Nutter News

Based on an article from the BBC

France's anti-terrorism authorities have launched an enquiry into death threats against a philosophy teacher who wrote an article criticising Islam.
Robert Redeker has been forced into hiding after writing about the violence of Islam

Since publishing the article, he has been under police protection and forced to move between safe houses. Redeker says that his personal details and home address are now available on Islamist websites.

His article was entitled "In the face of Islamist intimidation, what is the world to do?" and was written in reaction to Muslim protests following remarks made by Pope Benedict XVI.

In the article, published on 19 September, the French teacher describes the Koran as a "book of extraordinary violence" and Islam as a religion which "exalts violence and hate".

On Friday, the Paris prosecutor's office said it had opened a preliminary investigation into the threats to see if they were linked to terrorist activity.

French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin described the threats as "intolerable": We are in a democracy, everyone has the right to express his views freely - of course while respecting others.

Redeker says that he fears he will not be able to come out of hiding for the immediate future: The Islamists have succeeded in punishing me on French territory as if I were guilty of a speech crime.

Feb 2007: Update: Still in Hiding

Last September Robert Redeker published an opinion piece in Le Figaro entitled What should the free world do in the face of Islamist intimidation?

His piece concluded that while Judaism and Christianity are religions whose rites reject and delegitimise violence, Islam is a religion that, in its own sacred text, as well as in its everyday rites, exalts violence and hatred.

Redeker and his family went into hiding. Five months later they are still living in secrecy. Christian Delacampagne, writing in the latest issue of Commentary magazine, describes how the French reacted: The communist mayor of Redeker's town condemned him, the headmaster of his school complained that he had included his affiliation at the end of the article, France's two largest teachers' unions, both socialist, issued statements saying they did not share Redeker's convictions. The leading leftist human-rights organisations denounced his irresponsible declarations and putrid ideas. The French Education Minister, Gilles de Robien, criticised Redeker.

The editorial board of Le Monde, France's newspaper of record, characterised Redeker's piece as excessive, misleading and insulting. It called his remarks about Muhammad a blasphemy.

From the Daily Mail

An opera company in Berlin has cancelled a Mozart production of his work Idomeneo fearing a scene in which the prophet Mohammed's decapitated head is rolled on stage could trigger an Islamic backlash.

The decision by the Deutsche Oper, one of the world’s most celebrated opera houses, shows how deep-rooted the fears now are in Europe’s artistic community about offending Muslim sensibilities.

It was an incalcuable security risk for the production to be staged at this time, warned city security experts and police and so the show has been pulled from forthcoming productions.

Mohammed is not the only figure to be decapitated in the opera – the heads of Jesus, the Greek God Poseidon and Buddha are also rolled on to the stage. But it is the symbol which city officials fear could trigger rioting and bloodshed.

Police said they could not gurantee the safety of the Deutsche Oper building if it went ahead.

Enthusiasts of the arts said they felt fear of Islam was now restricting the freedoms taken for granted in the west.
 

From the Daily Mail

Germany's conservative Chancellor Angela Merkel yesterday led political and arts world uproar at the scrapping of a Mozart opera that features the head of the prophet Mohammed rolling across the stage.

The performances were cancelled amid fears the scene could trigger violence among the nation’s Muslim community.

But Merkel denounced self-censorship out of fear as unacceptable, reflecting a mood of national indignation that was not limited to the arts set but cut right across all social lines.

And last night there were hopes that increased government pressure might get the show put back on.

An "integration" summit between government ministers and leaders of Germany's three million Muslims held yesterday could lead to the production being staged at a later date. Interior minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said all present had agreed that the shelved opera Idomeneo should go ahead - and they might even all go together to see it.

Hours before Schaeuble’s statement the gulf between western liberalism and Islamic intransigence appeared as wide as ever as the leader of Germany's Islamic Council welcomed the ban, saying a depiction of Mohammed with a severed head could certainly offend Muslims.

Definition from Wikipedia

Gonzo Pornography is both a category, and filming style of, "adult video." This filming style often tries create the illusion of placing the viewer directly into the scenes. Gonzo puts the camera right into the action -- often with one or more of the participants both filming and performing sex acts -- unlike conventional porn, which usually depicts less-intense sexuality. Deeply influenced by the spartan, more intimate style of amateur sex videos, basic gonzo porn tends to use far fewer full-body/wide shots, and more close-ups. The loose and direct camera work often includes "tight" shots of the lower genitalia, unlike much of traditional porn.

Gonzo videos tend to focus far less on the plots, entended dialog, elaborate costumes/sets, and artistic camerawork commonly found in conventional or "features" porn. However, due to the explosive growth in its popularity since the mid-1990's, gonzo has attained mainstream popularity; several individually distinct styles of no-frills, filmed pornography can be labeled "gonzo" porn.

Depending on the producers and intended audience, gonzo porno may include "rough sex"-type simulated violence, extraordinary sexual techniques, domination and submission play, and/or humiliation of one or more of the performers. Some of the most common sexual acts are double penetration (typically vaginal/anal, or double-vaginal), male or female ejaculation or urination onto fellow performers, heavy bondage, S&M, differing degrees of auto-erotic asphyxiation (i.e., "choking"), spitting, deep throating, and simulated rape.

Based on an article from The Times

Former naval chaplain Reverend Mark Sharpe tells why a culture of hardcore pornography drove him from the service.

Trainee officers who shared his 30-man mess on HMS Albion, an amphibious assault ship, entertained themselves with a supposedly endless stream of hardcore pornography. Some had laptops where they watched films showing bestiality, he says. Even if he could not see the offending action, the cramped conditions meant that he could not avoid hearing “the grunting and groaning”.

Last week Sharpe settled a compensation claim against the Ministry of Defence (MoD) for a reported £50,000. He won’t disclose how much he got, but says he ended up with rather less than that to end the “sexual harassment” case he brought as a result of his exposure to hardcore porn as a “routine part of life”.

I’m not a prude, Sharpe said he had no problem visiting a topless bar in Florida... BUT next morning I found hardcore porn on my bed.

It was of a genre known as gonzo porn: images of extreme sexual violence towards women . This was not just some nasty stuff they had found and decided to tease the vicar with: they used the mags and the films constantly, he says: The chap in the bunk opposite me, who was about 20, was formally appointed the ‘porn librarian’.

On his next ship, the destroyer Manchester, the big screen TV in the recreation area of his mess showed porn more or less continually: One day I came in and they were watching Sky News. It was such a relief.

People who get hooked on sexual violence think it’s normal for people to like it.” As an example of the damage it can cause, he mentions Jane Longhurst, killed by Graham Coutts to fulfil internet porn-inspired fantasies. Her mother has won a campaign to get such material banned.

Refusing to follow the advice of his superiors on Albion to “just ignore it” — like the young Kuwaiti Muslim who quietly made himself scarce when the laptop porn was booted up — he insisted on leaving the ship after two weeks. He lasted a week longer on Manchester, where the porn was supplemented by “naked mess” — boozed-up sailors, stripped to their socks, licking lager from each other’s genitals .

I said, you have a culture of institutionalised violence and abuse. But the organisation says: we do a peculiar and tough job so we can act in a peculiar way. If you can’t handle it, get out.

