In a recent interview, federal attorney-general George Brandis laments that deniers of climate science are being “excluded” from the debate. On the surface this seems a justifiable complaint, but the point…
The markers of identification of communities have clearly moved from just race, colour and national or ethnic origin to include religion. In the case of Muslims, their faith and culture and all that it…
Suzannah Wood, Queensland University of Technology and Nicolas Suzor, Queensland University of Technology
China’s biggest search engine has a constitutional right to filter its search results, a US court found last month. But that’s just the start of the story. Eight New York-based pro-democracy activists…
Federal attorney-general George Brandis is serious when he says that under his watch, “people do have a right to be bigots”. As drafted (and it is very poorly drafted), his proposed changes to sections…
In September 1996 John Howard said one great change that had come over Australia in the early months of his government was that “the pall of censorship on certain issues” had been lifted and people felt…
Federal Attorney-General George Brandis has unveiled the government’s proposed changes to the Racial Discrimination Act, scrapping section 18C prohibiting actions that “offend, insult, humiliate or intimidate…
It was the ultimate irony. On this week’s Q&A, host Tony Jones issued an apology on behalf of both Indigenous academic Marcia Langton and the ABC for Langton implying on the previous week’s program…
As anyone who works in the arts business well knows, when art and politics meet (and certainly when art and politicians meet …) the result is more often than not awkward. Many of us will remember the fuss…
Facebook has recently tried to close down the popular Anarchist Memes page on its site in the latest of a string of crackdowns on political online activism. It’s just one more example of the social media…
Relations between student protesters and police in universities have broken down. From demonstrations demanding that “cops stay off campus” to protests against the heavy-handed way in which students have…
The news that Ofcom is investigating whether three interviews with the radical Islamic cleric Anjem Choudary after the Woolwich murder broke the Broadcasting Code has highlighted again the debate about…
One news item buried among all the discussion about the early election announcement, Craig Thomson’s arrest and Moses Obeid’s testimony to ICAC yesterday was a statement from the Attorney-General, Nicola…
The recent Finkelstein inquiry into media regulation in Australia has suggested a new body to govern journalistic standards and handle complaints from the public, the News Media Council. But at a time…