--- Date: Mon, 16 Sep 2002 02:01:59 +0800 To: declanat_private From: robert clark <rclarkat_private> Subject: Aussie spooks lead US in phonetaps Declan Not sure if the US figures are accurate, but this suggests a judge is much more prudent in approving phonetaps than a civil service board. From Sydney Morning Herald: Australian authorities use telephone taps at 20 times the rate of their counterparts in the United States, figures that the Opposition says raise concerns about privacy and oversight of call tapping. With legislation before Parliament to give ASIO greater policing powers, Labor says the phone-tap figures call into question whether law enforcement agencies need their powers bolstered. Figures released by the Federal Opposition, and taken from annual reports of the United States and Australian governments, show that in the financial year ending in June 2001, more than 2150 warrants were issued for phone taps in Australia, but only 1490 in the US. Taking into account the population difference - 284 million compared to just over 19 million - Australia's rate of phone interception was 20 times that of the US. .... The data also reveals that the number of phone taps used in Australia has increased threefold in four years, and ninefold in just over a decade. ... Labor has blamed the proliferation in phone tapping on a decision which took effect in 1999, giving members of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal the power to issue warrants. Previously, they had to be approved by a judge, which is still the case in the US. .... http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2002/09/16/1032054714938.html Robert Clark Telecom Asia www.telecomasia.net --- From: "Bettina Jodda (Twister)" <twisterat_private> Subject: Australia: Court bans racist website Date: Wed, 18 Sep 2002 19:21:07 +0200 To: Declan McCullagh <declanat_private> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 Hi, Declan I thought this would be interesting ... Court bans racist website Ian Gerard Australian IT, September 18, 2002 http://australianit.news.com.au/common/print/0,7208,5119879%5E16123%5E%5Enbv%5E,00.html AN Adelaide website has been ordered to remove material that casts doubt on whether the Holocaust occurred, in a landmark Federal Court decision. It is the first time an Australian court has upheld a complaint about racial vilification on the internet, enforces an October 2000 Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission decision. Adelaide Institute director Fredrick Toben was ordered yesterday to remove all offending material from the site within a week, and banned from publishing similar material. Judge Catherine Branson ruled that Dr Toben vilified Jewish Australians when he published documents on the Adelaide Institute site that cast doubt over the Holocaust. The Adelaide Institute claims the Auschwitz concentration camp had no homicidal gas chambers and states that the number of Jews killed during World War II was exaggerated. "The director of the Adelaide Institute has published material on the world wide web which is reasonably likely, in all of the circumstances, to offend, insult, humiliate and intimidate Jewish Australians or a group of Jewish Australians," Judge Branson ruled. Executive Council of Australian Jewry president Jeremy Jones said the decision struck a blow against organised racism in Australia. "This case won't end hate material on the internet but does indicate that if you have been vilified on the net, and thought it was too complex to deal with, you now have some legal precedent to assist you to maintain your human rights." Dr Toben, who has spent seven months in a German jail for inciting racial hatred and defaming the memory of the dead, said the decision marked the end of free speech in Australia, and he would appeal. "It's terrible for our moral and intellectual integrity not being able to question the Holocaust," Dr Toben said. Australian Council of Civil Liberties president Terry O'Gorman criticised the ruling, saying it would interfere with a person's fundamental right of freedom of speech. "No matter how stupid and misguided Toben's views are, freedom of speech means the right to be stupid," Mr O'Gorman said. - -- Bobson Wong Executive Director Digital Freedom Network 1372 Broadway, 20th Floor New York, NY 10018 U.S.A. Phone: +(1-646) 223-1282 Fax: +(1-646) 223-1290 E-mail: bwongat_private Web: http://dfn.org _______________________________________________ GILC-plan mailing list GILC-planat_private https://mailman.gilc.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/gilc-plan - ------------------------------------------------------- -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.0.7 (FreeBSD) iD8DBQE9iLYHbWUifFmZwyIRAo94AJ4j00K+IzeLMlfrB2OEcm1Q/FQ00gCfRJuA p91OPcMDhhVwqB1QMIzK72c= =yBvL -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- ------------------------------------------------------------------------- POLITECH -- Declan McCullagh's politics and technology mailing list You may redistribute this message freely if you include this notice. To subscribe to Politech: http://www.politechbot.com/info/subscribe.html This message is archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ Declan McCullagh's photographs are at http://www.mccullagh.org/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Like Politech? 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