From the BBC

A Romanian nun has died after being bound to a cross, gagged and left alone for three days in a cold room in a convent, Romanian police have said. Members of the convent in north-west Romania claim Maricica Irina Cornici was possessed and that the crucifixion had been part of an exorcism ritual.

Cornici was found dead on the cross on Wednesday after fellow nuns called an ambulance, according to police. A priest and four nuns were charged with imprisonment leading to death. Police say the 23-year-old nun, who was denied food and drink throughout her ordeal, had been tied and chained to the cross and a towel pushed into her mouth to smother any sounds.

A post-mortem is to be carried out, although initial reports say that Cornici died from asphyxiation.

Local media reports that the young woman had arrived at the remote convent three months before, having initially gone there to visit a friend and opted to stay. Mediafax news agency said Cornici suffered from schizophrenia and the symptoms of her condition caused the priest at the convent and other nuns to believe she was possessed by the devil. They all said she was possessed and they were trying to cast out the evil spirits, police spokeswoman Michaela Straub said.

Father Daniel who is accused of orchestrating the crime is said to be unrepentant. God has performed a miracle for her, finally Irina is delivered from evil, AFP quoted the priest as saying. I don't understand why journalists are making such a fuss about this. Exorcism is a common practise in the heart of the Romanian Orthodox church and my methods are not at all unknown to other priests, Father Daniel added.

If found guilty of killing Cornici, Father Daniel and the accused nuns could face 20 years in jail.

Based on an article from Sudan Tribune

A Khartoum court on Saturday suspended a newspaper for three months for publishing an article last month considered by Muslims to be blasphemous, the official Sudan News Agency reported.

The Al-Wifaq daily was also fined 8,000,000 Sudanese pounds (about $3,200) for the outcry it prompted in this conservative African Muslim nation when it republished an article from the Internet that questioned the parentage of Islam's Prophet Muhammad.

Editor Mohamed Taha Mohamed Ahmed apologized in a letter to the press, saying he did not intend to insult the prophet. The article angered Muslims of different sects, some showed customary tolerance and demanded Ahmed's execution. Ahmed himself was cleared of blasphemy charges, but he remains in detention for violating a previous three day suspension order and ignoring another ruling banning the media from writing about the case.

The government had held the trial behind closed doors and banned media coverage. Some observers said the verdict was lenient in Sudan, where blasphemy and insulting Islam can invoke the death penalty. The government has ruled by Islamic Sharia law since 1983.

SUNA reported that the plaintiffs who spearheaded the campaign against Ahmed, a group representing not so tolerant Muslim scholars, said they would appeal the verdict.

Based on an article from News Letter

The Methodist Church in Ireland has expressed predictable concern over declining standards in broadcasting.

The Church's annual conference adopted a communications committee motion expressing concern over declining standards of taste and decency in the broadcast media. This has been apparent in the widespread use of bad language, sexually explicit material broadcast before the watershed, and the broadcasting of Jerry Springer - the Opera in spite of record numbers of objections prior to the broadcast.

The concerns of the Methodist Church have been heightened by the cursory attention given in the BBC charter review green paper to maintaining standards of taste and decency in broadcast material, and the relegation of maintaining standards in this area to the watchdog body Ofcon.

At the same time, the weakness of Ofcom in this area has been highlighted by its failure to take effective action in the case of Jerry Springer - the Opera, and in the recent policy statement that it would exercise less control in matters of offensive material and would expect viewers and listeners to exercise more control by switching off, says a committee statement.

Based on an article from The Guardian

The Christian Institute's bid to bring judicial review proceedings against the BBC for its broadcast of Jerry Springer - the Opera has been rejected by a high court judge.

The Newcastle-based nutter group vowed to take the action after the broadcaster refused to apologise for the expletive-strewn opera. The BBC was issued with legal papers in early March. It applied for a judicial review claiming the BBC had violated its royal charter and hoped to win a hearing which would examine how BBC bosses executed their responsibilities.

But the high court has refused to grant the Christian Institute permission to bring judicial review proceedings against the BBC. The decision will come as little surprise to the TV industry which has seen several failed attempts to have decisions overturned through judicial reviews.

Jana Bennett, the BBC's director of television, said Jerry Springer - the Opera was a "difficult production" for some people, but represented a "significant landmark" in the BBC's drive to maintain freedom of speech and editorial independence. We are pleased that Ofcom, the Governors' Programme Complaint Commission (GPCC) and now the laws of this country have recognised that the BBC has an important role to play in the freedom of artistic expression.

