Something that came up in PMs with Tehran Tim.

We're talking a lot about freedom of the press in different countries.

However how much access do people in the various countries have to other sources?

For example the Soviet media is state controlled. But if someone in Moscow flicks the channel could they be watching CNN or Fox news?

Also are there any web restrictions? For example in the US I can go to Pravda, Moscow today, or Russia Today. Or whatever.

But we've got people here from more places than just Russia. I'd be curious about other countries too. The only one I know of with restrictions is China (might that be why we don't have any Chinese here?)

Firstly I have to make the point that I don't know for sure if we're being blocked or if media sources are hidden from us. I mean, how would I know?

But here in Australia we're told that there is no internet restriction. That seems to be true. If I want to make myself gag I can go to stormfront.org (not that I would, went there once and had to have the computer steam cleaned afterwards and I had to go and have a shower, I felt dirty). I can also read really lunatic extremist leftist web sites which are great fun because I love hyperbole.

On tv - if you subscribe to cable you can get BBC, CNN, Fox (ewwwww) and a heap of other news media (I shouldn't include Fox in that term but oh well).

On radio I like to listen to the BBC World Service, Deutsche Welle, Radio Netherlands (my favourite) as well as the local news services on radio. I used to be able to get Radio Canada but for some reason my favourite news channel isn't running it any longer.

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You'd feel nauseous. You'd wonder how anyone could hold such ideas. It's basically a white supremacist website. By all means have a look, I went there once and that would have been in the late 1990s I think but I have never been there again. Yes, you should have a look yourself. It's an education.

What struck me was the sense of utterly cold hatred I read from posters there. That and a whole web of false logic and irrationality dressed up as rationality which they shared around to bolster their views.

Sorry, this is a bit of a thread drift but sometimes I think that can be defended.

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Sun flames and moons glow, timeless the tides will flow, what will I face, what will be mine, fortune and fate the other side...

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I've lived in China. They can get BBC News, CNN etc. Occasionally a story or part of a story will be blacked out for a few seconds to a minute if the news is critical of China. This doesn't happen all that often, maybe once or twice a month.

There are no western newspapers or news magazines for sale in China. You can't buy the Economist, Time etc. Time's website is blocked in China due to an article they wrote about Falun Gong.

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"I don't think we should be governing ourselves. What we need is a king, and every now and then if the king’s not doing a good job, we kill him." - George Carlin

News in all countries is going to be slanted. It will naturally carry a bias. Then within the country it will carry the slant of the ryling party. It can be difficult to sift through all we see and hear to come to the truth.

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Have you recovered yet?

Most of the media in my country doesn't carrry the slant of the party in government at the moment, in fact because the mainstream media here ranges from conservative to very conservative it's only ever in tune with the government of the day when a conservative government is in power.

We do have a taxpayer-funded independent media corporation which is widely respected as being quite objective. The conservatives hate it because they think it's too left and the left hate it because they think it's bourgeois - I reckon they must have it about right.

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The woman in my avatar is Cristina Scabbia and the woman in my profile picture is Tarja Turunen
Sun flames and moons glow, timeless the tides will flow, what will I face, what will be mine, fortune and fate the other side...

Public thanks to Catzmeow for enabling me to make my goal of half a million credits by Xmas.