More on Electoral Laws and Blogs
A few weeks ago concern was expressed on many blogs about the possibility of the federal Government changing the law to regulate websites, including blogs, containing electoral comment. I did a posting on it here, and also made comment in debates about the matter on some other sites.
A story in the Blog Herald mentions developments in this area in Canada which directly affect bloggers:
“people in the Canadian Province of British Columbia who blog on an upcoming referendum are being required to register with Elections BC, a Government body which runs elections in the province. Terminal City reports any party supporting one side or the other have to register under referendum regulations and that potentially after April 19, anyone posting their views on a blog on the outcome of the provincial election being held at the same time may have to register with Elections BC under the Election Act as well.”
Whilst blogs weren’t specifically mentioned by the Australian Government when they flagged a new requirement to have authorisations on political websites, they would very likely be affected. This Canadian example will be worth following to see how (and if) it works in practice.
There are valid points on various sides of this debate but I urge anyone who is interested to send their views to the Joint Parliamentary Committee on Electoral Matters, which is conducting its regular inquiry into the conduct of elections.
The Committee’s first public hearings will be next week in regional towns in the fine state of Queensland. On the 27th they are in Dalby in the morning and Longreach in the afternoon, followed the next day by a visit to Ingham.
3 Comments, Comment or Ping
Tennessee Leeuwenburg
You’ll probably find we have imported a large body of law via the Free Trade Agreement with the US, as it applies to copyright law.
No offense Andrew, but the government suffered a real case of technical idiocy when they agreed to the DMCA. It’ll come back to bite us one day.
-Tennessee
Apr 19th, 2005
Andrew Bartlett
I don’t take offence, not least because I didn’t support the US FTA. I was immensely frustrated that the media coverage and political debate around the FTA barely touched the surface of the copyright issue. It is a complicated area, but that’s all the more reason why it should have been given extra attention.
However, the item I mention about registration of political blogs doesn’t relate to copyright law (or to the USA for that matter). Efforts in Australia to regulate or constrain the internet have tended to be in the arena of communications laws, and there is now the possility that the electoral laws may come into the picture in some way.
Apr 20th, 2005
Kieran Bennett
re the British Columbian thing, am I the only one tempted to start an anon blog campaigning for one side on this issue? Ensure the server was non-Canadian, take decent measures to prevent identification… I’m tempted just to see what might happen!
I’m tempted to state that the enforcement of such regulations on the internet is simply absurd, but there is of course always the example of Joseph Gutnick v Down Jones…
http://www.murdoch.edu.au/elaw/issues/v11n3/beyer113.html
Apr 20th, 2005