I for one feel that hotel channels are a bit expensive so I usually take a couple of DVDs for my laptop. Most of the time I can plug it in to the room TV anyway. I'd hate to leave the Swedish hotel maids without any goo to clean up next morning.

From AVN

A growing number of Swedish hotels are canceling their subscriptions to adult entertainment television channels, according to the Swedish women's nutter group ROKS. The organization says that almost 500 Swedish hotels have gone porn free, and more are likely to join them.

ROKS publishes listings of the porn-free hotels in a newly released catalogue the group said came as a result of consumer demand. Since the first catalogue came out in spring 2003, the interest in booking porn-free hotels has increased among government departments, councils and organizations, ROKS project leader Tina Olby told reporters. Those who are opposed to hotels which offer porn to their guests say that [porn-free hotels] are an obvious part of working towards equality in the workplace.

Among those choosing to travel porn free, according to a published report, is the Swedish military. Other authorities, according to ROKS, are doing likewise, with 101 or 176 local authorities booking porn-free hotel accommodations when they need to travel and others planning to discuss the issue.

Updated 17th June

Excuse me Archbishop but I feel that the Melon Farmers are totally justified in attacking deserving institutions over their secretiveness. Take Ofcon, they uttered a few fine words about evidence based regulation then went off in a huddle for  six months of secret debate and then issued a statement maintaining censorship with just one sentence of explanation. The Melon Farmers are cynical because we have little faith in the Government and their agents to respect our rights and freedoms. Time and time again they have proved to be rights abusers rather than rights defenders.

Alan points out that it is worth reading the full text of the Archbishop's speech at www.archbishopofcanterbury.org/sermons_speeches/050615.htm and that in fact the speech represents a fair comment on the way the press works. Perhaps I relied too much on the cynical press and not enough on the truth.

From The Guardian

The Archbishop of Canterbury last night launched a wide-ranging attack on the media, accusing journalists of distorting debate, contributing to a climate of national cynicism, and unjustly attacking institutions over their secretiveness.

In the most trenchant statement on public life he has made in his three years at Lambeth Palace, Dr Rowan Williams appeared to take in tabloids, broadsheets, weblogs and broadcasters with equal vehemence. He charged all with conspiring against public understanding.

The speech at Lambeth Palace represented a departure for the archbishop, who has been criticised in church quarters for his reluctance to speak out on public matters, leading to accusations that his advisers prefer him to say nothing controversial. Williams  reticence about being interviewed and the protectiveness of his staff has caused private criticism and despair among some bishops. Senior BBC staff have admitted that programme producers, after a number of rebuffs from Lambeth Palace, now routinely approach Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, leader of the Catholic Church in England and Wales, for authoritative comment on religious issues.

Williams claimed that some aspects of current journalistic practice are "lethally damaging", contributing to the "embarrassingly low level of trust" in the profession.

He accused the media of manipulating fear, exhibiting violent conflict between people for entertainment, and living off internal feuds: Corrupt speech, inflaming unexamined emotion, reinforcing division, wrapped up in its own performance, leaves us less human: fewer things are possible for us. Bad human communication leaves us less room to grow. His attack encompassed national newspapers which communicate as if every reader ... shared the same fundamental values, preferences and anxieties, broadcasters for their obsession with breaking news, and weblogs which indulge in paranoid fantasy, self-indulgent nonsense and dangerous bigotry.

Williams said that journalists were drawn from too narrow a class, educational and ethnic base. He said that they were too London-based and had a strong tribal identity which may be pretty far removed from the specific local and civic loyalties that form the raw material of serious discursive politics.

The archbishop told last night's audience: A flourishing, morally credible media is a vital component in the maintenance of genuinely public talk, argument about common good. Such talk is not in rich supply just now and it is only fair to ask what share of responsibility the media has for this. But ... societies to some extent have the media they deserve and license.

From The Independent

Greece's religious right is on a collision course with the art establishment after a prominent curator was put on trial under blasphemy laws for staging a show which Orthodox clerics said was "obscene".

Christos Ioakimidis, who curated the show Outlook in the run-up to last summer's Olympics, provoked outrage in religious circles by displaying a work featuring, among other things, a cross and male genitalia. Ioakimidis was called to appear in court yesterday on charges of insulting public sentiment and the Orthodox Church, following a complaint by a far-right politician.

The row is deeply embarrassing for Greek authorities who set up Outlook, the largest modern art show the country had staged, to shake off its image as a backwater of contemporary culture.

