Friday 1 August 2008

Australian Foreign Minister chides China over internet censorship - talk about the pot calling the kettle black!

According to ABC News yesterday, Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith is hot under the collar about the International Olympic Committee agreeing to allow China to impose certain website restrictions on access to the Internet by the international media during the Beijing Games.

What was that again, Stevo? Open internet good, restricted access bad.
Thought that was what you were muttering.

Well this view of China and internet access doesn't exactly jibe with the fact that the Australian Federal Government has
installed Websense filters on almost every parliamentary PC it can get its hands on and senators have had trouble researching political and social issues.

It certainly doesn't sit easily with the fact that four days ago that other Stephen, one Senator Conroy, was reported in The Australian on the progress of his national ISP filtering scheme:

"THE Federal Government will embark on the next step of its internet filtering strategy after initial trials proved successful, Communications Minister Stephen Conroy said.
Senator Conroy today released the
findings of a recently concluded ISP-level internet filtering trial conducted in Tasmania by the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) in a closed environment.----
Senator Conroy said the tests proved that the web filtering technology could be expanded to a wider base. "The next step is to test filter technologies in a real-world environment with a number of ISPs and internet users."
An expression of interest seeking participation in the live pilot will be announced shortly."

Come on, Stevo. Say it again for the laughs - open internet good, restricted access bad!

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