On Mar 10, 10:46 pm, m...@pixelpix.com.au wrote:

Can someone please explain to me how a woman going topless is not
offensive, yet a photographer who takes her photo is?

Looks like a letter to little Johnny, Ruddock, Rudd, Bleatty and the local
members is in order.
I question the value of online petitions though - I think the pen on paper
type are more effective.

Now the freedom of the press is under attack!  :-(

.........................

Australia's press freedoms lag

March 15, 2007 04:00am
Article from: AAP

http://www.news.com.au/... .../story/0,21985,21385591-5005961,00.html

INCREASING police and government intervention in the media has dragged
Australia's press freedoms below those of many former Soviet bloc
countries, according to the international journalism watchdog.

The Australian branch of the Commonwealth Press Union has been told
Australia is ranked 35th on the Reporters Without Borders 2006 Index
of Press Freedom, down from a ranking of 31 in 2005.

"Australia's slide into a state of secrecy accelerated in 2006,"
Warren Beeby, chairman of the CPU Australia section, told the union's
annual general meeting.

Mr Beeby said regular incursions by the Australian Federal Police into
newsrooms to unearth journalists' sources and Federal Government laws
to gag the media and intimidate public servants were alarming.

Reporters Without Borders cited several reasons for Australia's poor
ranking on press freedom, which it said put it "well behind a raft of
former Soviet bloc countries and less developed nations like Bolivia,
Costa Rica and Namibia".

The list included the convictions of Herald-Sun journalists Gerard
McManus and Michael Harvey for contempt of court for refusing to
divulge the source of a story, reporting bans under anti-terrorism
laws, a ban on journalists interviewing refugees and the High Court's
failure to support Freedom of Information laws.

Mr Beeby said Federal Treasurer Peter Costello's successful action to
prevent The Australian newspaper publishing details of taxation
"bracket creep" and details of the first home buyers' scheme
exemplified the Government's obsession with secrecy.

"The crackdown is seen not only as an attempt to deter journalists
from breaking news out of Canberra, but also as a bid to intimidate
public servants," said Mr Beeby, News Limited's group editorial
manager and a director of AAP.

"At the same time, federal and state governments employ spin doctors
in their hundreds to ensure only approved versions of stories see the
light of day and to keep reporters off the scent of adverse or
controversial stories."

He also said suppression orders and restrictions on media access to
court documents help make Australia's legal system "one of the least
transparent in the developed world".

"In further potential blows to investigative journalism, the
Australian Law Reform Commission is reviewing the media exemption in
the Privacy Act, despite there being no major concerns about its
operation,and the federal Attorney-General, Philip Ruddock, wants bans
to be imposed on the taking of photographs in public places."

Mr Beeby also warned media companies to be wary of a trend among
sporting bodies to sell exclusive web and mobile phone rights to
sponsors.

"Some sports are also selling official photographic rights with the
apparent intent of eventually excluding newspaper photographers from
games, so that only approved pictures will be issued for publication,"
he said.

"It is a problem that newspaper companies will have to monitor closely
as the football season gets under way."