After opening in October 2003 the show received mixed reviews but initially no complaints. That changed when George Karatzaferis, leader of a right-wing extremist party, paid it a visit. A notorious self-publicist, he whipped up a storm of indignation after taking offence at a painting, titled Dry Sin, by a Belgian artist, Thierry de Cordier. The canvas, featuring a wooden cross, a penis and semen, was denounced by Karatzaferis as the most "obscene, immoral and shameless" painting he had ever seen.

He demanded its removal and called for an inquiry into whether an offence had occurred under Greece's antiquated blasphemy laws, which allow prosecution if a work has "offended people's religious sentiments".

A number of church activists and conservative politicians, including a former leader of the governing conservative party gave their support. Within days a woman attacked another avant-garde work at the show, slashing it with a knife. Protesters began picketing the entrance.

To the horror of Athens' art world, Ioakimidis opted to defuse the situation by withdrawing Dry Sin on the order of the culture ministry. The decision outraged artists and rights activists who said it threatened freedom of expression. Ioakimidis said he had authorised removal of the painting to protect the exhibition from "the wrong kind of publicity".

The wheels of the Greek justice system kept grinding until, 17 months later, a judge decided there was a case to answer and called the curator to court. The latest blasphemy charges have added to concerns at the influence exerted on the political and legal establishments by the conservative Greek Church - which is itself mired in a sex and corruption scandal.

The blasphemy case is likely to be decided by early next year.

From the Daily Mail

Detectives are investigating claims that the attack on Anthony Hinchliffe was inspired by a TV screening of the Film Robin Hood Prince of Thieves. The movie includes a sequence in which a boy narrowly escapes being strung up from a tree. There are a number of other hanging scenes. It was shown on BBC1 on Bank Holiday Monday, 24 hours before Anthony was lured into woods and apparently had a noose tied around his neck.

Six years ago as eight year old boy in New Zealand hanged himself after watching the same film in what his parents believe was an attempt to copy what he saw. There was also concern that by showing the film at 5.45pm, the BBC flouted regulations which say programmes including hanging should not be screened before the 9pm watershed. John Beyer, director of mediawatch-uk, said: Although it is too early to speculate on any link between the attack and the film, we are clearly very concerned about the decision to show it at that time. The reason there are regulations is because there is obviously a risk that children will try to copy what they see on television.

From The Scotsman

Microsoft's new games console includes a parental control function which can stop children playing restricted games. The Xbox 360 will be the first product of its kind in the UK to have the security measure. It also features mandatory parental controls for the Xbox Live function, which lets adults oversee their children's online play.

Microsoft said in a statement: We feel a strong responsibility to provide safety and security features and will continue to evolve this part of the plan over time.

John Beyer, director of the nutter group Mediawatch UK, said it was "unrealistic" to expect parents to monitor all their children's games. To have mum and dad pressing buttons here and there just isn't the way that most families deal with these things. I think it is unrealistic of the games people to expect parents to have total control.

Beyer said manufacturers should stop producing the most violent games.

From the Calcutta Telegraph

The National Commission for Minorities has decided to ask the censor board to ensure that any film that holds a possibility of triggering protests should be viewed by religious leaders first before being screened in theatres.

The commission’s demand comes after the recent controversy over the film Jo Bole So Nihaal. Yesterday, there were blasts in two halls in the capital that were screening the film starring Sunny Deol. Although authorities have not said that the blasts were directly related to the screening of the film, there has been panic in several states with theatres across the country deciding to stop running the film.

The chief of the National Commission for Minorities, Tarlochan Singh, today said: We will write both to the censor board chairperson and the minister for information and broadcasting to have a panel of religious leaders to review controversial films which have the potential of hurting the sentiments of the faithful.

Singh believes that in a country like India, where people are extremely religious, it is essential to take such a step: Jo Bole So Nihaal would not have faced the kind of problems it is facing now if the censor board had taken the opinion of Sikh religious leaders.

The title of the film is part of the daily prayers of Sikhs and therefore, could be seen as an insult to them. The other point that angered Sikhs is the scene that shows Sunny Deol smoking. Although the hero is scolded by his mother for defying the tenets of Sikhism, the censure has done little to ease the sensitivity of the community.  Smoking is not permitted for a practising Sikh.

A note to the Home Office. More religious people worthy of hatred.

From The Times

Boms exploded inside two cinemas in the Indian capital last night, killing one person and injuring at least 50 people as audiences watched a controversial film condemned by Sikh leaders as offensive to their faith. One man told television news that he had pulled several bodies from the badly damaged Liberty Cinema in Delhi.

