UK Government in Internet Censorship Shocker (Again)
In case anyone missed the idiotic comments of UK Culture Secretary Andy Burnham over the Christmas period, Frank Fisher in The Guardian has responded in robust yet measured terms:
Out of context, it would be easy to dismiss culture secretary Andy Burnham’s attack on the “dangerous” internet as just another junior minister grabbing at headlines in a traditionally dead news period. However, set alongside Labour’s existing and proposed limits on free speech online, it signals potentially worrying extensions to these restrictions and, perhaps more significantly, a disturbing attitude that sees censorship as entirely natural and necessary. Burnham talks of “harmful” content – content, harmful? How? Amid all his talk of websites imposing age ratings he also plainly states that “There is content that should just not be available to be viewed”.
Not by kids you’ll note, just a big flat no! This isn’t a guy in the pub talking, this is a government minister who says he knows what people should and shouldn’t be allowed to read and see. Well sorry, Andy, while we might discuss the possibility of you deciding that for children, you certainly don’t get to decide that for me.
Fisher concludes his piece with the following prediction: “2009 will be the year of the War on t’Internet, folks. Pick a side, and stand by your mouse.”
Well, count me in. Anyone who gives a toss about the internet should read The Telegraph‘s piece on their interview with Burnham, who’s not exactly a stranger to making ridiculous statements about the internet. I’m not yet going to predict a full-on civil rights war with Labour but I am deeply concerned that Burnham can get away with rot like this without the slightest attempt by government to redress the balance. That says as much about how they view the internet as anything Burnham spews out given half a chance. The man is an idiot.
See similar reactions from the following trusted commentators:
Chris Williams, UK.gov to push Obama for tougher rules online, The Register
Perry de Havilland, Do not expect us to cooperate, Samizdata
Ian Brown, Labour party: meet the internet, Blogzilla
Nice post. Couldn’t believe what I was reading. I think it might be nice if Mr Burnham had some letters waiting for him when he gets back to Westminster.
Contact details for him available here:
http://www.chronojohn.com/censorship
or you can get them from Department of Media Culture and Sport web site.
Hi Ben,
Yeah, it’s rare I call anyone an idiot in public but Burnham’s got a history of this kind of thing. Luckily for all concerned he hasn’t been trusted with drafting too much policy yet although I fear that’s about to change. That’s “fear”, rather than “know”, to be fair to him.
Your site is duly noted and I agree that a bulging mailbag on this issue should not just be restricted to letters to Alan Rusbridger…
Well said. you were too kind – “malicious idiot” would be even more accurate and I fear there’s at least two FCC Commisioners over here who would heartedly agree with Labour’s junior minister.
Censors generally use children as a justification to regulate adults from the unexplained consequences of undefined and unidentified content – they wield red herrings in order to hook blank checks.
Hi Mark,
Absolutely right. My pet theory is that the transferral of child protection discourse to the security domain is an attempt to make ‘terrorism’/'extremism’ as much of a taboo as paedophilia and child abuse. One convenient side-effect of that is that it stifles rational debate …
Happy New Year Tim!
It’s the side incapable of rational debate that usually works hardest to stifle it. Dangerous fools.
HNY Mr Z,
Sometimes it’s the freest that say the least also. 2009 is the year of internet censorship, I have little doubt. I wish it were otherwise. To you and yours…
yeah, i saw this and almost forwarded it to you, but figured it would have been hard to miss….
Hi Raff,
Curious time of year to make such statements though. I wonder if it was a good day to bury bad news, etc.