Category: News

Brigitte Bardot convicted over provoking Muslims

Paris | June 02, 2008

http://www.news.com.au/adelaidenow/story/0,22606,23808071-5006301,00.html

A PARIS court has convicted one-time film star Brigitte Bardot of provoking discrimination and racial hatred for writing that Muslims are destroying France.
The court also handed down a $23,325 fine against the former screen siren turned animal rights campaigner.

A leading French anti-racism group known as MRAP filed a lawsuit last year over a letter Bardot, 73, sent to then-Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy. The remarks were published in her foundation’s quarterly journal.

In the December 2006 letter to Sarkozy, now the president, Bardot said France is “tired of being led by the nose …

Bikers Fight Back Against SA’s Draconian Laws

Bikie gangs form fund to mount High Court challenge

By Colin James | The Adelaide Advertiser (South Australia) | May 22, 2008

http://www.news.com.au/adelaidenow/story/0,22606,23744533-5006301,00.html

MAJOR bikie gangs have formed a fighting fund to mount a High Court challenge against controversial laws aimed at driving them out of the state.

The Hells Angels, Finks, Rebels and Gypsy Jokers have told their lawyers – including several Queen’s Counsel – to join to overturn the laws, passed by State Parliament despite widespread criticism from lawyers and civil libertarians.

The Advertiser has confirmed the gangs have begun raising funds to ensure the country’s best constitutional …

Lawyer Says Biker Gangs Will Fight SA Laws

ABC | May 23, 2008

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/05/23/2253504.htm

A barrister says bikie gangs are uniting to challenge the South Australian Government’s anti-gangs legislation.

New laws to take effect from July will let authorities restrict association and declare gangs illegal.

Barrister Craig Caldicott says groups are putting aside differences and plan to fund a High Court challenge.

“A number of the groups are talking,” he said.

“You must bear in mind that not just bikies but it’s any group that the Attorney-General and the Commissioner of Police target.

“Probably (Premier) Mr Rann and (Attorney-General) Mr Atkinson have done better to unite the groups …

Draconian Laws to ‘Squash’ Bikers & Everyone Else Along With Them

Law passed to ‘squash’ bikies

Joanna Vaughan, Political Reporter: The Advertiser | May 08, 2008

http://www.news.com.au/adelaidenow/story/0,22606,23662466-2682,00.html

POLICE soon will have the power to “squash” bikie gangs and force them to move elsewhere after the Government’s controversial anti-bikie legislation passed through Parliament last night.
Police Minister Paul Holloway said SA was on the verge of having the nation’s and perhaps the world’s toughest anti-bikie laws.

“These are the laws that police have asked for and, finally, we are able to ensure police have exactly what they need to take on these criminal bikie gangs,” he said.

When the laws are gazetted, …

Danish embassy staff removed after ‘imminent’ threat

Copenhagen | April 24, 2008

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,23590611-38200,00.html

DENMARK has moved staff from its embassies in Algeria and Afghanistan to secret safe locations because of an imminent threat, Foreign Ministry officials say.

The threats were “so concrete” action had to be taken, said Foreign Ministry spokesman Erik Laursen.

They are believed to be related to the republication of cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed wearing a bomb in his turban. It was one of 12 drawings of the Prophet that sparked riots in the Muslim world in 2006 after originally being printed in a Danish newspaper in 2005.

Embassy employees in Algiers were …

Jewish Groups Applaud Annihilation of Freedom of Speech

ADC applauds proposed web blackout for hate groups

Peter Kohn: Australian Jewish News | April 14, 2008

http://www.ajn.com.au/news/news.asp?pgID=5253

CIVIL liberties arguments do not apply when extremist organisations use the internet to spread hatred, B’nai B’rith Anti-Defamation Commission (ADC) chair John Searle said last week.

“Clearly a line has to be drawn between freedom of speech, voicing of differing opinions – and material that just incites racial hatred, religious intolerance and violence. When that line is crossed, that material ought not to be freely available to all who log onto the web.”

Searle was responding to protests voiced by civil libertarians …

Law Chiefs Plan Ban on Race-Hate Sites

(((Imre Salusinszky))), NSW political reporter: The Australian | April 01, 2008
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23464021-5013945,00.html

RACE-HATE websites could be banned under an internet censorship proposal being considered by state and federal attorneys-general.

The plan, which is in its early stages, has aroused concern among civil libertarians who fear it could be used to stifle political debate.

The attorneys-general, meeting in Adelaide last week, commissioned a report on the viability of authorising the Australian Communications and Media Authority to combat race-hate sites by ordering internet service providers to take them down.

At present, ACMA polices websites that breach copyright, promote terrorism or publish extreme …

Call to switch onus on racist offences

Carol Nader: The Age | April 5, 2008

http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/call-to-switch-onus-on-racist-offences/2008/04/04/1207249461190.html

A STUDY of racial discrimination laws in several Western countries has prompted a call for the Government to toughen Australia’s 33-year-old laws.

Race Discrimination Commissioner Tom Calma wants the burden of proof in cases of racial discrimination to fall on the alleged offender, instead of the person making the complaint.

Mr Calma said Australia’s laws made it difficult to prove there had been discrimination.

A Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission analysis of other countries, including the US, Britain and Canada, shows that in those countries the onus of proof shifts …

Jews Demand Special Protection – And Get it

Jewish groups want hate crimes squad

Richard Kerbaj: The Australian | March 11, 2008

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23353535-5006785,00.html

VICTORIAN police are resisting calls by powerful Melbourne Jewish figures to set up a hate crimes squad to tackle the growing number of anti-Semitic attacks.

Police opposed to the idea have accused Jewish groups such as the Anti-Defamation Commission – which keeps tabs on anti-Semitic violence – of exaggerating the number of attacks to justify greater taxpayer-funded security measures.

It is believed Victoria Police Commissioner Christine Nixon was approached by Jewish leaders to set up the unit, which would play a similar role to a …