Minutes after the first explosion, a second bomb went off in the Satyam Cineplex in neighbouring Patel Nagar. Police said that the first bomb, which had been strapped to a seat in the fifth row of the cinema, injured at least forty-three people, twenty of them seriously, and that the second, hidden in a toilet, had injured at least seven.

Both cinemas were screening the same film, Jo Bole So Nihaal (Anyone who calls out to God will be blessed), which had sparked protests and condemnation from a powerful Sikh group because of its use of religious symbols and text. The film has been withdrawn voluntarily from the Sikh-dominated state of Punjab after stone-throwing protests and clashes with police outside cinemas.

The highest decision-making body of the Sikh religion has denounced the film, claiming that its title misuses a term used only in Sikh temples or as a war cry by Sikh warriors.

Police last night refused to acknowledge any link between the bombs and the film being screened for fear of inflaming religious tensions. Cinemas across the city were evacuated and bomb squads moved in to search for further hidden explosives. The capital was put on high alert and police teams sealed off all roads in and out of the city.

Manmohan Singh, the Prime Minister, called an emergency Cabinet meeting of the Cabinet to assess the situation and security was tightened in the neighbouring Sikh-populated state of Punjab. It has the largest concentration of Sikhs and is where Sikh extremists began an armed campaign for a separate Sikh state in the 1980s.

From SwissInfo

Swedish media and advertisers are accused of "degrading" women by using too many images of scantily dressed women, Prime Minister Goran Persson said on Saturday, and held out the prospect of legislation to stop the trend. Persson said at a Social Democrat women's congress: Wherever you go in Sweden you see pictures of young women, almost naked. It is used as a commercial argument to sell products. It is degrading,

Sweden has strict rules against pornography and prostitution. Persson indicated this was not enough. Persson said he hoped the press would regulate itself on this matter, but that if it did not then he would consider legislating against it. He said an enquiry would be held to see what form such laws would take. We can have the world's best policy on sexual equality and at the same time see this kind of development and then we have a joint responsibility to deal with it. It is not good if Swedish tabloids go in the same direction as those in Britain, he said, referring to the likes of The Sun newspaper, which for decades has printed a picture of a barechested woman on its page three.

Tabloid Aftonbladet said Persson was aiming at censorship. Limits on the freedom of speech and what should be printed in the media are not compatible with our democratic values, Afotnbladet editor-in-chief wrote on the newspaper's website.

Based on an article from The Scotsman

Edinburgh Council are  being harangued by nutters as they are asked to decide on a licence for two late-night screenings of Deep Throat.

Nutters have asked the council to refuse the bid by the Cameo cinema, in Tollcross, which plans to show it to accompany a new documentary about the film and the story of Lovelace.

Despite being a huge box-office hit in the United States, the film was only ever screened in sex cinemas in the UK, although it has been available to buy on video or DVD for the last five years. 

According to the current licensing regulations, screenings of R18 movies can only be hosted by cinemas being operated as a club. The Cameo, which has its own membership scheme, has told the city council that it is planning to stage two late-night screenings of the film on June 17 and 18.

Ian Hoey, the cinema's general manager, said: We're planning to show Deep Throat as a companion piece to the documentary, which looks at the full cultural impact of the film and we feel it's appropriate to let the people of Edinburgh see them both and make their own minds up. By all accounts, the documentary gives the impression that no-one backs up Lovelace's claims and it was several years before she came out and made them. We have our own club here and it may be that we have to restrict attendance at the screening to our members, but I'll find out when we go up to the council next week."

However, Catherine Harper, spokesnutter for the Scottish Women Against Pornography Campaign, said the Cameo was trying to "legitimise" Deep Throat by claiming it was being shown as a companion piece: To suggest that this film has artistic or cultural value is claptrap. Are they seriously trying to say that the same people who will watch this will be the same as those who go to see the documentary? The council should not be allowing this film to be shown.

And shameful Labour councillor Lorna Shiels, who was appointed to a Scottish Executive taskforce which will explore Scotland's lapdancing clubs and sex shops earlier this year, said: I don't see any reason why the Cameo should be showing it and I totally agree with what Catherine Harper is saying. There can't be any artistic or cultural reason for screening this.

A council spokesman said: The council has received a request from the Cameo to screen a film authorised R18 by the BBFC. Details of this request will be considered by the Regulatory Committee which will determine whether or not to grant this request.

Well the archbishop can rest assured that this particular media professional will be tirelessly campaigning to rid world of Nutography, the addictive affliction of getting off on the sexual oppression of one's fellow man.

The Melon Farmers are appalled at the effects of nutography which are most damaging to those who are already vulnerable, including children, who may be exposed to harmful material through television or the internet.

