The media going beserk today over the arrest of Julian Assange. It’s exciting, firstly because it is bringing unprecedented public attention to the issues surrounding free speech and the internet. The second reason it’s exciting is because it reads like a cyberpunk novel; hackers, espionage and Anonymous revenge groups cyber-attacking the Swedish prosecutor’s office.

I support EFA’s position strongly supporting Assange as an Australian citizen with a right to due process, and to Wikileaks too; clearly whatever harm has been done by leaking the cables is not in proportion to the hysterical reaction in the USA. What has America become when the feeling of self-righteousness engendered by a little embarrassment deteriorates so quickly into talk of whacking somebody in their hotel room? There is controversy in the USA at the moment over the fact that the president has ordered the killing of U.S. citizens – suspected terrorists – without evan a trial. But all Assange has done is shed a little unwelcome light into the snarky thoughts of diplomats.

Likening this to terrorism further cheapens an already overused word. If Wikileaks is added to the U.S. list of proscribed terrorist organisations, how could anyone take the list seriously anymore? Nobody has been harmed, or even jeopardised. Wikileaks is not advocating acts of violence, merely publishing information given to it. Unfortunately, instead of Assange it would appear that the U.S. constitution’s First Amendment is the one that has been taken out the back and put up against the wall.

Here’s a conversation I had on air with ABC Radio’s Paul Austin last night about Wikileaks and online civil liberties. It’s amazing to see the level of interest this topic has generated in freedom of speech online. I’m off to talk to RRR radio about the same subject tonight.

[audio:http://blogs.abc.net.au/files/colin-jacobs—efa-chairman.mp3|loop=no]

Over the last few days I’ve been dealing with a flurry of media on the (missing) R-18+ games category, and I’m just catching my breath. The news on this front is that the Commonwealth government has come out strongly for amending the national classification code to allow R-18+ games. They released research which shows  that the links between games and childhood aggression are tenuous, at best; performed a survey which shows that the move is overwhelmingly popular; and made an official statement backing the reform. (I put some more info up at EFA.)

Apart from the fact that this ridiculous hole in the law is about to be fixed, what I find most interesting here is the very shrewd way that the Home Affairs Minister, Brendan O’Connor, has framed the debate. Rather than discuss the measure as an overdue liberalising of the censorship regime to allow broader entertainment choices for adults, it has been presented as a new ban on selling games to kids. It’s worked; the news on Sunday reported it as a new ban and even went so far as to show teenagers outraged at the patronising new policy, rather than happy (as they should be) that formerly banned games will now be available for sale, at least to those over 18.

I did a few news spots, which demonstrate the slightly confused but highly effective messaging. I also did an interview for ABC News 24 which you can see below.

With elections, report-writing and speaking engagements over for the time being, expect to see a few more updates here in the near future.