Adelaide Advertiser in face off with SA government over online comment censorship
The Adelaide Advertiser is at loggerheads with the SA government over a new law which does not allow anonymous online comments about the forthcoming state election.
The new laws – which say that only those who provide their real name and postcode may comment online – will kick in when the writs for next month’s election are issued. It will particularly impact on the News Ltd paper’s Adelaide Now website.
In an editorial today, the paper wrote:
“The changes to the law were overseen by Attorney-General Michael Atkinson and passed through Parliament with a pace akin to the night when MPs rapidly voted themselves the right to have cars paid for by South Australian taxpayers.
The blog SA Votes 2010 Uncensored will be accepting anonymous comments on the SA election during the election period.
http://savotes2010uncensored.wordpress.com
“I am also certain that Advertiser Newspapers and News Ltd will punish me personally, viciously for being the attorney-general responsible for this law.”
I sincerely hope so
I wish Mumbrella would adopt the same policy; no spineless, gutless, cowardly, faceless comments that typically amounts to bullying
Grow a pair and put your name to what you post. And if you work in an environment where that isn’t allowed, Mumbrella job ads are in the right column —–>
While I’m not a fan of anonymous blog posts either, it’s bizarre and really quite scary to have the attorney general of an Australian state saying things like “In blog sites, there is just no restraint. It is a jungle of criminal defamation (and) identity theft, a sewer of fraud,”. Anyway that’s the variation on the above quote that I saw.
This morning’s Advertiser and the Adelaide Now website claim the AG has promised to repeal the law in wake of public opinion. No longer an issue.