Friday, October 20, 2017
Australian Government Wants to Give Satire The Boot
Electronic Frontier Foundation: The National Symbols Officer of Australia recently wrote to Juice Media, producers of Rap News and Honest Government Adverts, suggesting that its “use” of Australia’s coat of arms violated various Australian laws. This threat came despite the fact that Juice Media’s videos are clearly satire and no reasonable viewer could mistake them for official publications. Indeed, the coat of arms that appeared in the Honest Government Adverts series does not even spell “Australian” correctly.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
I wouldn’t want my family coat-of-arms to be used in a satirical nature either. In this case, I can see both sides. Yes, Australia’s government is concerned about imposters and they have that right, but the proposed legislation is too broad and gives the authorities having jurisdiction a very large net to catch fish in a very small pond. It is also interesting to see the article use a comparison to the U.S. Constitution. Australia is a commonwealth country, has as the head of state, the British Monarch and has a Prime Minister as head of government. It is a completely separate world from our own in terms of human rights. Even the article states that Australian citizens do not have a “Bill of Rights”. Sadly, though, use of the Coat-of-Arms, even in a satirical setting could lead some to believe that it is official government news or statements. In this social media day and age, so much is shared online and so fast that it may take some time before something can be verified as fact or fiction and by then, so many people have seen it and have invested belief in it that, even if it were false or “fake news”, there are people who would still see it as gospel truth. The best course forward is for the legislation to be written more specific but still allowing for punishment under some broad terms. Too strict and it won’t capture enough. Too broad and it captures too much.
Okay this is just ridiculous. I really want to be able to write something more profound than that but I honestly can't think of anything because it just seems so stupid. I would literally not be able to go about my day if I couldn't watch some satire about the government right now, if someone couldn't make me laugh about everything that is going on in the world. I think there are a lot of people like me who just would be walking around having panic attacks every day if not for their ability to laugh a little at the craziness. Also, I feel like it would be silly to make this argument without the introduction of free speech which I know is not so clearly stated in Australian law but is sort of respected in Australia in the same way it is in the U.S. I understand that respect and commonplace doesn't make some legal but when you take away something from millions of people that they have always had, purely because your feeling are hurt I am pretty sure there will be some dissatisfaction. I am interested to see where this goes and if it is successful. I am hoping that it isn't, partly because I think satire is an incredible art form, and partly because I don't think our president needs any more crazy ideas.
Post a Comment