Germany not a hard-line censor after all

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    Date: 
    23 April 2009

    Rumours of state censorship in Germany may turn out to have been just a little exaggerated. However, plans for putting their child abuse blocklist on a legal footing may yet have far-reaching consequences for internet users in that country.

    Earlier this week, we were hearing reports that wikileaks.de – the German offshoot of Wikileaks – had been blacklisted in its home country as a result of publishing the list of sites on the Australian Government’s ban list.

    This follows a raid last month, and search of the homes of the German Wikileaks domain sponsor, Theodor Reppe, by German Police. Official documentation of this event confirms that it was Wikileaks publication of Australia's proposed secret internet censorship list that triggered this intervention, although the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) have since claimed that they did not ask the German government to take action.