What the top brass do not realise, claims Sharpe is the drastic shift in the hardcore nature of the pornograph y. It is not just the way the internet has made porn more easily available, it’s the kind of stuff that is now routinely circulated among the sailors. Even a former stoker was shocked, telling him never in my day did we get anything like this.

It is not just the Royal Navy. Sharpe recently came across some academic research into the psychology of hardcore pornography: It found that scenarios acted out by American soldiers at Abu Ghraib jail in Baghdad — not all of which were disclosed to the media — bore close similarities to the humiliating and violent scenarios of gonzo porn.

The MoD says “action was taken against three ratings” and it is now reviewing its regulations on pornography.

From MediawatchWatch

The case brought against the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo, and France Soir has been ruled “irrecevable” (inadmissable) by the Tribunal correctionnel de Paris.

The case was brought by the Federation of African Islamic Associations, Comoro and Antilles islands (FFAIACA) against the newspapers for publishing some of the original Mohammed cartoons, plus some of their own. They were charged with incitement to racial hatred.

The judge’s ruling was presumably based on the fact that Islam is not a race.

Charlie Hebdo is not out of the woods yet, however, as there is still a lawsuit pending brought by four other Muslim Associations, including the Grande Mosque de Paris. This recent case sets an encouraging precedent.

France is the only European country in which Mohammed cartoon publishers have been subjected to court cases.

From The West

Non-Muslims should practise self censorship to avoid triggering violent reactions, a prominent Perth Muslim says.

In the wake of violent attacks over a speech by Pope Benedict XVI that linked the Prophet Mohammed's teachings to violence, Perth academic Samina Yasmeen said religious and community leaders should stop speaking about Islamic icons to avoid causing offence.

Associate Professor Yasmeen, director of the University of WA's centre for Muslim states and societies, accused the Pope of deliberately provoking the aggression by inviting criticism of Mohammed. She said the Pope and other religious leaders had the same responsibility as Islamic clerics to avoid encouraging violence by followers.

Previous emotive reactions, such as the violence following the publication of cartoons depicting Mohammed and Salman Rushdie's 1988 novel The Satanic Verses, should have warned people not to criticise Islam. Professor Yasmeen denied that the first reaction of many Muslims to perceived insults was violence, despite calls by some clerics to kill those who insult Islam and the murder of an Italian nun in Somalia.

I am not supportive of people killing and blowing things up, .. .BUT ... people need to start looking at self censorship, she said.

Based on an article from The Scotsman

The police who conducted the UK's biggest ever child-porn investigation are facing legal action from former suspects who say their lives have been ruined.

About 30 people, including a number from Scotland, have put their names to a class action set to be launched against detectives behind Operation Ore.

They claim their lives have been devastated by an investigation which has left hundreds of innocent people tarred by the same brush as the guilty. And they say they have secured evidence which shows that the basis for the investigation was false.

Operation Ore was launched four years ago after the credit- card details of 7,200 people believed to have paid for child porn on the internet were supplied to British police by US detectives. More than 2,000 people have been convicted.

Scotland's eight police forces investigated 420 names on the list, which was passed to them by the National Crime Squad. About 250 homes were searched, and over 500 computers and accessories seized. Some 120 arrests were made and just over 100 were convicted.

Police suspected those on the list of having paid for child porn through a website called Landslide, which provided access to 300 adult sites.

But the group behind the legal action claims the UK investigation was seriously flawed. It says it has obtained the original Landslide database which proves that the police's central claim - that everyone entering the site had to go through a banner marked "click here (for) child porn" - was false.

It also claims to have found evidence of major credit-card fraud, which means some people's details appeared on the site without their knowledge.

Most of those involved in the class action, including at least two Scots, were later cleared of wrongdoing. A few, however, were convicted of offences but are protesting their innocence.

Brian Rothery, who is organising the class action, said there had been a huge human cost to the investigation, with at least 35 people in the UK having committed suicide.

Huge numbers of lives have been destroyed by this. I am hoping hundreds of other innocent people will come forward, said Mr Rothery, from Ireland, who was not among those investigated under Operation Ore.

Chris Saltrese, who specialises in defending people falsely accused of sexual offences, has been enlisted to fight the case. He said papers would be served on senior officers who worked for the now-defunct National Crime Squad (NCS).

The lawyer said: Based on a preliminary view of the evidence, there seems to be a lot of erroneous information in the Landslide investigation. It seems the police over here have not picked up on this. As a consequence, people have been prosecuted for accessing child porn when in fact it's quite possible that never happened. If our action is successful, there's a possibility it will open the door for appeals. It does put serious question marks over the entire operation."

From the BBC

The government should make it illegal for internet sites to incite or advise people on how to commit suicide, an organisation says. Papyrus, set up to tackle young suicide, said the risk posed by pro-suicide websites was not being taken seriously enough.

The organisation said the 1961 Suicide Act should be amended to make it illegal to publish such material on the web.

The government said it was looking at how rules could be tightened. At the moment, the law says it is illegal to aid, abet, counsel, procure or incite someone to commit suicide, but to be successfully prosecuted the individual has to have knowledge and participated in the suicide. It is a very complex issue as many of these sites are hosted abroad and UK law won't apply there. The Department of Health added: Ministers are working closely with the Samaritans and the Internet Service Providers Association to look at ways of supporting vulnerable people who may be accessing these sites.

Papyrus said typing "I want to kill myself" into an internet search engine offers access to 5m sites, many of which give information on how to commit suicide or were chat-rooms where techniques are discussed.

A spokeswoman added: The sites take no responsibility for the advice they give, do not identify themselves and generally create an atmosphere where suicide is normal, acceptable and to be encouraged.

The charity said as well as changing the law, the Department of Health's National Suicide Strategy needed to be amended to include reference to the dangers of the internet. It also wants to see computer manufacturers and retailers include leaflets the charity has produced warning of the dangers of the internet when they sell products.

From Mediawatch-UK

Both Vernon Coaker and myself are deeply offended that the majority disagree with us. We both believe that this deep offence justifies extreme repression

Tougher action needs to be taken to stop sex, violence and swearing appearing on TV screens, according John Beyer, Director of mediawatch-uk, said today, We welcome Ofcom’s latest research, published today by the Media Literacy Team, showing again that widespread offence continues to be caused by portrayals of violence, bad language and sexual content.

Despite the majority expressing satisfaction with present programme information, high levels of offence are still being caused. Ofcom itself knows that this is a problem that has persisted for many years.
 

From Dan

Beyer once again reads an Ofcom report and interprets it as he sees fit.

Our viewers are concerned about sex and violence. Which means they want Ofcom to come down like a ton of bricks on any broadcaster that shows the slightest glimpse of a nipple or drop of blood.

...Er, no they don't

From International Herald Tribune

The chief editor of a Sudanese independent daily who provoked a furor by publishing an article denounced as blasphemous was found dead a day after being abducted by unknown gunmen.

A group of masked gunmen abducted Mohammed Taha Mohammed Ahmed, the editor-in-chief of Al-Wifaq, from his home in the east of Khartoum late Tuesday.

His body was found in another part of the city a day later, an Interior Ministry official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

Several suspects were arrested for alleged involvement in the crime.

