Commissioner Kathleen McEvoy has declared that the Adelaide Institute should remove offensive material based on racial hatred from its website. (HREOC press release, 10 October 2000)The full HREOC ruling used to be at http://scaleplus.law.gov.au/html/rdadec/0/2000/0/RD000130.htm. For my position on this, see a 1998 letter from EFA. In addition to the concerns raised there, there are some specific problems with this ruling:
- The ruling doesn't say "these statements are offensive, remove them" - it demands the removal of the entire site.
- The decision offers no operational guidelines for deciding whether particular content constitutes "racial vilification" or not. So when it bars Toben from publishing "any such material" anywhere else, it doesn't actually state what "such" means, with the result that the only way for Toben to be certain he is complying with it would be for him not to publish anything at all, anywhere.
Hate Speech << Internet Censorship in Australia << Danny Yee