...born with the gift of laughter and a sense that the world was mad

Censorship makes strange bedfellows: What does the dictatorship of Egypt have in common with the “democracy” of Canada? Both are determined to censor unacceptable speech on the Internet. From al Jazeera (my bolds):

The Egyptian government is in the early stages of preparing a new law on audio-visual media that critics say is aimed at cracking down on dissent.

The proposed legislation, should it pass into law unchanged, will set the standard for other governments in the Arab world seeking to silence opposition voices on televisions and computer screens across the region.
 
The draft bill, which was leaked to the independent Egyptian newspaper Al-Masry Al-Youm on July 9, requires journalists and broadcasters to avoid damaging "the social peace", "national unity", "public order" and "public values".
 
Those who contravene such rules, the draft suggests, could face imprisonment for periods ranging from one month to three years, along with suspension or cancellation of broadcasting licenses, the confiscation of equipment, and fines ranging from 10,000 to 50,000 Egyptian pounds ($1,800 - $9,000).

Gamal Eid, the executive director of the Arab Network for Human Rights Information, sees the proposed law as a cynical attempt at strangling the burgeoning democracy movement in Egypt.

"Television and the internet have been giving the government a hard time for the past four years," he said.

"These two media have played a big role in the escalating movement asking for democracy. They are two important parts of the movement, so the government is trying to put more restrictions on them."…

How interesting: in Egypt, the censorship is aimed at curbing unacceptable speech that advances the agenda of Muburak’s disloyal opposition, the Muslim Brotherhood (advocates of a one-time only “democracy” that would permit the populace to put it in office; once firmly ensconced, “democracy” would be jettisoned and a sharia state would rise); in Canada, the censorship is aimed (in part) at curbing unacceptable speech that criticizes that same agenda.

Posted by: scaramouche at 09:47 | link | comments

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