Reporters Without Borders condemned the kidnapping and killing of Ahmed: We express our solidarity with our colleagues in Khartoum, for whom this cowardly murder is a harsh ordeal, They urged Sudanese authorities to bring the perpetrators to justice.

In May 2005, scores of Sudanese gathered in front of the capital's courthouse demanding a death sentence for Ahmed for insulting Islam's prophet, by republishing an article from the Internet that questioned the parentage of the Prophet Muhammad.

The Al-Wifaq daily was fined 8,000,000 Sudanese pounds (about US$3,200) for the outcry it prompted in this conservative African Muslim nation. Ahmed refuted the blasphemy charges and apologized in a letter to the press saying he did not intend to insult the prophet.

Blasphemy and insulting Islam can bring the death penalty in Sudan, which has been governed by strict Islamic Sharia law since 1983.

From Stuff

Sudan authorities confiscated all copies of the independent al-Sudani newspaper recently, the latest move in a resurgence of censorship since the beheading of a journalist last week.

Mohamed Taha, editor of al-Wifaq newspaper was seized from his home and his decapitated body dumped in a dirt street on Wednesday. Since then, censors have moved into newspapers to restrict the work of journalists, ending months of press freedom in Sudan.

One state security source said the measures were aimed at preventing the publication of articles that would compromise the investigation into Taha's death censorship: The deceased was a journalist. His colleagues will write emotional things that could affect the investigation.

Osman Merghani, a columnist at al-Sudani, said authorities had confiscated all the copies of the paper from the printing presses, waiting until they had been printed: They did not tell us which article they did not like, they just said all the articles are inappropriate.

Newspapers make little money in Sudan and confiscating a paper after being printed hits owners hard.

Based on an article from ic Wales

Christian nutters say cinematic versions of a series of what they were anti-religious novels will prove as controversial among churchgoers as Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code .

Philip Pullman's trilogy, His Dark Materials , which went into film production recently, has prompted outrage among religious nutters, who dismissed it as blasphemous anti-Christian propaganda.

The Catholic Herald condemned his work as "fit for the bonfire", while Rupert Kaye, chief executive of the Association of Christian Teachers, has said Pullman's "blasphemy is shameless".

Simon Jenkins, editor of the online Christian newsletter Ship of Fools, says the film version of His Dark Materials has the potential to prove every bit as offensive to some religious groups. But Jenkins said he believes those opposed to Pullman's books should use them as a platform for a debate about faith instead of dismissing the work as heresy.

Work on filming the first of the three novels began at Shepperton Studios and the production will star Nicole Kidman as Mrs Coulter, Daniel Craig as Lord Asriel and the unknown Dakota Blue Richards as Lyra.

The Hollywood film will be titled The Golden Compass , which was the US name chosen for the first novel in the trilogy - it was known as Northern Lights here. It is being directed by Chris Weitz, who made About a Boy and Antz .

Jenkins said, I'm sure this new film will launch 100 anti-film and anti-book websites going through all the detailed reasons why they are wrong and why they are dangerous and pose a threat to civilisation as we know it. But that's not my view of it. I think that is counter-productive. I think it's better to engage with the books on all the issues.

Pullman agreed the books had upset some Christians, but said he was unconcerned about the prospect of the films doing the same.

If the books become three separate films, then Christians will be far less offended by the first instalment than the following two - The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass, he said.

Kaye said it's only in the final novel in the trilogy that Pullman's blasphemy is unfurled for all to see. Pullman uses the names many people will recognise as referring to the God of the Christians and Jews, like Yahweh, the Almighty, and then goes on to say that the same God is not the creator of the universe and hence a liar.

From Free Speech Coalition

When Helen Mirren took stage to accept an Emmy for her performance in HBO’s Elizabeth I , she commented that her great triumph is not falling ass over tit coming up those stairs , If you saw the shoes I’ve got on, you would understand. Later in the broadcast, Calista Flockhard repeated the phrase while presenting another of the show’s awards.

The Parents Television Council (PTC) announced yesterday that it has filed an indecency complaint with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) concerning the airing of “vulgar and obscene language” used by actresses Helen Mirren and Calista Flockhart.

It is utterly irresponsible and atrocious for NBC to air this vulgar language during the safe harbor time when millions of children were in the viewing audience, said PTC president L. Brent Bozell in a statement released by the PTC.

PTC’s director of corporate and government affairs Dan Isett said the word “tits” was the problem: It’s one of the original ‘seven dirty words,. It should be considered a dirty word.

In other “decency news,” the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) requested a meeting with President George Bush in order to discuss the importance of enforcing federal obscenity laws, according to articles published on the Focus on the Family (FOF) website.

Trueman requested his meeting with Bush in a letter sent on the behalf of “nearly 50 pro-family groups,” according to the FOF.

The same article includes a statement from Tom Rodgers, reportedly a former police detective, describing the damage done to communities by “porn shops.”

  Eave Ho Hum

Based on an article from the BBC

Sitcom set in a Pattaya brothel

Five has been branded "way out of line" by the women's nutter group, Eaves, for broadcasting a sitcom set in a suburban brothel.

Respectable breaks Ofcom guidelines by portraying prostitution as "glamorous" and "risk-free" and should be taken off-air, Eaves has said.

A Five spokeswoman said the channel took the subject matter "seriously". Its publicity material describes Respectable as following a group of young women working together, squabbling, chatting and bonding, like any other workforce.   Like thousands of brothels throughout Britain, it's outwardly respectable, it's twee - and it could be next door to you.

Eaves said it had gathered a petition with 1,500 names. It has written to Five, Ofcom and Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell to ask for the programme to be pulled: Respectable will perpetuate the myth that not only is buying sex acceptable, rather than degrading and exploitative, but that it can be fun and enjoyable for the women involved and add glamour to their lives .

A spokeswoman for Five said Respectable is not intended to be as an in-depth investigation of prostitution. It is a comedy, and we would expect it to be viewed as such.
 

Sitcom set in a Pattaya brothel

Comment: Eave Ho the Logo

Eaves logo replaced after polite request from Eaves:

Could you remove our logo from your site by the end of today (Tuesday 5 September) please? You cannot use it without our permission. Thanks

Sitcom set in a Pattaya brothel

Comment: MoronFarmers

The Melon Farmers got noticed by feminist Laurelin in a blog entry. I commented that the feminist group Eaves, criticising a channel 5 sitcom set in a brothel, were a women's nutter group.

Back to the MoronFarmers. One of their latest attempts as journalism has them scoffing at Eaves, the organisation that provides shelter and hope to women on a low income, to victims of rape trafficking and has done extensive research on sexual violence, for protesting Channel Five’s newest ’sitcom’ which is set in a brothel. Eaves objects to the portrayal of prostitution as ‘glamorous’ and ‘risk-free’. For this, the Morons label Eaves as a ‘women’s nutter group’.

Firstly, who would know more about the damage a sitcom about prostitution could do, Eaves or MelonFarmers? I think the answer is pretty clear, and MelonFarmers do not even attempt to argue against Eaves’ views. And secondly, what sort of a website that is interested in preventing censorship would refer to a group that has done amazing work for the most powerless and silenced women as a ‘women’s nutter group’, simply because that group took a stance that website disagreed with?

