention of what we understood that to be," she said.

The SA law - which could also apply to talkback radio - differs from federal
legislation, which preserves the right of internet users to blog under a
pseudonym.

The law will apply as soon as the writs for the March 20 election are issued.
The writs for the election can be issued any time between now and 25 days
before the election. The law will then lapse at 6pm on polling day.

Mr Atkinson said there was no intention to broaden the law to take it beyond
the period of elections.





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