The Road Not Taken.

Article 19.

• Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.

So I want to talk about that article taken from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

The Australian Federal Government has recently proposed to pass a legislation which bans and censors certain material and sites on the internet. From experimental tests, it has shown than the filters are able to be bypassed. I don't understand why Australia is all of a sudden wanting to establish the "Great Firewall of Australia" as it has been coined. The most technical literate would be able to bypass the filters set by ISPs easily. Australia is in my opinion, denying citizens the right to movement in the cyber world and be able to "seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers." Having compulsory filtering of internet sites and material is clearly denying information to the Australian public, no matter how controversial it is. We all have our own established opinions on what is right and wrong, our own moral and ethical code and for the Federal Government to intervene and interfere with our freedom is unacceptable behaviour.

Since it can be bypassed, I don't know why the government is still pushing for the legislation to be passes through parliament even with critiques. I think Australia is making a very wrong move in "protecting" the Australian civilians by having censorship on information, denying knowledge and education of the outside world.

I thought Australia was a free country if not the best. I am now having second thoughts. What happened to democracy?