Surely I recognise the good work in setting up a refuge. However the wish to imprison people just for viewing softcore porn is more than ample justification for considering Eaves to be a nutter organisation.

One of the responses to the Government consultation on extreme pornography was: Response from Women's National Commission This was endorsed by Eaves and includes the following:

Lilith believe that the list of restricted pornographic material [with a penalty of 3 years in prison for simple possession] should be expanded from the proposed list to also include:

• Any material which has scenes of sexual violence, not just those which are deemed to be showing ‘serious’ sexual violence
• Any material which shows women’s bodies being abused in any way
• Any material which is hostile to women by showing them in passive roles in sexual activity or being dominated
• Any material which features naked women for the sole purpose of sexual gratification (and therefore not, for example, for educational or anatomical purposes

Just a Stone's Throw Away from Sharia

From Mediawatch-UK

In response to the publication of the Government’s proposals to bring forward new legislation on extreme pornography the following news release was issues by mediawatch-uk:

The Government’s proposals, announced today, to deal with extreme pornography do not go far enough according to John Beyer, Director of mediawatch-uk. Despite acknowledging that many respondents felt the proposals should go further, with tighter restrictions imposed on all pornography, the Home Office has shied away from this and decided not to strengthen the weak and ineffective Obscene Publications Act but to bring forward measures to deal only with serious violence, sex with animals and corpses , he said.

It is a great disappointment that hard-core pornographic material, classified R18 by the British Board of Film Classification, has not been considered . Mr Beyer continued, These proposals will have no impact at all on the deluge of pornography that is accessible on television, on the Internet and on video and DVD. People are sick and tired of being confronted with pornography and its false values and would welcome a general clean up. The Government’s very limited measures are simply not designed to achieve what the vast majority of people want and this huge exploitative industry will be left pretty much intact by New Labour. People must not be misled into thinking that this proposed legislation with meet their concerns. Most of what causes widespread offence is legal and these new measures will not change that.
 

Comment: Bombarded by Nutters

From Dan

What he means is people like him and those who have similar views as him are sick and tired that pornography is available at all. This is about more than a concern with people viewing images of rape and sexual torture, it's about Mediawatch UK's view that viewing sex is not something people should do and it offends them that some people are doing it.

People are not confronted with pornography. They are not bombarded with it on TV and they do not have it thrust in their faces every time they walk into a DVD store or log onto the internet. Mediawatch UK's idea of being "confronted with pornography" is seeing the odd nude body or sex scene on TV.

This can hardly be put alongside the images that may have warped the mind of the murderer of Jane Longhurst. Some people may be offended that sexual imagery is accessible but that's of no business of theirs. What people view behind their closed doors is of no business of anyone else, least of all John Beyer and Mediawatch UK.

Beyer talks about "false values". It is not the government's job to regulate people's values and whatever values people may get from watching pornography certainly cannot be controlled and dictated by politicians. There may be people who would welcome a "general clean up" but we wonder if they would welcome throwing people in jail for three years merely for viewing sex.

Mediawatch UK and John Beyer's views on porn are that sex is something which should be kept behind closed doors and all sexual imagery, even consensual, is dirty, immoral and corrupting. Therefore they throw the net on what they consider as pornography as wide as possible. They are concerned with what goes on behind closed doors (yet they say sex is a private matter!) and want the government to not just act to protect us from what may be harmful but to act to enforce a puritanical view of sex on the entire British population.

This won't protect anyone and will do more to warp ideas of sexual values than anything the pornography industry has ever done.

Based on an article from The Guardian
The exhibition, Art & Islam, runs to September 3rd

A Bangladeshi-British photographer is complaining that her work has been censored by the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery.

A documentary work made in Bangladesh by Syra Miah and shown as part of the museum's Art and Islam exhibitions was removed because it contained an image of a semi-naked woman. The museum said it had been advised some days after the show opened to the public on July 8 that the image could offend a Muslim audience.

Miah said: I felt that the whole message behind my show had been undermined by this censorship, During the editing process the curators seemed to want images in the exhibition that portrayed Bangladesh as another colourful Asian country. Sadly, the removal of this image, the only image in the show that could be interpreted as gritty, confirmed my growing cynical view that the museum wanted to perpetuate a myth about Muslim societies: that nudity isn't tolerated. In Bangladeshi society - at least the one I witnessed - it clearly is.

The partially dressed figure in the image was actually a mentally ill woman who had made a home of a bus shelter. She was looked after by locals who made sure she was out of danger and fed. I think this shows a compassionate view of Islamic society.

The museum said it had acted on a complaint from a member of the Muslim arts group Artists Circle: The complaint we received was taken very seriously and it was after much consideration that the decision to remove the work from the exhibition was taken with the full agreement of the artist.

However, Miah said she was not consulted and could have clarified the meaning and context of the image if asked.
 

From Paul:

:Thought it was worth a letter:

Dear sir,

I read a recent report in the Guardian that suggested that some of the photographic work of Syra Miah had recently been censored by the Birmingham Museum because of pressure from a Muslim arts group.

I would be most interested to know if this story is factually accurate. If this story is accurate then it's a public disgrace.

I look forward to hearing from you

Based on an article from ars technica

As might be expected, Bully 's premise in the schoolyard has caught the attention of Jack Thompson, best known for his crusade against video game violence. In an unusual move, he demanded that Rockstar Games provide him with a prerelease copy of the game for analysis. Thompson's letter threatened the developers with a lawsuit if they did not fork over a copy of the game for him and others to analyze it to determine whether it still poses a threat of copycat violence in our schools.

When contacted by Ars Technica for comment, Thompson told us that Rockstar parent company Take-Two Interactive ignored the letters entirely. As a result, he has filed a lawsuit in Miami-Dade Circuit Court. Using Florida's nuisance law as the suit's basis, Thompson is seeking access to the game prior to its release to assess it prior to its release to the public . If Thompson does get a copy of the game and finds that it confirms educators' and others' worst fears as he expects, he plans to seek an injunction against its release.

In the complaint, Thompson makes a number of startling claims, including a new wave of successfully orchestrated harassment by Take-Two directed against him. He cites death and sexual abuse threats received early Tuesday morning from a caller in Oregon as evidence of Take-Two's alleged campaign against him.

Rockstar recently released a trailer for Bully , and it looks like the game play is going to be much different than many people thought. We asked Thompson about the recently released Bully trailer. He called it "sanitization," saying that this is all part of a propaganda effort worthy of Joseph Goebbels, or Doug Lowenstein. Thompson characterizes screenshots from the game as displaying the title's true nature, despite Take-Two's comments to the contrary.

It is hard to conceive the court giving Thompson an advance look at the game, even if he says he is acting on behalf of the State of Florida in filing the suit. Instead, we'll have to rely on the ESRB to look through the game footage and assign a rating based on what it sees. Rockstar has extra incentive to play it by the book with Bully , given its history with GTA: San Andreas along with the specter of a $1 million fine from the ESRB if it fails to disclose crucial elements of the game.

From the The Star

The Israeli government, Jewish groups and the mayor of Paris on Thursday condemned an Iranian exhibition of cartoons on the Nazi Holocaust, accusing Tehran of spreading hatred and trivialising the murder of six million Jews.

Organisers of Iran's International Holocaust Cartoon's Contest said the museum exhibit, which has drawn more than 200 entries, aims to challenge Western taboos about the discussing the Holocaust.

