Despite heavy rain we continued our show of solidarity, remembering those who have died fighting for freedom in Iran, calling for respect for the rights of the Iranian people and an end to violence against peaceful demonstrators.

Series of human rights abuses

The number of rights abuses by Iranian authorities since the 16 June elections continues to grow. Amnesty International has seen:

• An election which can not be declared free nor fair,
• Peaceful demonstrations and assemblies attacked,
• Political prisoners detained and thought to be at risk of torture or ill-treatment,
• Severe restrictions on flow of information and freedom of expression,
• Journalists detained and their whereabouts unknown,
• Use of excessive force, including beating and clubbing with truncheons and in some cases live ammunition in response to demonstrations,
• The use of paramilitary Basaj to repress dissent.

Video and updates from citizens coming out of Iran continue to shock and compel action.

A global protest

Sunday’s vigil was one of hundred of protests occurring globally this weekend, as Iranians and supporters speak out against repression and irregularities of Iran’s election.

On Friday, office workers in London took their lunch hour to protest at the Iranian embassy, in Melbourne a simultaneous vigil was held on Sunday and the past week has seen a number of protests throughout the US.

The movement throughout the world is calling for an end to violence, a recount of votes after a result which has largely been seen as not credible and has a strong sense of solidarity with those protesting in the face of violent reprisals yet risking their lives to have their voice heard.

Make a difference

Amnesty International have a number of actions you can take to encourage the Iranian government to protect the basic rights of its people. Please

• send an email calling for an end to violence against protesters
• and for the release of political prisoners detained for peacefully protesting or their links to opposition candidates.

These two actions take less than a minute and pail in insignificance compared to the efforts of those fighting for their basic rights in Iran …

With developments each day, an easy way to stay in touch with what’s happening is by signing up to Amnesty’s email updates (letting you know when they need your help and how you can take action about once a week). You can also start following @AmnestyOz on twitter or become a fan of their Facebook page for regular news and action updates.

Online activism and campaigning are two key areas of interest for me so it’s been great being in the thick of it.

We’re coming up to International Women’s Day and a test of our first active pursuit of active online supporters. Hopefully we’ll have engaged a fair few!

In the meantime check out how to engage with Amnesty International Australian or AIA NSW online.

In response to your four page Internet Filtering letter mailed in reply to my email last year, I would like to reiterate my concern at the time and money being spent on a project which appears to be ignoring several key issues.

To begin you’ve fail to recognise that filtering and censorship are one and the same. I do support your commitment to increased law enforcement, prosecution, education, resources and research however the technical implications, cost and ineffectiveness of filtering continue to see my strong opposition to this idea.

Whilst I agree with many of the concerns behind your policy, the need and viability for a government imposed compulsory internet censoring system is where this agreement ends. I do not support my taxes funding this scheme and would be interested to know what would decisively change your mind on the implementation of this scheme? If an answer to this key question can be provided I’d be especially grateful. I hope you agree that with any proposal or project the ability to consider a point at which continuing would be ill-advised.

You seem to be strongly supporting the idea of filtering despite tests to prove its viability falling well short of acceptable targets. So I hope to reassure you that the package without compulsory filtering will show a commitment to safety of children online and be supported by the many other sectors of society who have no misguided fear or emotional response to certain claims being thrown around.

The internet is so much more than the web pages you and most internet users are familiar with and I hope that you have advisers which can bring home this point. Paedophilia is an illegal and unacceptable activity and (I would contend that it is for this point precisely that) in my years of extensive use of the internet recreationally, professionally and academically I have never unintentionally encountered material of this nature.

As requested above, what would lead to a reversal of your support for the compulsory filtering components of your proposed cyber-safety measures?

Regards
James Fehon

Is the minister aware of the censorship and inadvertantly restrictive effect of the British model so called “Clean Feed” earlier this week?

95% of British internet users were prevented from excercising free speach in editing Wikipedia because of one organisations decision that an image (a CD cover which incidently is available on other sites such as Amazon and can be purchased) was inappropriate.

You can read about it on smh.com.au but basically content that wasn’t considered offensive elsewhere on the internet effected access to the whole site [1].
Internet censorship at a national or provider level is not viable nor necessary nor supported by me or any of the people I’ve talked to (that’s at least 20 of my friends and colleagues).

I’d hope to see freedom of expression included in a Human Rights Act, the consultation for which was announced on Wednesday, and there’s no way your “Clean Feed” is going to fit with such a right.
Don’t bother – let the idea die and get working on a world class broadband network for this Country

Regards
James Fehon