by Karen on March 18, 2009
The government of Australia has apparently lost it’s frakking mind. It has a secret list of nearly 1400 sites that can get Australian website owners fined $11K (AUD) for linking to them and there’s now a report out that the number of censored sites could expand to 10K.
Already, a significant portion of the 1370-site Australian blacklist – 506 sites – would be classified R18+ and X18+, which are legal to view but would be blocked for everyone under the proposal. The Government has said it was considering expanding the blacklist to 10,000 sites and beyond.
Australia has its crazies just like the rest of us, but this is something you expect out of a place like Saudi, not a western democracy such as Australia.
by Karen on November 26, 2008
The Freedom of Religion Foundation has filed a lawsuit against Rancho Cucomonga in the wake of their billboard being taken down after someone in city hall made an inquiry about taking it down.
Though the city is denying that they had anything to do with it, the Daily Bullinten quoted Linda Daniels, the Redevelopment Director, as saying:
“We contacted the sign company and asked if there was a way to get it removed,”
If “we” doesn’t mean the city, someone needs to step up and explain exactly who these “we” are. Because as it stands, Linda Daniels is listed on the city’s site as an employee of the city.
The city’s official response seems to be that the billboard company just up and decided to take the sign down itself as you can see from the following email I recieved after complaining about their involvement.
Thank you so much for your inquiry regarding the “No Religion” billboard and the media’s coverage regarding its removal. For the record, we would like to inform you that the City of Rancho Cucamonga did notsuggest, nor did it request, that any billboard content be removed from the billboard. Advertising content decisions rest with the company that sells the advertising space, not with the City. The placement and removal of advertising content is a private business decision.
The City of Rancho Cucamonga supports freedom of speech and expression. It does not have any authority over the content of any billboard, and
does not involve itself in private business transactions between
companies that provide billboard advertising and companies/organizations that desire to utilize billboards for advertising purposes. The City of Rancho Cucamonga has NO role in controlling billboard content.
I don’t buy it. Daniel’s was either misquoted or the “we” in her statement refers to the city (aka: her employer). IMHO, any request she makes of a private company in her official capacity is a request by the city. The FFRF should win this one.
by Karen on November 24, 2008
One week after being put up in Rancho Cucamonga, California, the Imagine No Religion billboard, shown to the left, by the Freedom From Religion Foundation has been taken down. It would be one thing if the company who owned the billboard had taken it down on their own.
However, it’s another thing when the company does so after city hall asks if there’s a way to get it removed.
A billboard with the message “Imagine No Religion” is no more.
Sign company General Outdoor removed the sign by the Freedom From Religion Foundation on Thursday after it received a request by the city to do so.
According to Redevelopment Director Linda Daniels, City Hall had received 90 calls of complaint since Wednesday.
“We contacted the sign company and asked if there was a way to get it removed,” Daniels said.
This is the first time the sign has been removed since the campaign started and I think it’s pretty obvious that the sign would still be up if the local government had not gotten involved.
If you’d like to send a complaint (a polite one, of course) you can send it from this page on Atheists United. The FFRF has issued a statement and has also put up the address of the billboard company if you’d like to send a complaint to them also.
