Asia Pacific Censorship News

The New Zealand Parliament has passed its third reading in Parliament. The final vote was carried with a 116 to 5 majority.

The Bill will:

• Establish an Approved Agency to resolve complaints in a quick and efficient way
• Give the District Court the power to issue take-down notices and impose penalties
• Provide online content hosts with an Safe Harbour process for handling complaints
• Make it an offence to send messages and post material online that deliberately cause serious emotional distress. The offence will be punishable by up to two years imprisonment or a maximum fine of NZ$50,000 for individuals, and a fine of up to NZ$200,000 for companies.
• Create a new offence of incitement to commit suicide that applies where the person does not attempt to take their own life
• Amend existing laws to clarify that they apply to communications, regardless of whether tormentors use online or offline means, and future-proofing the laws against technological advances.

Just one party opposed the bill, the right-of-centre Act Party, which says it fears the Harmful Digital Communications Bill will be another case study in bad law-making .

Party leader and MP David Seymour said the Bill creates a strange asymmetry between the virtual world and the real world where different standards apply to online and offline speech. The ten communications principles written into the Bill, he said, would be a good guide to desirable behaviour on a school camp.

The Bill was proposed after the two young women subject to digital bullying committed suicide and in the wake of the Roastbusters scandal, where the police were criticised for their response to online abuse,

New Zealand ISPs who defied TV company demands to switch off their VPN services have caved in following legal threats. CallPlus and Bypass Network Services faced action from media giants including Sky and TVNZ for allowing their customers to access geo-restricted content. Their Global Mode services will be terminated by September 1.

Unlocking geo-restricted digital content is an activity carried out by millions every day, but the practice diverts revenue from local media companies in favour of the US.

In April, media companies SKY, TVNZ, Lightbox and MediaWorks told several Kiwi ISPs that if they didn't stop providing geo-unblocking services to their subscribers, legal action wouldn't be far ahead. Within days and following claims of breaches of the Copyright Act, Unlimited Internet pulled its VPN service. However, CallPlus and Bypass Network Services stood firm and stated that they weren't going to be bullied .

Now, just two months later, both providers have caved in to the demands of the media companies. The news was revealed in the briefest of announcements posted to the NZX by Sky TV:

The legal proceedings against 'Global Mode' service providers have been settled. As a result, from 1 September 2015, the 'Global Mode' service will not be available to any person for use in New Zealand.

The news will come as a blow to users of the Global Mode service who will now have to find alternatives if they wish to continue accessing geo-locked content. While that will be extremely easy , Global Mode was a free product so it's likely that additional costs could be on the horizon.

InternetNZ, the non-profit group that oversees the Internet in New Zealand, says it is deeply disappointed by the news. InternetNZ Chief Executive Jordan Carter said:

Global Mode was a great example of Internet-based innovation that challenged traditional content distribution models. It was by no means clear that the service was illegal, and we were keen to see the matter go before the courts to provide users and the industry with clarity.

Withdrawing the service and settling before court seems a worse outcome for all concerned. The media companies have said that they wanted to clarify their own legal rights over content -- a settlement doesn't achieve this, and leaves us all none the wiser.

Over the weekend of June 20th to 21st, the results of the first three months of the International Age Rating Coalition trial were dumped into the Classification Board's database. They reveal censorship on a scale never before seen in Australia.

The first mobile game/app is listed as being banned (Refused Classification) on March 18th. At the time of writing, a total of 242 have been banned.

Interestingly, the Classification Board has chosen not to give a reason why they have been banned. Several of the banned apps have innocuous titles so perhaps there is a technical explanation such as not filling in the forms correctly.

Myanmar's authorities are intensifying restrictions on media as the country approaches elections in November, using threats, harassment and imprisonment to stifle independent journalists and outlets, Amnesty International said in a new briefing.

The Amnesty report, titled Caught between state censorship and self-censorship: Prosecution and intimidation of media workers in Myanmar, shows how, despite Myanmar's much-touted political opening since 2011, authorities are relying on old and new methods to intimidate media and restrict freedom of expression. The clampdown has intensified over the past year, today at least 10 media workers are languishing in prison, all of them jailed in the last 12 months. All are prisoners of conscience.

Myanmar's media landscape has changed dramatically since the reform process started in 2011. From a handful of media outlets controlled through strict pre-publication censorship, today there exists a vibrant media scene with several independent newspapers and broadcast channels. Yet widespread repression of media continues in Myanmar, as authorities rely on a range of draconian, vaguely formulated laws to imprison journalists.

Amnesty International's interviews with media workers revealed that the threat of imprisonment and constant surveillance have led to widespread self-censorship. Journalists are well aware of what red lines they cannot cross, mainly stories relating to the military, extremist Buddhist nationalism and the plight of the Rohingya minority, and often shy away from covering these issues.

The case of the Unity media workers is one such example. Five workers at the paper were each jailed for seven years in July 2014 after their newspaper published a story on an alleged secret chemical weapons factory. Their imprisonment is frequently cited by journalists as an example of what can happen if they step over the line in their reporting on the army.

Rupert Abbott, Amnesty International's Research Director for Southeast Asia and the Pacific said:

What we are seeing in Myanmar today is repression dressed up as progress. Authorities are still relying on the same old tactics, arrests, surveillance, threats and jail time to muzzle those journalists who cover inconvenient topics.

As people in Myanmar go to the polls later this year, a free press will be more important than ever to inform the public about the choices they face and strengthen their access to information. The government must immediately release all journalists jailed for simply carrying out their work peacefully, publicly commit to respect freedom of expression, and repeal all laws used to silence peaceful dissenting voices and critics.

