No, Tink, Syd didn't go off on something else. He was responding to your assertion that our freedom is being compromised by 18C and further asserted that not even America does that. He correctly offered you just a few of the ways freedom is hardly a priority in the USA.I was talking about the 18C, Julia, but Syd's gone off on something else.
+1.I have to say that though Bolt got his facts wrong and distorted the arguments as he usually does, it still surprised me that he lost the court case. So I agree, it can be used to stitch someone up.
The problem was Brandis. He wanted radical change that effectively deleted the act and then said everyone has the right to be bigots. Talk about poor judgement.
Race Discrimination Commissioner Tim Soutphommasane argues the keep case well but I really respect the guy and am sure he would have supported a redrafting to tighten it up.
But due to the typical pathetic behaviour of parts of the Coalition front bench, it became toxic. Abbot was right to end it. He needs to shift a few ministers.
The problem was Brandis. He wanted radical change that effectively deleted the act and then said everyone has the right to be bigots. Talk about poor judgement
Did you? Could you direct me to where you did that? ie explained how our freedom is eroded?I just posted why, Julia.
So now we have the curious situation where we send troops over to the Middle East to shoot at radical Islamists, yet unable in our own country to express distaste for radical Islam for fear of prosecution.
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We can always count on you to spin something in Tony Abbott's favor. They made an ill advised promise on the racial discrimination act not realising how sensitive it would be with ethnic communities (probably because the liberal party's policy making apparatus is as white as they come). Pairing it with the terrorism measures announcement is just cynical media management.
Islam, as it is a religion and not a race, is not covered by the act, though the way you hear some of the idiots talk it is not surprising people think it is racist to express disdain. Christianity is regularly attacked with no one saying it is racist to do so.
Quoting the act: Offensive behaviour because of race, colour or national or ethnic origin
Islam, as it is a religion and not a race, is not covered by the act, though the way you hear some of the idiots talk it is not surprising people think it is racist to express disdain. Christianity is regularly attacked with no one saying it is racist to do so.
Quoting the act: Offensive behaviour because of race, colour or national or ethnic origin
RACIAL DISCRIMINATION ACT 1975 - SECT 26
Unlawful acts not offences unless expressly so provided
Except as expressly provided by this Part, nothing in this Act makes it an offence to do an act or agree with another person to do an act that is unlawful by reason of a provision of Part II or Part IIA.
That's right. And of course the elephant in the room is that contravening 18c is not a crime. Bolt fails to mention that bit while he shrieks like a banshee about freedom of speech.
It's actually a pretty harmless bit of legislation.
The only criminal offences in the act are around incitement of hatred/violence toward a person or group because of their race etc. Even in the US, which is far more liberal in this area, speech as conduct is not protected by the First Amendment.
The criminal offences as they exist in the Act would almost certainly be unconstitutional in the US.
Which ones?
Hating a group based on race is not illegal here or in the US. Inciting violence toward that group is, here (at least in NSW) and in the US, in some states.
And for the record I think 18c should be at least amended. Offending or insulting someone should not be unlawful, imo.
In the US the incitement of violence towards a group has to present an imminent threat. Our laws are drafted much more broadly.
Wasn't that more or less George Brandis's point?And for the record I think 18c should be at least amended. Offending or insulting someone should not be unlawful, imo.
Wasn't that more or less George Brandis's point?
a load of ugly, ugly xxxxx that just played into the hands of mindless bigots.
Offending or insulting someone should not be unlawful, imo.
During the 12 months since journalist Andrew Bolt was found guilty of breaching racial discrimination laws — on the basis that his published facts were wrong — error and invective have continued to warp the debate.
Has Australia just experienced one of the great media heists in modern history?
It's a year since the Eatock v Bolt decision was announced on September 28, 2011, in the Federal Court, a landmark case brought under Australia's Racial Discrimination Act. And much of the subsequent commentary has been — like the Andrew Bolt articles that triggered the case — filled with errors and designed to sting.
For example, Justice Bromberg's judgment has been seriously misreported. Parts of it have been ignored completely.
It's telling that we should still need to ask: What was the real reason Bolt and the Herald and Weekly Times (HWT) were found to be in breach of the Act? How many untruths were published? And what motivated this "offensive conduct reinforcing, encouraging or emboldening racial prejudice"?
The applicant was Pat Eatock, a fair-skinned Aborigine, who brought the suit on behalf of herself and others, who claimed Melbourne's Herald Sun had accused them of pretending to be Aboriginal to gain benefits fraudulently. Attempts at conciliation had failed.
Rupert Murdoch’s HWT declined to appeal. Instead, it commenced a vigorous — and extraordinarily successful — campaign in the court of public opinion to undermine the judgment.
http://www.theglobalmail.org/feature/one-year-on-how-to-twist-and-shout-down-a-legal-judgment/402/
Then we have Horace trotting out yet another appalling non-sequitur.
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I take it you don't agree with the defamation laws either ?
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