Media Release

Electronic Frontiers Australia Inc.

For Immediate Release
                                                       5th March 2001
                Internet Censorship Law Flawed

The South Australian Government's proposal to censor the Internet is
seriously flawed and an affront to natural justice, according to Internet
civil liberties group Electronic Frontiers Australia.  The legislation is
part of the Classification (Publications, Films and Computer Games)
(Miscellaneous) Amendment Bill 2000 listed for debate in South Australia's
Legislative Council on 13th March 2001.

"The Bill will criminalise provision of information unsuitable for children
on the Internet," said EFA Executive Director Irene Graham.  "The new law
will create an unprecedented new legal liability for online publishers. The
Bill makes it a criminal offence to publish detailed information about
'adult themes', which include 'suicide, crime, corruption, marital
problems, emotional trauma, drug and alcohol dependency, death and serious
illness, and religious issues' according to the relevant classification
guidelines. Claims that the law will only ban pornography and bomb making
instructions are clearly false."

"Publishers of books, magazines and films can obtain an OFLC classification
of their material," Ms Graham said, "but no such opportunity is available
to Internet publishers.  The recent controversy over the film 'Hannibal'
demonstrates the difficulty even professional classifiers have in defining
the boundary between MA and R content. South Australian police guessed
wrongly about the classification that would be given to the Mapplethorpe
book, but web publishers who guess wrongly about their content will face
criminal prosecution, with penalties that are double those applying to
traditional media."

"The Bill is at odds with South Australia's Information Economy 2002 plan,
which specifically recognises that 'the Information Economy is ushering in
a new approach to communication and interaction' and that inflicting old
economy thinking on the online environment will result in South Australia
becoming irrelevant and relegated to the periphery of global activity," Ms
Graham said.

"EFA's enquiries indicate that industry groups have not been consulted on
the adverse affects on the State's information economy," Ms Graham said.
"We are calling on the South Australian government to suspend the Bill
until its full ramifications have been investigated and appropriate
amendments made."

[ENDS]

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    Electronic Frontiers Australia Inc  --  http://www.efa.org.au
    representing Internet users concerned with on-line freedoms
    Email: [email protected]  Phone: 07 3424 0201   Fax: 07 3424 0241
    URL of this release: http://www.efa.org.au/Publish/PR010305.html

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Media Contact:
    Ms Irene Graham , EFA Executive Director
    Phone:   0412 997 163
             07 3424 0201
    E-mail:  exec@efa.org.au


Background:

Text of the Online Services section of the Bill
    http://www.efa.org.au/Publish/sabilltext.html

Comprehensive Analysis of the Bill
    http://www.efa.org.au/Campaigns/sabill.html

SA Government's 'Information Economy 2002' plan
    http://www.ie2002.sa.gov.au/plan/statement.htm

News reports (Aust. & overseas media) and discussion forums on the Bill
    http://www.efa.org.au/Campaigns/sabill.html#news

OFLC Classification Guidelines applicable to Internet Content
    http://www.oflc.gov.au/PDFs/FilmVid_Guidelines.pdf

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