Safeguarding the Internet Commons
Friday, January 16th, 2009With the creation of a functioning and effective Telecommunications Regulator, we now have proper oversight on how Vanuatu’s communications resources are used. The government of Vanuatu has made great strides in ensuring that all telephone operators manage their systems responsibly and efficiently.
Now we need to do the same for our Internet resources.
Perspectives on Privacy
Saturday, December 6th, 2008I’ve written before about the technical, ethical and legal problems surrounding Australia’s plan to enforce a compulsory, universal Internet Content Filter. I maintain that the system is ineffective and inappropriate, foisting a law enforcement role on the nation’s ISPs, and threatening free speech without providing sufficient protection from the very content it seeks to block.
With Internet deregulation on the horizon in Vanuatu, it seems timely to take a look at some of the basic issues underlying the debate.
The Price of Freedom
Saturday, November 1st, 2008Australia’s Labour government recently announced that they would be implementing a two-tiered, national content-filtering scheme for all Internet traffic. The proposal as it stands is that people will have a choice of Internet connections: The first will block all Internet content considered unsafe for children. The second will allow adult content, but block anything deemed illegal under Australian law. People can choose one or the other, but they must choose one.
As with all public content-filtering schemes, this idea is well-intentioned, but fatally flawed.
Walking The Beat
Sunday, June 15th, 2008[Originally published in the Vanuatu Daily Post’s Weekender Edition.]
On Tuesday the Daily Post published a Pacific News Service article about the Project Wickenby debacle, in which Vanuatu-based members of the Australian Federal Police raided four local financial institutions for evidence of misdeeds by Vanuatu citizen Robert Agius.
The raids raised a storm of controversy concerning the [...]
Power and Politics - a Sketch
Thursday, April 3rd, 2008I had the privilege this week of being asked to take some photographs at the Vanuatu unveiling of the Pacific Economic Survey. The event was attended by two Australian Parliamentary Secretaries and by a number of fairly senior individuals in Vanuatu. The photos I took will be collected here.
I was proudest of the photo above. [...]
Policing Piracy
Friday, February 22nd, 2008The Australian government recently announced that it was taking the issue of Internet piracy very seriously. They were, according to reports, considering their own version of a British proposal to require Internet Service Providers to cut off so-called ‘repeat offenders’. People who were suspected of deliberately and repeatedly downloading unauthorised music and video files would [...]