Цензура на информацию о цезуре

про цензуру^2

Censor secrecy okay: tribunal
Karen Dearne
JUNE 18, 2002

INTERNET censors will continue their work in secret, following an Administrative Appeals Tribunal decision to withhold information about banned content.

Electronic Frontiers Australia had requested access under the Freedom of Information Act to a number of Australian Broadcasting Authority documents relating to censored websites.
But the ABA refused to release details that identified the nature of the material.

Last week the AAT supported the ABA decision, ruling that release of the information would have a "substantial adverse effect on the ABA's ability to administer the co-regulatory scheme" for internet content.

"Some of that information may lead a person to content that shows child pornography, pedophilia or child abuse," the AAT said.

ABA chairman David Flint said he was pleased with the outcome.

"Many of these proscribed sites show the most appalling sexual abuse of children. It is hard to see how the public interest would be served by publishing information that could enable access to such material," he said.

Electronic Frontiers executive director Irene Graham said the ABA was wrong in claiming the EFA was only seeking URLs with prohibited content.

"The ABA keeps trying to make out that internet censorship is all about child pornography, but it isn't," she said.

"The EFA has been denied access to information about internet content that was not illegal submitted by the ABA to the Office of Film and Literature Classification.

"Some of the material was classified as not prohibited, and some as R18.

"It's like the government or the OFLC deciding members of the public cannot be told that the film Salo, for example, was refused classification in Australia."

Ms Graham said EFA was disappointed the AAT failed to address "a whole range of public interest concerns" it had raised.

The AAT conceded the "veil of non-disclosure" could bring the integrity of the scheme into question. It noted there were important issues of censorship, open government and "even the confidence of the public in agencies of government to administer its schemes with integrity, as secrecy can lead to the public questioning integrity."

The AAT recommended these issues be examined when the internet censorship scheme is reviewed.