The international community also has a key role to play in pushing the Myanmar authorities to end the repression of media. They must actively and publicly push for the release of imprisoned media workers and all other prisoners of conscience, while keeping a close watch over the fragile human rights situation in the months leading up to the elections.

Japan has repealed an old law banning dancing after midnight. But of course politicians can't entirely let go of their control freakery and have retained the ban in low-light venues.

Japan's parliament voted to relax the laws, which date from 1948. The laws were introduced during the US occupation amid supposed concerns that the relatively liberal social attitudes of the Americans were corrupting Japan's youth. It was also an attempt to curb prostitution.

In recent times enforcement of the law had declined, but after decades of turning a blind eye to the clubs, police unilaterally decided to resurrect the law following the 2010 death of a 22-year-old student after a fight in an Osaka club.

Hit by a wave of raids by police who claimed they wanted to prevent an excessively hedonistic atmosphere at clubs, most of the city's venues were shut down for licensing violations, pulling the plug on Osaka's thriving dance scene.

This ban on midnight dancing drew fierce criticism from dance and music industry figures who said the government should promote Japan's growing, vibrant dance culture.

Under the new law, which is expected to take effect by June next year, dancing after midnight will be allowed if the club has a light level of at least 10 lux. This light level is approximately equivalent to what a movie theatre looks like with the lights on.

A fine kettle of fish! The women hadn't even undressed completely, and the only pic I've seen has the men strategically placing their hands like a rugby team in a "nude" charity calendar.

Two points about this. One is the schtick about the "sacredness" of the mountain, and comparisons with hypothetical similar behaviour at a Christian site. See this picture:

No sign of Italian ministers claiming that the tits have made Vesuvius and Etna go pop! (Note the canopy by the way: they seem to be getting ready for a papal ceremony.)

The other, more important point is that much of the world's press has been royally trolled. Emil Kaminski has managed to fool a lot of news outlets, including the Daily Mirror and Daily Telegraph, into believing that:

1) he was part of the group, and probably the instigator;

2) he was arrested. In fact he was certainly NOT present, NOT arrested and probably NOT in Malaysia. See his YouTube video .

Can we rely on anything we read in the papers when seasoned journalists fail to smell a rat when Kaminski praises the wi-fi in Malaysian prison cells? Kaminski's certainly shown up a lot of people as idiots, though I think he should have waited until the young people were safely out of Malaysia.

Update: The plot thickens

14th June 2015. Thanks to Alan

The press seems to be belatedly waking up to having been taken for a ride. The Telegraph pulled its story, leaving a blank web page, to the delight of Kaminski. Also possibly noteworthy is that no press outlet seems to have picked up the apparent backing by Richard Dawkins - in a Facebook comment. I rather doubt that Prof. Dawkins was the real author.

Another nice little turn-up for the books is that the Sabah minister who was assiduously spouting bollox about the tits and bums having pissed off the mountain fairies doesn't - I hope! - actually believe this twaddle. His first name is Joseph, and, as you would guess, he's a Christian: to be precise a Catholic. Kaminski is too kind in calling him a fucking idiot . When the heathen in his blindness bows down to wood and stone - in this case, a stonking great mountain - I thought the duty of a Christian was to enlighten him. Instead this guy encourages him to form a lynch mob and go after kids on a gap year.

Update: Floods of ludicrous blame claims

15th June 2015. Thanks to Alan

Another bizarre case of blame for a natural disaster in today's papers. The Patriarch of All Georgia has blamed the flood which released all the animals in Tbilisi zoo on the use of money raised by melting down bells and crosses to built it in 1928. If you get squashed by a hippo or become a tasty snack for a stray lion, blame it on Uncle Joe Stalin.

At least, Ilia II has the right to spout garbage, as the head man of Georgian Orthodoxy, and I don't doubt that he sincerely believes it. No such excuse for the Christian minister in Sabah calling up a lynch mob on behalf of a religion in which he doesn't believe.

A bit puzzled by Eleanor Hawkins' statement. I don't blame her for eating a generous serving of shit to get out of Malaysia, but I can't understand why she goes back for seconds once she's safely home in Derbyshire.

The Twitter-like popular Chinese microblogging platform Weibo has just announced it will censor posts featuring images of women in lingerie or swimwear, as part of an effort to erase erotic images.

The move, announced by CEO Wang Gaofei, is seen as Weibo's move to comply with larger restrictions proposed by the government against vulgar and pornographic content circulating online.

Wang said that 'modeling agencies' that posted images of [models] in swimwear or black lace would be removed from accounts effective immediately. On Weibo, modeling agency is an umbrella term used to describe a variety of services and businesses.

'Modeling agencies' who want to continue to have a social media presence on the website must submit accreditation and other identification of a legitimate business. Those who do not go through this approval process will be banned from the site.

Taiwanese singer Jolin Tsai's runaway hit We're All Different, Yet the Same has been banned from the airwaves and television screens in Singapore, according to Hongkong's Mingpao News.

The ban was ordered by the music censors of the Media Development Authority. It means that television and radio stations will be fined if they air the song or the music video.

Under Singapore's censorship rules, broadcast content must not:

In any way promote, justify or glamorise... lifestyles such as homosexuality, lesbianism, bisexualism, transsexualism, transvestism, paedophilia and incest.

Jolin Tsai said in a statement that she was disappointed with Singapore's decision as the song was her way of expressing her support of marriage equality through music. She would, however, respect differences in opinion.

The music video for We're All Different, Yet The Same features a wedding scene -- and a kiss -- between Jolin and Taiwanese actress Ruby Lin. It was inspired by the true story of a lesbian couple who has been together for 30 years. When one half of the couple was hospitalised and required surgery, her partner was unable to give consent because she was not legally recognised as a family member.