From: irene.graham@efa.org.au (Irene Graham) Subject: INFO: Aus. States' Net censorship put on hold - STOP! Campaign Date: Mon, 15 Jul 1996 23:16:09 +1000 ===================================================================== STOP! CAMPAIGN - TO STOP AUSTRALIAN NET CENSORSHIP LEGISLATION STATE-BASED INTERNET CENSORSHIP PROPOSAL PUT ON HOLD THE STOP! CAMPAIGN THANKS ALL SUPPORTERS 15 JULY 1996 PLEASE REDISTRIBUTE THIS DOCUMENT WIDELY WITH THIS BANNER INTACT REDISTRIBUTE ONLY IN APPROPRIATE PLACES & ONLY UNTIL 24 JULY 1996 ______________________________________________________________________ LATEST NEWS The Australian Censorship Ministers, at their meeting on 11 and 12 July, have agreed to put aside the State legislation proposed by the NSW Attorney General in order to allow the Commonwealth Government, through the Australian Broadcasting Authority, to implement a self-regulation regime based on Codes of Conduct to be developed in consultation with the industry. All States, other than WA, will now not proceed with legislation. It is not yet clear what will happen in regard to the existing Victorian and Northern Territory legislation. This is a great day for Internet democracy in Australia. The voice of reason finally appears to be winning against the voice of ignorance. We congratulate all those who have supported the campaign to date by contacting State and Federal Ministers and other parliamentarians, and those who have helped to promote the campaign in various ways. It is clear that the widespread opposition to the NSW proposals reached the Commonwealth Minister for Communications and The Arts, Senator Alston, who played a key role in convincing the Censorship Ministers to abandon State-based legislation in favour of the ABA approach. The ACT Attorney General, Mr. Gary Humphries, was also instrumental in persuading the other Ministers to adopt a national self-regulatory regime. Although EFA has some reservations about the ABA report, in particular where it leaves individual Net users and private content creators, we are hopeful that the Authority will carry through its brief of wide consultation and take account of these concerns. However, there is still a long road ahead. The campaign will continue, although in a different direction, and in an atmosphere perhaps somewhat less charged with emotional rhetoric and more focussed on reason, technical understanding and practical ideas. EFA is continuing to meet with the respective Ministers and will be responding in detail to both the SCAG decision and the ABA report. We will provide more information in due course as it comes to hand. In the meantime, we encourage all supporters of the campaign to convey to the Censorship Ministers support for their decision. ______________________________________________________________________ WHERE CAN I LEARN MORE? The following documents are available on the STOP! Campaign web site at