A lesson on press regulation for Australia.

Image: Front page of “El Universo,” (from, “Journalism in the Americas.)

This image is the front page published after the paper was fined $40 million for defaming the President. The columnist who wrote the article and three executives have been sentenced to three years in prison as ‘coauthor conspirators’. The translation reads:

Convicted

"When you see that trading is done, not by consent, but by compulsion -- when you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing – when you see that money is flowing to those who deal, not in goods, but in favors – when you see that men get richer by graft and by pull than by work, and your laws don’t protect you against them, but protect them against you – when you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-sacrifice -- you may know that your society is doomed."

The quote is from Atlas Shrugged, (Francisco D’Anconia’s speech on “The Meaning of Money”)

Australians should take notice of Ecuador; even Brown would be happy with the sort of ‘proper regulation’ they have there.

Co- Prime Ministers of Australia, Julia Gillard and Bob Brown are likely to hold an inquiry into the media which will examine all issues from content to ownership using the News of the World scandal as an excuse. While Gillard maintains that privacy is the issue, Brown will crack the whip and get what he wants. The government is in such a desperate position, that every obsession of the quirky Andrew Wilkie, whose vote is essential to keep them in power, is becoming the law of the land.

What Brown is demanding is to:

Bring newspapers under control of a media authority, government determination of journalistic ethics, politicians to determine if media owners are fit and proper, government control of media ownership, criminal laws to protect ‘privacy’, and anything else that Bob obsesses about, presumably criticism of the Greens by “the hate media.”

If this goes through, Ecuador may just be more free than here.