Thursday, September 05, 2013

When is free speech not free speech?

In the last policy to be announced for the election - less than 40 hours from polling - the Coalition propose a new restriction on what people can say on-line.

It seems like these fine gentlemen propose an e-Safety Commissioner to be charged with the power to direct that content be taken down from social media websites. No court, no process, just a single content censor.

Go figure. Meanwhile their leader wants to roll back Racial Discrimination laws in the name of "free speech"

Mr Abbott said

"Any suggestion you can have free speech as long as it doesn't hurt people's feelings is ridiculous. If we are going to be a robust democracy, if we are going to be a strong civil society, if we are going to maintain that great spirit of inquiry, which is the spark that has made our civilisation so strong, then we've got to allow people to say things that are unsayable in polite company."

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