From Catholic World News

The president of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications has decried the explosive growth of pornography, and urged media professionals to seize responsibility for curbing the practice.

Archbishop John Foley, speaking to a form organized by the Italian Eurispes institute, spoke of the "alarming spread of a practice as degrading as pornography." The American archbishop said that media professionals should develop their own professional codes to curb the practice.

The effects of pornography, the archbishop noted, are most damaging to those who are already vulnerable, including children, who may be exposed to harmful material through television or the internet. He encouraged an effort to protect children, organized through families, schools, and society at large.

From LifeSiteNews

Brazilian Government Introduces Free Contraceptives for All, including Abortifacient Morning-After Pill

Euphemistically dubbed as a “family planning program,” Brazil’s lawmakers launched a program to distribute free contraceptives at hospitals and walk-in clinics throughout the country in March.

The controversial program, predictably denounced by the Catholic Church there, includes the abortifacient morning-after pill, despite a Brazilian law prohibiting abortion except in cases of rape or if a mother’s life is in danger because of the pregnancy.

This is nothing more than medical and moral barbarism, which will pervert our youth, warned Bishop Rafael Llano Cifuentes, president of the Bishops Committee on Life and the Family for the National Conference of Brazilian Bishops. The free contraceptives program will promote the sexual perversion of teenagers, which means prostitution, Bishop Cifuentes added. It’s like telling teenage girls, go out and enjoy an active sex life for the government will guarantee that you won’t get pregnant.

According to an Instituto Sensus poll conducted in April, 87% of Brazilians support the use of contraception, while 84% support the free distribution of contraceptives by the government. 85% are still opposed to abortion on demand.

From The Stage

Attempts by religious pressure groups such as Christian Voice to censor productions will become increasingly prevalent if the theatre community continues to capitulate as it did over controversial Sikh play Behzti, manager of Birmingham Stage Company Neal Foster has warned.

Foster’s call to the theatre industry to take a stand against all pressure groups coincides with the launch by members of the International Theatre Institute of a series of discussions to address the threat of censorship to British theatre and to decide what practical action can be taken to support venues and companies when faced with outside pressure.

Speaking to The Stage, he said: The Rep made a terrible mistake when it cancelled that show. The whole Jerry Springer debacle - I felt it was a direct ramification of the events in Birmingham and hardline groups feeling they could affect the decisions of arts organisations. I can’t believe that the protests around Jerry Springer - the Opera would have happened before Behzti.

Official organisations need to be involved to help theatres make the right decision. The staging of Behzti is the first thing that needs to happen - we lost the battle and we are now suffering the effects. The artistic community put up its white flag - now we need to support whatever organisations are suffering the consequences.

Stephen Green of Christian Voice cites the successful religious opposition to Behzti, which was eventually pulled from Birmingham Rep Theatre, as inspiration for his damaging campaign against Avalon musical Jerry Springer - the Opera. Foster says that the industry needs to make a stand in the face of increasingly militant opposition from both religious and secular groups.

Felix Cross, director of NITRO black theatre company called for Arts Council England to take a more involved approach if further protests occurred and stressed that organisations such as ACE had a duty to support cultural institutions in more than simply financial terms. He concluded: When something from outside comes to threaten the existence of a particular piece of work, what is the function of the arts council? Its remit to protect the arts comes into profile.

From The Sydney Morning Herald

The Australian Family Association is at it again. When it's not watching smutty European films, it is trying to stop the rest of us from seeing them. In Melbourne, Michael Winterbottom's 9 Songs, will be screened at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image. This upsets the association no end. It tried unsuccessfully through the Classification Review Board to get the film banned. Now a taxpayer-funded institution is screening it.

A Sydney lawyer, Damien Tudehope, doesn't need to wait for these films to screen in public. As a member of the association, he gets private screenings. With 9 Songs it's the actual sex he's concerned about. In the association's submission to the Classification Review Board, he argues that letting actual sex into the R category is opening the way for hardcore pornography to be routinely classified R18+.

So what is the Australian Family Association? And who does it represent? It describes itself as Australia's leading family advocacy group. It publishes a journal that discusses issues such as gay marriage, drug-proofing your children, abortion, stem cell research, and tax policy for families.

It has been around for 25 years and evolved from B.A Santamaria's National Civic Council. Despite these narrow foundations, Tudehope told me the association represents the interests of the majority of Australian families. So how many members does it have? How many families does it truly represent? Tudehope seems to believe in censoring figures as well as films. He refused to tell me.