Israeli government spokesman Gideon Meir called on the international community to express disgust from such an anti-Semitic and inhuman event.

Yosef Lapid, chairman of the council of the Yad Vashem Holocaust museum in Jerusalem, said: The exhibit not only is horrific propaganda that supports Holocaust denial, it also paves the road to justifying genocide of the Jews in Israel.

Paris Mayor Bertrand Delanoe condemned the display in a letter to Iran's ambassador, saying it intended to mock the tragedy of the (Holocaust) and to trivialise a new anti-Semitic bid under the false pretext of art and freedom of speech. A t a time when violence and war should lead everyone towards a willingness for dialogue, appeasement and tolerance, such a step serves, on the contrary, motivations dominated by hatred.

Salomon Korn, chairman of the Jewish community in the German city of Frankfurt, said he thought the exhibition was "pathologically crude": Ahmadinejad is demanding from the West what he does not allow himself, and of which he perhaps has no idea, namely tolerance.

Letter to the press from Mediawatch-UK

The Government must tackle the root causes of terrorism by banning bad language from TV. (Thanks to Mark for the picture)

Sir, The news today that knife attacks have risen by a massive 73%, despite the recent amnesty which succeeded in thousands of knives being surrendered, points to a crucial weakness in the rationale for dealing with this alarming problem.

We would certainly agree with Chris Eades, 9/8/2006, that the Government must tackle the root causes of violent crime and must adopt a more "coherent" strategy. Whilst focusing on the reporting of knife crime and political commentary on it, it is unfortunate that the Kings College Report fails to take into account the influence exerted by film, television and computer games in validating and glamorising the use of knives, and a range of other fearsome weapons, so much so that they have become merely fashion accessories.

The absence of any moral constraints encourages the false notion that using violence, physical and/or verbal, is the way to achieve your objective. This is particularly so in the virtual world of the violent computer game. We would certainly agree with this Report that there is a need to understand "the motivations for knife- carrying" and why young people should feel "unsafe" without one. If fictional macho heroes normalise the use of knives, and other offensive weapons, as our monitoring of films on television for the last 15 years shows, should we be surprised if real life is reflecting what is commonly portrayed on the screen?

One thing is certain: a coherent future strategy in tackling knife crime must embrace the portrayal of fictional violence in our entertainment.

  Communities Value Unbelievable Nonsense

From AVN

13 religio-reactionary nutter groups placed an ad in USA Today calling on the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate and prosecute companies which supply adult videos for hotel pay-per-view systems. Although the ad only appeared in the D.C. and New York City editions of the newspaper.

The Citizens for Community Values (CCV) were said to have played the leading role in the advert.

The specific targets of the ad, which is titled If what begins with a click can end as a registered sex offense, it's time we rethink hardcore porn, are OnCommand and LodgeNet, which are termed two companies ... largely responsible for flooding U.S. hotels with the majority of highly alarming and pornographic video content . Not explained in the ad are why such videos are " highly alarming ," nor which particular sex offenses are " registered ."

We are calling on the Department of Justice and Federal Bureau of Investigation to immediately investigate the companies that distribute it to determine whether 'adult' videos being sold in hotels by OnCommand and LodgeNet violate long-established Federal and State laws regarding distribution of obscene material, said Burress of CCV, who over the past few years has attempted to convince various Ohio and northern Kentucky prosecutors to strong-arm hotels into banning adult pay-per-view.

The ad opines that, It's high time America began thinking less of profiting from debasing women and more about prosecuting – under current laws – those who produce, sell and distribute hardcore porn.

Several of the nutter organizations sponsoring the ad are also signatories to a letter from the Interfaith Stewardship Alliance, which urges religious people to ignore scientific findings proving the existence of global warming, and all oppose comprehensive sex education in schools, as well as condom distribution for HIV prevention in Third World countries.

Yeah, they care about men, women, children and families!
 

Update: Nutter Values

Based on an article from AdultFYI

If a religious nutter group has its way, one-on-one attention at adult-oriented businesses will soon be illegal.

Cincinnati-based Citizens for Community Values - the same group responsible for Ohio's constitutional ban on gay marriage in 2004 - has now set its sights on adult book stores, strip clubs, peep shows and massage parlors.

The group's Community Defense Act would force any sexually oriented business in Ohio to close from midnight to 6 a.m. Strip clubs with alcohol permits could stay open later, but "sexually oriented entertainment activity" would have to stop by midnight.

The measure also would prohibit nude or semi-nude dancers from being within 6 feet of patrons, which would effectively ban lap-dancing - the bread and butter for many dancers.

Proponents say the law would help protect citizens from pornography.

If we can change the constitution to protect marriage, why can't we pass a law? asks Phil Buress, president of Citizens for Community Values.

But opponents call the group's plan nothing more than a thinly-veiled attempt to restrict the rights of Americans.

The Community Defense Act hit a snag after the CCV submitted proposed language to Attorney General Jim Petro that was rejected July 17 because it did not contain a statement saying that violating the law would be a first-degree misdemeanor.

However, substitute language already has been submitted to the attorney general's office, which must still rule on its validity, said Kim Norris, a Petro spokeswoman.

The group's goal is for the act to be passed by the General Assembly or approved by voters in November 2007. If voters approve it, the law would become effective 30 days after the election.
 

Update: Standard part of today's hotel business

From AVN

National Hotel chains such Hilton and Marriot defended themselves from a recent attack by 13 nutter groups who took out full-page ads in some editions of the USA Today earlier this month, “urging the Justice Department and FBI to investigate whether some of the pay-per-view movies widely available in hotels violate federal and state obscenity laws.”

National Associated Press writer David Crary’s recent article reported that both Kathy Shepard of Hilton and Roger Conner of Marriott said the bulk of their hotels are operated by franchise-holders who make their own decisions about in-room programming. They made clear, however, that their companies consider adult movies to be an acceptable option because they can be ignored or blocked out by guests not wishing to view them.

Really ultraconservative groups try to target the hotels in their zest to eliminate porn, Shepard told Crary. In their zest to have their personal morals prevail, they're eliminating choice for others.

Conner told Crary that none of the programming offered by Marriott is illegal, and he depicted adult movies as a standard part of today's hotel business.

  Hurling the Rotten Fruits of the Holier Than Thou

From The Telegraph

The Vatican accused Madonna of "blasphemy and profanity" yesterday - and even suggested that she should be excommunicated over a scene in her current Confessions Tour.

Madonna brings her show to Rome on Sunday, and Roman Catholic leaders are furious at part of her performance in which she wears a crown of thorns and is apparently crucified.

Cardinal Ersilio Tonino, speaking with the Pope's approval, said: This is a blasphemous challenge to the faith and a profanation of the Cross. She should be excommunicated. To crucify herself … in the city of popes and martyrs is an act of open hostility. It is nothing short of a scandal and an attempt to generate publicity.

Another Vatican official, Bishop Velasio De Paolis, said: How this woman can take the name of the mother of Christ, I don't know. Her show represents the rotten fruit of secularism and the absurdity of evil.
 

Update: Crossing the Boxes for Prosecution

From cbc.ca

The crucifixion scene, which drew fire from religious leaders in Rome earlier this month, features Madonna wearing a crown of fake thorns and performing on a mirrored cross.

