Banned books
Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers. Wet Ink is gravely concerned about the increased censorship of writers - and writers as researchers - as a result of current sedition laws. Since the events of 9/11 the Australian Government, in its "war against terrorism", has implemented a number of anti-terror laws that have directly, and indirectly, silenced writers, poets, journalists, and publishers. Under these laws writers, poets, and journalists may be jailed for up to seven years if their work is considered "seditious" or thought to inspire sedition, either deliberately or accidentally. These laws also threaten writers' and journalists' ability to research, because they may be arrested, interrogated, and jailed if they refuse to reveal the source of their information, or are thought to have information about a person ASIO "has an interest in". These laws have also resulted in a "chilling effect", where people - unsure of what exactly is permitted and what is not - stay clear of any topic that may be considered controvertial, for fear that they may be acting illegally. Since the implementation of these laws: June 2004 - Computers at Black Inc [Australia’s most respected ‘oppositional’ publisher] were ‘cleansed’ of parts of a manuscript of a book by Andrew Wilkie - said to be sensitive to the national security - by a team from the Attorney-General’s Department and the Office of National Assessments. The team then destroyed not only the hard disc on to which the material had been transferred, but ‘cleansed’ the computers of Wilkie’s family and that of those who had commissioned the book. (This information from ‘The writer in a time of terror' by Frank Moorhouse - Griffith REVIEW Edition 14: The Trouble with Paradise. Click here [PDF 700K] to read full essay.) July 2005 - a student at Monash University is taken in for questioning by the Australian Federal Police after borrowing books on the methods of Palestinian suicide bombers, for academic research. September 2006 - Two books - Join the Caravan and Defence of the Muslim Lands - are removed from the University of Melbourne Library because they breach new anti-terror sedition laws by arguing for martyrdom and militant jihad. Ironically, these Islamic books, first published in 1984, were also a call to arms against the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan - an invasion which was strongly condemned at the time by most of the Western world, including Australia. October 2006 - In Wollongong, poets from the South Coast Writers' Centre are denied permission to read political and religious poetry during National Poetry Week. The October Australian Society of Authors Newsletter notes "buskers in Bourke Street Mall are now forbidden to sing political or religious songs". November 2006 - Scholastic Australia Publishers pull out of their agreement to publish award-winning writer John Dale's children's adventure thriller Army of the pure - a book they had commissioned - because the antagonist is a Muslim terrorist, which has resulted in bookshops indicating a reluctance to stock it. In addition, Wet Ink believes that the frequent filtering, blocking, and closing of WebPages around the world, on popular sites such as Wikepedia, Amazon.com, and You Tube, is a violation of the right to seek, receive, and impart information and ideas across borders. Wet Ink strongly believes in the right of freedom of expression, and the right to freely exchange ideas and information, in times of peace, and particularly in times of civil or political turmoil. Our objections relate to the violation of those rights, and are not an argument for or against the contents of the books or websites in question. "Because you don't have to burn books, do you, if the world starts to fill up with non-readers, non-learners and non-knowers?" Signed: |
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