Sedition

Sedition 

Sedi--------tion.
I'm going down, down, dragging me down.

I'm thinking of the Sex Pistols song "Submission" when I hear this word.

Couple of stories about recent sedition laws, one passed downunder and one passed somewhere else in Belarus.

From downunder.

Sedition laws 'a bridge too far'

The federal government "has gone a bridge too far" with its sedition laws and is more interested in protecting itself than the Australian people, opposition leader Kim Beazley says.

With the Senate due to pass new counter terrorism legislation today, Mr Beazley said the Labor Party supported tough laws to help the struggle.

But he also said the government had gone too far with its sedition provisions within the legislation.

"We think the government has gone a bridge too far with its sedition laws," he told the Nine Network.

"It's now wandering around protecting itself, not the Australian people with sedition laws.

"We don't think you need to jail cartoonists, we do think we need to jail terrorists."

Mr Beazley said the government was rushing through the legislation as it had with its industrial relation laws and its welfare overhaul which would make life bad for a number of Australians.

"But you know the horrible thing about all this," he said, "they simply don't care any more. They care about their friends, they care about themselves but they simply do not care about what is happening to ordinary Australians."

From Belarus

Belarus passes new sedition laws

The parliament of Belarus has passed drastic new sedition laws.

The laws will make it a criminal offence to discredit the Belarusian state, both within Belarus and abroad.

Offenders can expect to spend up to three years in jail.

Officials in Belarus say the new law will help to prevent protests similar to those that led to the ousting of Ukraine's government earlier this year.

The US and the European Union have described Belarus as Europe's last dictatorship.

And from the Fairfax Sydney Morning Herald. Seven people from the arts community write about their impressions of the new Aussie laws. I actually saw one of them Jonathan Biggins in the theatre production"Stuff all Happens" at the Riverside Theatre. Biting satire which nowadays may get Biggins locked up.