Johannes Mocken, a spokesman for prosecutors in Duesseldorf, said that authorities would be watching her concert on Sunday to see if legal action is warranted.

The crucifixion scene could be construed as insulting religious beliefs, he said, but he admitted it might also be permitted under laws protecting artistic freedom.

In Rome, Muslim, Jewish and Roman Catholic leaders were united in condemning her performance, which drew 70,000 fans. Being raised on a cross with a crown of thorns like a modern Christ is absurd , Rev. Manfredo Leone said after last Sunday's performance. Doing it in the cradle of Christianity comes close to blasphemy.
 

Update: Inevitable Boycott Bollox

From the BBC

Madonna has gone ahead with a concert in Dusseldorf despite warnings that German prosecutors were considering legal action over the show's content.

Prosecutors said they were to monitor the performance after receiving a complaint that the US pop star's act breached German laws against blasphemy.

But the German prosecutors admitted they would rely on media reports of the concert rather than send their own observers to decide whether further action should be taken.

A German Lutheran bishop has called for concert-goers to boycott all dates on the German leg of Madonna's tour.  Protestant Bishop Margot Kaesmann told German newspaper Bild am Sonntag that concert-goers should boycott the show. I advise people to ignore Madonna. Stars come and go, but the Christian faith endures, Bishop Kaesmann added.

  The Award for the Best Terrorist Victory ...

Sense of humour being replaced by the non-sense of the easily offended

From the Daily Mail

Kick them in the stiff upper lip, then throttle their sense of humour!

Nutters have urged the BBC to pull a 'sick' new comedy show which features spoof news reports of Tony Blair being assassinated and a 9/11-style video of terrorists crashing an airliner into the Houses of Parliament.

The clips for an Oscar-style 'Terrorism Awards' ceremony that forms one of the sketches in the new BBC2 series, Time Trumpet .

As well as the al-Qaeda plane attack and a picture of Blair with a bullet hole in the side of his head after being 'shot as he slept beside his wife', the skit also features a Hamas bombing in Tel Aviv. It is believed it was made before the recent outbreak of hostilities in the Middle East.

To add authenticity to the clips, which appeared on the internet yesterday, The Terrorism Awards are hosted by BBC election veteran Peter Snow and Tomorrow's World presenter Philippa Forrester.

The satire is the work of Armando Iannucci, who wrote the award-winning recent Whitehall comedy The Thick of It and was the co-creator of Steve Coogan's alter ego Alan Partridge .

His latest offering has provoked outrage from MPs of all sides. Andrew Dismore, Labour MP for Hendon, said it was: absolutely sick. At a time when people are dying for real on both sides in the Middle East, to try and make fun of what's going on is the worst thing imaginable. Nothing is more sick than attempting to make a joke out of people who are dying. It's beyond the pale. The BBC governors should do something to stop this. And the fact that it could have been given approval by the BBC's editorial board is simply disgraceful.

David Davies, Tory MP for Monmouth, said: It shows a distinct lack of taste and could even exacerbate the suffering of the July 7th bombing victims. The BBC receives a large amount of taxpayers' money and has a duty to use it responsibly. I can't see much comedy value in this at a time when all of us are at risk from terrorism.'

The Terrorism Award sketch features in episode three of the six-part series which starts tonight.

A BBC spokeswoman yesterday defended Time Trumpet, saying the sketches needed to be seen in the context of the whole series.It is a satire set in the year 2031, looking back at the events and people of today.

Howard Beal speech from the film Network: So turn off your television sets. Turn them off now! Turn them off right now! Turn them off and leave them off. Turn them off right in the middle of this sentence I'm speaking to you now. Turn them off!

From the Bangkok Post

The Violent and junk TV programmes as well as popular reality shows could contribute to mental derangement and physical ailments in young people, a specialist said recently.

Many children and their parents were unaware of the insidious threat, although a credible link could be established between watching the wrong kind of TV programmes and poorer health, said Suriyadev Tripatee, of the Dek Thai Mai Kinwan (Thai Children, Don't Eat Sweets) Network.

The frequent broadcast of disturbing scenes or news could inhibit alimentary function and blood circulation in youngsters who regularly watch TV over a long period of time, he said.

Dr Suriyadev said viewers could experience hypertension and an irregular heartbeat.

In the process, not enough blood was distributed to organs such as the stomach and the alimentary system, ''deactivating'' a person's appetite. At the same time, digestive fluid will be produced in the stomach which could cause ulcers.

He said many young viewers developed constipation, insomnia and an array of other ailments.

In children who play computer games, over-excitement could lead to convulsive attacks. Watching too much TV could cause heart conditions and memory loss and eventually derangement of the mind.

He is also worried that reality shows, in which contestants sometimes use tricks to win, could instil wrong social values in children.

Children may think getting what they want in whatever way they can is acceptable, and take for granted aggressive and sexually provocative conduct shown on TV.

News stories about violent behaviour should not be reinforced with pictures, he said.

From the BBC

The use of anti-social behaviour laws to break up a protest by Sikhs against a controversial play worked well, the Court of Appeal has ruled.

Pritpal Singh, of Coventry, brought a legal challenge after he was arrested for failing to leave a protest against Behzti at Birmingham Repertory Theatre. His lawyers said a "lawful protest" should not be restricted by police use of the Anti-Social Behaviour Act.

But judges dismissed the appeal, saying police actions were lawful. Lady Justice Hallett, giving the lead ruling on Friday, said Singh's argument paid "scant regard" to the rights of those who wrote and staged the play and those who wanted to see it: They too had the right to freedom of expression, just as the adults and children who were at or near the theatre that day had the right to go about their business without being subjected to scenes which were unnecessarily frightening, intimidating and distressing.

The play depicted acts of rape and violence in a Sikh temple and its author, Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti, was forced into hiding after receiving death threats.

  False Sexual Liberation

Letter from John Beyer of Mediawatch-UK To The Times

Sir, Janice Turner, 1/7/06, (Comment) herself runs the risk of being described by the porn industry as "buttoned up" by daring to criticise their "exploitation" of a benevolent attitude to their obscenity products. Mary Whitehouse warned many years ago that failure to strengthen the law against pornography, and the continuing political indifference, would lead precisely to the display of penetrated "orifices" that now defines pornography.

Having a snipe at Mrs Whitehouse is unbecoming: had her warning been heeded the law might now be effective and the drift towards the mainstreaming of the most extreme pornography might have been halted. Now society is having to contend with the consequences of the devastating effect of the morality-free pornography manifested in marital breakdown, ever increasing sexual crime and a crisis in sexual health among the young.

It is certainly true that the porn industry has leeched into everyday life but this is because opposition has been effectively stifled by those with a vested interest in promoting it. This organisation, however, has consistently opposed it at every opportunity because we recognise the increasing moral and social damage being done. We again call upon the Government to strengthen the law which we believe will not only lead to a more healthy and decent society but also to less expenditure to deal with the consequences a false "sexual liberation" imposed by pornographers.
 

Opinion: Not a decent society at all

From Dan

Strengthen the law so that it can snoop and intrude on our private lives and have us locked up for viewing anything john beyer and mediawatch uk dissaprove of!