An article in The Age last year said it had 3000 members. But Raena Lea-Shannon, the lawyer who represents films such as 9 Songs and is a member of Watch on Censorship, thinks this is an exaggeration: You've got to make a distinction between the active members and those on the mailing list. There may be several thousand members but I understand from my research of public domain information the active membership is probably several hundred.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics says that at the time of the last census there were 4,936,828 families, comprising 14,845,780 people. That's a lot of families who have nothing to do with the Australian Family Association. Yet it continues to say it represents a majority of Australian families. So why is it allowed to represent Australian families at the Classification Review Board?

In 1999 the federal attorney-general brought a bill before Parliament that would allow community interest groups to be given "standing" to appeal decisions made by the classification board.

Democrats senator Brian Greig warned at the time: If this particular section of the bill is successful, you are opening the door to every lunatic, fringe, nutter organisation and individual in this country to complain about every film that they want to, and let us be clear about this: they will not hold back. Organisations around Australia such as the Logos Foundation, the Salt Shakers or, for that matter, the Australian Family Association - which are no newcomers to consistent and persistent attacks on issues of censorship - have been imposing their particular morality on the rest of the community, and that is not new to any of us here.

From Mediawatch-UK

A petition bearing more than 121,000 signatures was handed in yesterday at 10 Downing Street. The petition, organised by the campaign group Mediamarch, was handed in by a delegation including Pippa Smith and Miranda Suit, Co-Founders of Mediamarch; Roger Smith, Head of Public Policy, CARE, John Beyer, Director, mediawatch-uk; Dr A Majid Katme, Muslim Council of Britain; Yaqub Masih, Director, UK Asian Christian Fellowship and advisor to Bishop of Wakefield.

In a covering letter to Tony Blair they said:

We, the undersigned, submit this Petition of 121,378 signatures to Her Majesty’s Government, and respectfully seek urgent consideration of our requests. We are shocked and saddened that none of the major parties has seen fit to address the role of the media in contributing to the current crisis in our society: the breakdown in family life and law and order has reached epidemic proportions. However, as leader of the party in power for several years, you must bear the heaviest burden of responsibility for this state of affairs.

The regulators, especially the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) and OFCOM are failing to curb the growing influx of media violence, explicit sex and obscene language. The BBFC (funded by the film industry) no longer believes in censorship but in giving adults guidance so they may decide what they want to watch. What was until recently illegal has now become legal, simply as a result of a relaxation of BBFC Guidelines following their own research. These changes have come about with no change to the law and no Parliamentary debate.

OFCOM, constrained by the wording of the Communications Act 2003, is unable to protect viewers adequately from harmful and exploitative material. This is compounded by the speed of the introduction of new global technologies which have rendered the Proposed Broadcasting Code useless even before it is published. The internet is causing particular harm but is largely unregulated. These issues have been raised in Parliament on a number of occasions, and this Petition will be followed up in the House of Commons.

We urge you, on behalf of all who have signed this Petition, to act to tackle this growing problem. It would show great integrity to address these vital issues now, albeit at this late stage of the election campaign. However, if you do not feel able to take up this challenge now, but are returned to power, we call on you to address these matters as soon as possible following the General Election on 5 May.

From The Guardian

Adverts which offended Christian sensitivities accounted for three of the four most complained about ads across the broadcast and print media last year. In a year in which the number of complaints made to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) fell by almost 11%, adverts which were said to mock key aspects of the Christian faith received the highest number of complaints.

A Channel 4 advert for the Paul Abbott series Shameless, in which the Gallagher family are posed like Jesus and the apostles in Leonardo da Vinci's Last Supper, received the most complaints for any non-broadcast advert.

In all, 264 people complained to the ASA about the advert, but the authority decided the complaints were unjustified because it parodied the Renaissance masterpiece rather than the Christian sacrament.
There was no such ambiguity about the second most complained about non-broadcast ad. Schering Health Care's advert for its morning after pill carried the top line Immaculate Contraception. It did not go down well with Roman Catholics, in particular, and received 182 complaints, which were upheld.

Channel 4 also produced the third most complained about non-broadcast ad: a newspaper insert advertising a documentary on the Royal Mail which workers claimed implied they were thieves. Like the advert for Shameless, however, the complaints were ruled to be unjustified.

In its annual report, published today, the ASA reveals that the total number of non-broadcast complaints fell in 2004 to 12,711, a decline of 10.9% on 2003. Despite a drop in the number of complaints, the total number of campaigns investigated by the ASA increased. The number of non-broadcast campaigns altered or withdrawn after intervention from the agency increased by 8% to 1,835.

For the first time, the ASA also investigated complaints about broadcast adverts in 2004, taking over the function previously performed by Ofcom on November 1.

