Findcate

Officers scoured the National Gallery of Australia in Canberra in search of works by controversial photographer Bill Henson, one of the country’s most acclaimed and successful artists.

The confiscation of the photographs by police has caused a furor, with the prime minister, Kevin Rudd, describing them as “absolutely revolting”.

But many Australians said the police raid was a clumsy attempt at censorship and a

dangerous attack on freedom of expression which would embarrass the country internationally.

In a letter to the Sydney Morning Herald, a former police superintendent and now art gallery owner said he was dismayed at “the purse-lipped paragons of public morality” who condemned Henson’s works as child pornography.

On Wednesday a group of leading writers and artists, including Oscar-winning actor Cate Blanchett, signed an open letter expressing dismay at the actions of police and the allegation that Henson was a pornographer.

The prospect of Henson, whose work has been shown in New York, Paris and at the Venice Biennale, being charged had done “untold damage to our cultural reputation”, the letter said.

Henson’s photographs were not titillating but part of an artistic tradition that stretched back to ancient Greece, Caravaggio and Michelangelo.

One of the few politicians willing to defend Henson was Malcolm Turnbull, a former head of the Australian Republican Movement and now the conservative opposition’s treasury spokesman.

He said he owned two of the artist’s works, but neither depicted naked teenagers.

“I don’t believe that we should have policemen invading art galleries. I think we have a culture of great artistic freedom in this country and I don’t believe the vice squad’s role is to go into art galleries,” said Mr Turnbull.

In addition to scrutinizing the National Gallery, police reportedly ordered a gallery in Newcastle, north of Sydney, not to exhibit two Henson photographs featuring nude teens, and descended on another gallery in the city of Albury.

Police have said they intend to prosecute Henson for obscenity but no charges have yet been laid.

The investigation has stalled because Henson has refused to reveal the identity of the girl he photographed nude for the exhibit.

The chief of police in New South Wales, Andrew Scipione, weighed into the debate, saying that as a father he strongly disapproved of the photographs.

Tags: ancient greece, art gallery owner, artistic freedom, artistic tradition, australian republican movement, australians, bill henson, cate, cate blanchett, child pornography, clumsy attempt, conservative opposition, dangerous attack, freedom of expression, greece, malcolm turnbull, mr turnbull, naked teenagers, national gallery of australia, newcastle north, police superintendent, public morality, sydney morning herald, treasury spokesman

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by Adam Liptak

(The NY Times)Steve Marshall is an English travel agent. He lives in Spain, and he

sells trips to Europeans who want to go to sunny places, including Cuba. In October, about 80 of his Web sites stopped working, thanks to the United States government.The sites, in English, French and Spanish, had been online since 1998. Some, like www.cuba-hemingway.com, were literary. Others, like www.cuba-havanacity.com, discussed Cuban history and culture. Still others ?www.ciaocuba.com and www.bonjourcuba.com ?were purely commercial sites aimed at Italian and French tourists.

揑 came to work in the morning, and we had no reservations at all,?Mr.

Marshall said on the phone from the Canary Islands. e thought it was

a technical problem.?/p>It turned out, though, that Mr. Marshall Web sites had been put on a Treasury Department blacklist

and, as a consequence, his American domain name registrar, eNom Inc.,

had disabled them. Mr. Marshall said eNom told him it did so after a

call from the Treasury Department; the company, based in Bellevue,

Wash., says it learned that the sites were on the blacklist through a

blog.Either way, there is no dispute that eNom shut down Mr.

Marshall sites without notifying him and has refused to release the

domain names to him. In effect, Mr. Marshall said, eNom has taken his

property and interfered with his business. He has slowly rebuilt his

Web business over the last several months, and now many of the same

sites operate with the suffix .net rather than .com, through a European

registrar. His servers, he said, have been in the Bahamas all along.Mr.

Marshall said he did not understand ow Web sites owned by a British

national operating via a Spanish travel agency can be affected by U.S.

law.?Worse, he said, hese days not even a judge is required for the

U.S. government to censor online materials.?/p>A Treasury

spokesman, John Rankin, referred a caller to a press release issued in

December 2004, almost three years before eNom acted. It said Mr.

Marshall company had helped Americans evade restrictions on travel to

Cuba and was generator of resources that the Cuban regime uses to

oppress its people.?It added that American companies must not only

stop doing business with the company but also freeze its assets,

meaning that eNom did exactly what it was legally required to do.Mr. Marshall said he was uninterested in American tourists. hey can go anyway,?he said. Peter

L. Fitzgerald, a law professor at Stetson University in Florida who has

studied the blacklist ?which the Treasury calls a list of pecially

designated nationals??said its operation was quite mysterious. here

really is no explanation or standard,?he said, 揻or why someone gets

on the list.?Susan Crawford, a visiting law professor at Yale

and a leading authority on Internet law, said the fact that many large

domain name registrars are based in the United States gives the

Treasury Office of Foreign Assets Control, or OFAC, control 搊ver a

great deal of speech ?none of which may be actually hosted in the

U.S., about the U.S. or conflicting with any U.S. rights.?/p>揙FAC apparently has the power to order that this speech disappear,?Professor Crawford said.The

law under which the Treasury Department is acting has an exemption,

known as the Berman Amendment, which seeks to protect 搃nformation or

informational materials.?Mr. Marshall Web sites, though ultimately

commercial, would seem to qualify, and it is not clear why they appear

on the list. Unlike Americans, who face significant restrictions on

travel to Cuba, Europeans are free to go there, and many do. Charles S.

Sims, a lawyer with Proskauer Rose in New York, said the Treasury

Department might have gone too far in Mr. Marshall case. he

U.S can certainly criminalize the expenditure of money by U.S. citizens

in Cuba,?Mr. Sims said, 揵ut it doesn properly have any jurisdiction

over foreign sites that are not targeted at the U.S. and which are

lawful under foreign law.?Mr. Rankin, the Treasury spokesman,

said Mr. Marshall was free to ask for a review of his case. 揑f they

want to be taken off the list,?Mr. Rankin said, hey should contact

us to make their case.?/p>That is a problematic system, Professor

Fitzgerald said. he way to get off the list,?he said, 搃s to go back

to the same bureaucrat who put you on.?/p>Last March, the Lawyers?Committee for Civil Rights issued a disturbing report on the OFAC list. Its subtitle: 揌ow a Treasury Department Terrorist Watch List Ensnares Everyday Consumers.?/p>The

report, by Shirin Sinnar, said that there were 6,400 names on the list

and that, like no-fly lists at airports, it gave rise to endless and

serious problems of mistaken identity. 揊inancial institutions,

credit bureaus, charities, car dealerships, health insurers, landlords

and employers,?the report said, re now checking names against the

list before they open an account, close a sale, rent an apartment or

offer a job.?/p>But Mr. Marshall case does not appear to be one

of mistaken identity. The government quite specifically intended to

interfere with his business.That, Professor Crawford said, is a

scandal. he way we communicate these days is through domain names,

and the Treasury Department should not be interfering with domain names

just as it does not interfere with telecommunications lines.?/p>Curiously, the Treasury Department has not shut down all of Mr. Marshall .com sites. You can still find, for now, www.cuba-guantanamo.com.

Tags: cate, europe, ford, job, rbi, target, treasury spokesman

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