A society where people are imprisoned for viewing sexual material is not a decent society at all!
 

Opinion : Being 'right' simply because one believes one is 'right'

From Ian

Poor sad Mr Beyer. So sex - putting sex organs together - is `obscene` is it? I`m afraid that idea doesn`t wash with me.

What I find obscene is the senseless murder of innocent people in religiously motivated wars. The false imprisonment and persecution of innocent people based on religiously inspired laws.

What I find obscene is the assumption one is `right` simply because one believes one is `right`. This is the root of all conflict, all persecution, all unholy repression at the hands of the holy. This is real obscenity, the source of real gut churning disgust.

I`m afraid Mr Beyer, like Mary Whitehouse, possess sick, poisoned minds. The sex act is perfectly natural - it IS nature, it IS life. Of course it doesn`t help that these religiously motivated dickheads believe their reward for making everyone`s life a living hell lies in the afterlife - how convenient that we can`t say to them "see, you were fucking WRONG all along"!

I`m I guilty of assuming I`m right because I believe I`m right? Hardly. There are many cultures far older than British or religious/Christian cultures that do not demonise the sex act or the sexual organs. In Bhutan it is customary to paint a large erect phalus on one`s home to bring good fortune. In many other cultures, women do not feel any need to cover their breasts and, men often go about their everyday lives totally naked and unashamed.

Only the poison of Western/Mid-East religions have affected the views of Mr Beyer et al. They are not `right`. They cannot be `right` because the basic premise of their own religious beliefs is to "live and let live", to extol "forgiveness and tolerance". I see NONE of these basic tenets in the ravings of Mr Beyer, nor did they ever come forth from the mouth and mind of Mrs Whitehouse. Indeed, they clamour for more repressive legislation, for more punishments for disobedience to their warped sense of morality.

In the end we see a thinly disguised type of religious fascism. Mr Beyer can believe porn is a threat to society but, that doesn`t meant it is. It may be a threat in his ideal vision of the `perfect society` but, society isn`t ideal or perfect and, those that try to enforce these visions usually destroy society in the process.

Society is like water - it always finds it own level. It is an amorphous mass of individual opinions and ideas. A free society by definition must be free to express and indulge those individual opinions and ideas, lest it becomes a totalitarian dictatorship. Britain broke the shackles of Catholic dogma in the 16th century. We cast off the remnants of religious notions of sexual obscenity in the year 2000 - 30 years behind the rest of our enlightened brethren on the Continent. If Mr Beyer would like to live in a puritan Cromwellian society, then I suggest he emigrates to Iran, where his views would no doubt be welcomed with open arms. But they`re not welcome here in the UK in the 21st Century, ta very much!

From the Jerusalem Post

The Mosque of Paris has filed suit against a satirical weekly for publishing three cartoons of Islam's prophet - two of which were among those published by a Danish newspaper that triggered violent protests five months ago, judicial officials said recently.

The suit was filed against Philippe Val, executive editor of Charlie-Hebdo, a satirical magazine known for its caustic humor, and against the Rotatives publishing house for the cartoons, which appeared in a February edition.

The Mosque of Paris considers the publication of the cartoons to be a deliberate act of aggression aimed at offending people of the Muslim religion in their attachment to their faith, the officials said.

The mosque is the largest in France, where there are an estimated 5 million Muslims. A preliminary hearing was set for late September.

Meanwhile from the BBC

An Indonesian journalist faces trial over his decision to publish cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad. Teguh Santosa, online editor of Rakyat Merdeka, is charged with inciting hatred towards a religious group.

Santosa posted the cartoons in February at the height of international controversy over drawings which first appeared in a Danish newspaper. The images, including one which showed Muhammad with a bomb in his turban, sparked anger across the Islamic world.

Santosa said he published the images to give readers the full story on the cartoons issue: We just wanted to let people know about the cartoons, which were being strongly protested at that time.

Santos, who was formally arrested and charged on Thursday, faces up to five years imprisonment if found guilty, his lawyer said.

Based on an article from Life Site

The latest supposedly blasphemous antics of Welsh pop-star Charlotte Church have convinced a Catholic publishing company to drop all the products of the girl with “the voice of a angel.”

In a notice to all the customers of Ignatius Press, the company informed its customers that Charlotte Church’s recent statement and antics in the pilot for a new Channel 4 Television entertainment show, have forced Ignatius Press to discontinue carrying her products.

The pilot for The Charlotte Church Show was recorded before a live audience on July 12 in London. During the show, the hostess Charlotte Church, dressed as drug-using nun, smashed open a statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary revealing a hidden can of cider, and spoke about worshipping “St. Fortified Wine.” Along the same vein of comic blasphemy, the pop diva pretended to hallucinate while consuming communion wafers branded with Ecstasy smiley faces, and denigrated Pope Benedict XVI as a “Nazi”, even though she had performed for the late Holy Father, John Paul II, when she was a 12 year-old girl.

In an official statement, Ignatius Press stated, It is with regret that we do this; Miss Church possesses a great gift from God, and in the past she has used her talent often to offer praise and glory to our Lord. While Ignatius Press praised the sacred music Charlotte had done in the past, they said, We cannot stand by a young woman who uses her stature in the media to mock the Eucharist, slander the Holy Father, and denigrate the vows of religious women. Therefore, our catalogs and website will immediately withdraw all compact discs, cassette tapes, DVDs and VHS tapes that feature Miss Church. Please join us in praying for this troubled young woman.

From Total Catholic

A Catholic women’s group joins calls banish “lad’s
mags” to the top shelves

The National Board of Catholic Women (NBCW), who have just set up an interfaith campaign to raise awareness of the portrayal of women, called on the Catholic MPs to join their campaign.

NBCW chairperson Angela Perkins said that "enough is enough" and something must be done to tackle some of the explicit pictures and material on show in magazines. We have just been awarded £25,000 from the First Communities Fund to run our interfaith media literacy campaign. The media is an area of great concern particularly because of the early sexualisation of children and the continued exploitation of women. But this is not just a Catholic or Christian issue, it is an interfaith issue.

She shamefully added: Whilst freedom of speech and expression are rightly defended foundations of our society... [ BUT ]. .. it is frankly disgusting that these liberties can be exploited to the extent where children have free access to such degrading explicit material.

Maybe George Pell should also point out the immense harm caused by a total denial of sex. His church should be more aware of this than most!

From Total Catholic

Sydney’s Archbishop George Pell has said that more should be done to stem the flow of sexually explicit content on the Internet.

Writing in the Sunday Telegraph in Australia the archbishop also called on doctors and scientists to do more to treat sexual addiction, which he claimed was just a real addiction as drugs and alcohol.

Sexual addiction is real, he said. We have long recognized drug addicts, alcoholics, compulsive gamblers, but only recently has public attention begun to focus on compulsive and disordered sexuality. It is still among the least understood of all the addictions, although now a major social problem and public health issue.

The Internet has now become the fastest growing source and forum for sexual addicts, because it is available at any time of day or night, is isolated and secret, rich in fantasy and endless variety. Sexual addicts are only a minority, but the spread of pornography on the Internet is feeding these addictions. Some Australian cities, including Sydney, are among the highest users in the world of pornographic material.