The top 10 broadcast complaints list was, however, compiled by Ofcom, which received the most broadcast complaints - 1,360 - for the digital television channel Auctionworld.

Complaints about poor customer service, misleading guide prices and failure to deliver goods led to the channel being fined £450,000 and its licence was withdrawn.

Religious sensitivities were also offended by an advert for Mr Kipling's mince pies which featured a woman named Mary giving birth. Initially she appeared to be in a hospital, but it later showed her to be in a church hall in a nativity play. Ofcom agreed with 806 complainants that the advert mocked one of the Christian calendar's central events and the advertiser withdrew it.

The ASA received 2,841 complaints about taste and decency for non-broadcast advertising, down by nearly a quarter compared with 2003.

Launching the report, the ASA's chairman, Lord Borrie QC, said it had never been easier to complain: "Not only has the creation of the one-stop shop benefited the consumer by making it easier to contact a single regulator, the ASA's new role also carries extended responsibilities."

Non-broadcast

1. Channel 4 Shameless poster posing the Gallagher family as in Leonardo's Last Supper offended religious sensitivities. Not justified
2. Schering Health Care Immaculate Contraception ad for the morning after pill. Upheld
3. Channel 4 Sorted insert for programme about postal workers, provoked complaints that it portrayed them as dishonest. Not justified

Broadcast

1. Auctionworld Licence revoked
2. Mr Kipling's mince pies Complaints it made fun of the nativity. Upheld
3. Virgin Mobile Man at urinal. Not upheld

Umm. I think we may have had just as much bullying in schools during the golden age of morally correct Hollywood films

From The Telegraph

David Puttnam, the shameful Oscar-winning producer, blamed Hollywood films for fuelling a culture of bullying in British schools. Puttnam, who produced The Killing Fields, Midnight Express and Chariots of Fire, said films often ignored the consequences of actions.

The Labour peer said films that featured violence and aggression devoid of human consequences were leading to the growth of bullying in the playground, with children imitating what they saw on the big and small screens. He added that films were dumbing down and failing to address real moral problems. For too long the movies have been playing games with reality, playing with it in such a way as to allow actions to become entirely divorced from their consequences, he told a conference in London organised by the Anti-Bullying Alliance. Sensation has come to eclipse almost everything - bigger and better explosions that miraculously don't kill the most important of protagonists; simulated plane crashes in which the right people somehow survive; and most common of all, shootings which manage to create victims without widows or orphans.

His comments follow the death of 12-year-old Nathan Jones, a pupil at King's Wood school in Harold Hill, Essex. He was found hanged at his home in Romford, and Havering council is investigating claims that he was being bullied.

Lord Puttnam, the UK president of Unicef and a former chairman of the General Teaching Council, said the media should be a force for good in promoting the overwhelming value of social coherence.

Speaking after the conference, he was particularly critical of films such as Gangster No 1, Falling Down, Man on Fire and Natural Born Killers.

He admitted that the media was not "wholly to blame" for the rise in bullying, and fell short of calling for tighter censorship. But he urged film makers to think far more deeply about the impact of their work.

Based on an article from The Daily Express

An episode of Dr Who is set to cause inevitable outrage amongst the nutters of Mediawatch-UK. An episode hinting at a sado-masochistic style torture scene with characters using some sexual language has attracted complaint.

The sixth part of the BBC series will go out before the watershed at 7pm later this month. It will depict the central evil character ordering one of his cronies to “canoodle and spoon” the Doctor’s assistant, Rose. In one scene, viewers will watch Van Stratten torturing Dr Who to try to work out his identity by binding the shirtless time traveller to a crucifix with metal shackles.

John Beyer, director of mediawatch-uk, branded the BBC “irresponsible” for including such inappropriate imagery and language in a pre-watershed show. This is not a programme designed for children, I’m surprised the BBC have gone with this, they should have been more attentive to youngsters. It seems that the broadcasters are taking the view that if youngsters are offended or disturbed by the show, then hard cheese. He called on the BBC to review the scheduling so that it is shown after 9.00pm.

Good to see such a tolerant attitude to this non-crime, after all they could have defined it as theft of dignity and lobbed off a hand or two.

This is the sort of story that would make the "incitement to religious hatred" policy so dangerous. Surely such a justice measure as this deserves to be hated.

From The Guardian

Anyone using camera phones to distribute pornography may face up to 1,000 lashes, a 12-year jail term and a 100,000 riyal ($26,670) fine under a proposed Saudi law, newspapers reported on Saturday.

