A Political Statement from the BPMVE

I have a really big problem with Internet Censorship, or censorship of any kind full stop. Government control of information sources is a feature of Autocracy in my mind, and sets off my paranoia detectors.

A colleague of mine at QUT, Axel Bruns, has placed on his blog some pertinent research performed by the ARC Centre of Excellence for Creative Industries and Innovation in Australia. This presents, in my opinion, a balanced view providing appropriate regulation measures as a part of public policy formation by government.

Of course, some Internet content is socially offensive and inappropriate, that is regarded as a given by educated members of society. Regulation is thus a part of a complex society such as ours. However, the amount of control, and how it is implemented, should not be via a knee-jerk political response to certain sectors of the community, who wish to prohibit informed public discourse on such subjects.

As Axel suggests, feel free to link, embed etc. through appropriate channels.

Ross