Forty percent of the adult male population in the U.K. (9,000,000) logged onto sex websites last year, four times as many as in 2000. 1.4 million women downloaded Internet porn in that time, but this represents an increase of 30%. It is not surprising that 40% of couples with marital difficulties say Internet pornography is at least partly to blame."

Based on an article from The Sun

Channel 4 has caused a storm of protest from nutters over plans to screen a programme about public masturbation.

Wank-a-thon will follow hundreds of men and women as they pleasure themselves in a hall in central London on August 5. It will be screened in the autumn as one of three programmes on the subject in what has been dubbed 'Wank Week'.

The plan has been predictably condemned by MediaWatch UK, which has called on the Government to intervene and for advertisers to boycott C4.

MediaWatch UK director John Beyer told the Sun: We call on the Secretary of state for Culture, Media and Sport Tessa Jowell to intervene to make Channel 4 scrap this tasteless idea

C4 is a public service broadcaster though it is funded by adverts and I think it could be breaking its licence agreement with the Government. Advertisers should withdraw their funding and force C4 to drop the programme.

I'm lost for words. It's a terrible idea, C4 is capable of doing superb programmes but this isn't one of them. It's bringing TV standards down once again.

The August 5 event has been organised by the San Francisco-based Centre for Sex and Culture, which has run similar public masturbation gatherings since 2001.

It is likely to raise money for safe sex charities and prizes will be on offer for those who achieve the most orgasms and break masturbation records.

C4 today defended the show. Executive Andrew MacKenzie said: " It follows on from Penis Week which was extremely successful. It's provocative, mischievous programming, exactly the sort of thing that C4 should be screening at 11pm. Masturbation is something many people do but not many talk about.

From the National Secular Society

New Zealand’s Catholic bishops are appealing to the High Court against a ruling by the Broadcasting Standards Authority last week that said the Bloody Mary episode of TV cartoon series South Park was not offensive. The controversial episode was screened on C4 in February, and showed a statue of the Virgin Mary menstruating. The authority did not uphold the 35 complaints it received about the show including one from the bishops, saying the show was of such a farcical, absurd and unrealistic nature that it did not breach good taste standards.

Based on an article from  Hackney Gazette

A stoke Newington-based censorial newsagent has been voted the best in the capital. Hamdy's News, in Stoke Newington High Street, was awarded the gold medal for being the Best Neighbourhood Newsagent at the Living London Awards ceremony.

Hamdy Shahein was shamefully quoted in the Guardian: I believe in freedom of choice, and my choice is not to sell this material, [... BUT ... his petition shown left shows that he certainly DOES NOT believe in freedom of choice, only for himself]

Shahein has been locked in a battle with wholesaler, WH Smith News, for the past 17 years in a bid to stop the company from sending him adult material in pre-packaged deliveries.

The shopkeeper refuses to stock pornography in his shop and his bid to get lads mags and racy tabloids on to top shelves in other newsagents has been championed in the House of Commons by Diane Abbott, MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington, and Claire Curtis-Thomas, MP for Crosby in north Merseyside.

His window display is dominated by a sign declaring the shop "Porn Free".

Shahein was also made an ambassador for peace by the Interreligious and International Federation for World Peace, a United Nations-backed, worldwide, multi-faith organisation, at an event last month in Wembley,

From Petition Them, by Hamdy Shahein

THE PETITION

The Network for Porn-Free Newsagents and Convenience Stores are a group of 500+ Newsagents who object to pornographic publications containing degrading and harmful images of women being sold in high street Newsagents and Convenience Stores which are frequented by children. They believe that there should be greater regulation to take these titles out of our family frequented high street stores.

DESIRED OUTCOME

Newsagents and other high street stores to stop selling pornography.

Mediatwatch-UK have published their Summer Newsbrief including the following prayer

From Mediawatch-UK

mediawatch-uk prayer by Margaret Smith

Creator God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, enlighten the eyes of our minds, that we may see the path that You have mapped out for us.

Help us always to do Your will, not ours. Give us the grace and determination to speak out against those things that are offensive to You and to us in today’s media-driven society.

You have brought us together as this group to fight for truth, decency and honesty, to protect society - especially young people - from the insidious harm which pervades our world. May we be always aware of the trust You have placed in us, and be strong in living our principles.

Guide us as we seek to discern out future, and send us many more eyes and voices to help in the work which our founder Mary Whitehouse began.

We make this prayer through Christ our Lord.
 

Mediatwatch-UK are publicising their Summer Newsbrief via a letter to Blair urging him to again follow George Bush on Crusade

From Mediawatch-UK

Following the bold action taken by President Bush to increase fines ten-fold for the broadcast of profane and indecent material on American TV mediawatch-uk is today following this lead by urging members of the public to make their voices heard about swearing, violence and indecency on British TV.

Speaking today, John Beyer, Director of mediawatch-uk, the TV lobby group, said: President Bush has given the world a lead in the fight for higher standards on television. He has reminded broadcasters to take seriously their duty to keep the public airwaves free of obscene, profane and indecent material. But he also acknowledged that the US regulator, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is receiving hundreds of thousands of complaints each year from the American public. ‘In other words, he said, people are saying, we’re tired of it and we expect the government to do something about it. ’

Beyer has written to the Prime Minister, Tony Blair, urging that he follow the president’s example:

Dear Mr Blair,

We have read a number of reports in the British media concerning 10 fold increases in fines for indecent radio and TV broadcasts in America. We understand that President Bush has approved and authorised the necessary legislation. He is reported as saying This law will ensure that broadcasters take seriously their duty to keep the public airwaves free of obscene, profane and indecent material.

In view of your own noble campaign to restore respect and civility to British society we respectfully appeal to you to follow My Bush’s lead. There can be no doubt that the level of “obscene, profane and indecent material” on British television has reached proportions that are seriously undermining your aspirations to deal effectively with “yob culture”. Clearly the regulatory system established by your Government is having little or no effect on standards and all protest is being rejected. As you have said freedoms carry responsibilities of equal value except in broadcasting where responsibilities are ignored.

Mediawatch received a short letter from 10 Downing Street expressing thanks for the letter and stating that Mr Blair had asked for it to be passed to the Department for Culture Media and Sport which has particular responsibility for the matter you raise so that they are also aware of your views.

Based on an article from ic South London

Dozens of nutters, backed by a brass band, descended on Fairfield Hall, Croydon this week at the opening of Jerry Springer - the Opera .

The protesters demonstrated their displeasure at the show, which has been deemed anti-Christian, while inside the venue the audience members gave it a rousing reception.

But while the demonstrators took to the street, the theatre defended its decision to stage it and remained optimistic that people would make up their own mind.

A leaflet handed out by the demonstrators read: Causing gratuitous offence is not the hallmark of a civilised society. We Christians take it personally when our Saviour is insulted. Jesus Christ, king of kings and lord of lords suffering and dying on the cross for the sins of the world is (portrayed as) the pervert with an infantile complex.

In peaceful prayer, churchgoers met an hour before the curtain went up and stayed for 90 minutes until their service ended.

But Fairfield Hall's spokes-woman Laura Roberts said the opening night had gone well despite the protests. We have 1,500 seats, sold 600 tickets and the audience certainly sounded like they enjoyed themselves."