The conservative Muslim kingdom's consultative 150-member Shura council was expected to endorse the new law soon, local newspapers said.

The state telecommunications regulator earlier this year warned against using third generation (3G) mobile phones for "immoral" purposes.

3G mobile phones can access the Internet, which is strictly controlled in Saudi Arabia, and receive high-quality video clips from adult sites.

A ban was recently overturned on the import and sale of mobile camera phones. Religious leaders said they are used to invade privacy, particularly of women.

The use of camera phones has triggered scuffles at weddings and girls schools after handsets were used to film and distribute pictures of unveiled women, newspapers have reported. Under Saudi Arabia's strict Islamic rules, women must cover their heads in public.

There have now been several press items suggesting that the extreme powers underlying the asbo are being abused. We need more control on those who seek asbos on a personal whim.

From The Guardian

A man who published jokes about the Pope's death on a spoof village website, www.lynehamvillage.co.uk, was yesterday threatened with an antisocial behaviour order. Police were asked to investigate after Mitch Hawkin posted a spoof advert for the job of pontiff following the death of John Paul II.

Hawkin's website has been involved in a feud with a similarly named website in Lyneham, Wiltshire. The website said: Fancy a new job? The Vatican is now looking for a new Pope now that the current one has snuffed it. Let's hope the next Pope can do a better job. Better still, why not abolish the position of Pope, as religion, at the end of the day, causes more wars than anything else.

Critics of the spoof site fear that people looking for information about the village will read that site first rather than Andy Humm's more sedate version, whose home page has pictures of daffodils and urges people to pick up litter.

Humm and a local councillor have been pressing for an Asbo to be taken out against the alternative site.
Allison Bucknell, shameful councillor for Lyneham, said: An Asbo is being looked at against Mr Hawkin. He's causing a lot of damage to the community.

The council's antisocial behaviour officer had tried to mediate, but Hawkin did not show up. A Wiltshire police spokesman said investigations were under way after a series of complaints.

From Index on Censorship

Educational IMAX films rejected as blasphemous. Some cinemas have refused to show science movies that mention evolution or the Big Bang because the ideas contradict the Bible.

The 360 degree cinemas are popular features at US science and technology centres, but as educational venues are susceptible to local pressure groups that say the films are blasphemous. The film Volcanoes of the Deep Sea, which discusses the possibility of life on Earth having started around subsea hydrothermal vents has been turned down at several centres; Galapagos, a IMAX film about the islands where Charles Darwin pondered evolution has also been refused showings.

The protests only involve fewer than a dozen cinemas, but the effect could be significant because only a few IMAX theatres show science documentaries. Alan Leshner, CEO of the American Association for the Advancement of Science wrote: The desire not to antagonise audiences and to avoid negative business outcomes is entirely understandable. Yet, the suppression of scientifically accurate information as a response to those with differing perspectives is inappropriate and threatens both the integrity of science and the broader public education to which we all are committed.

Based on an article from the BBC

The BBC board of governors has rejected thousands of complaints made over the showing of Jerry Springer: The Opera. The corporation received around 55,000 complaints prior to the screening of the hit West End show, in January, and 8,000 after it had been broadcast.

But the governors' Programme Complaints committee voted by a 4-1 majority not to uphold the complaints. They said the programme's artistic significance outweighed any offence which might have been caused.

The committee said that the offence caused to sizable numbers of viewers should not be taken lightly. However, they added that attempts were made to minimise offence through appropriate scheduling, clear warnings as to the nature of the show, and other programmes which put the broadcast in context.

One governor, Angela Sarkis, disagreed with the decision not to uphold the complaints. Sarkis said she agreed on many points raised by the governors, particularly that the programme was well scheduled and signposted. But she did not agree that the artistic significance outweighed the offence caused by what would have been considered literal portrayal of holy figures by many people.

Stephen Green, National Director of the nutter group Christian Voice, told BBC News he was "very disappointed" with the governors' decision. It's a complete abrogation of their responsibility in my view, he said. It's just too easy to get offended - what offends me the most is censorship.

Earlier this month another nutter group, the Christian Institute applied for a judicial review of the broadcast. The group said the programme breached the BBC's charter and broke the Human Rights Act by discriminating against Christians.

A spokesman for the Church of England said they were disappointed by the outcome. This was a programme that gave rise to unprecedented levels of public concern and, as the governors concede, caused significant offence to large numbers of people.

However, the National Secular Society welcomed the decision. The BBC decided to show Jerry Springer: The Opera not because it wanted to offend people but because it adjudged it to have artistic merit, said vice-president Terry Sanderson.