Commission criticises sedition laws

On September 13, the Australian Law Reform Commission released a report criticising the federal government's sedition laws. ALRC president Professor David Weisbrot said: "We found that there is a real problem in the current law's continued use of the word 'sedition', which is historically associated with stifling and punishing criticism of the established authority." He added that "the laws must be drafted in sufficiently precise terms to ensure they cannot be applied inappropriately or used in a way that would infringe upon freedom of expression — whether directly or by prompting artists or commentators to self-censor for fear of prosecution."

A copy of the report can be found at <http://www.alrc.gov.au>.

Dale Mills

From GLW issue 684