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Bill: Media Freedom Act
Details
Submitted by[?]: Conservative Monarchist Alliance
Status[?]: passed
Votes: This is an ordinary bill. It requires more yes votes than no votes. This bill will not pass any sooner than the deadline.
Voting deadline: August 3728
Description[?]:
| Lodamun's restrictive laws have crippled free speech in Lodamun and damaged our reputation abroad. Anton Rietveld Chairman of the Conservative Monarchist Alliance |
Proposals
Article 1
Proposal[?] to change The government's policy regarding regulation of media content.
Old value:: It is forbidden to criticize the government, or publish any material that the government does not approve of.
Current: There are laws against the publication of false information and hate speech.
Proposed: There are laws against the publication of false information; everything else may be published freely.
Article 2
Proposal[?] to change International media content regulation.
Old value:: International media content is heavily censored for political purposes.
Current: International media content undergoes the same regulation as domestic media content.
Proposed: International media content undergoes the same regulation as domestic media content.
Debate
These messages have been posted to debate on this bill:
| Date | 16:48:44, September 14, 2014 CET | From |  Great National Republican Guard | To | Debating the Media Freedom Act |
| Message | Mr. Speaker, The current laws guarantee true democratic media freedom. We, the MPs, are elected by the people. We can vote on resolutions about what is allowed, and a government that emerges from this Presidium would need a majority of support anyway. Passing this law will turn our media into a "more money = louder voice" thing. The wealthy will be heard, and the common man's only voice will be elections. When the common man elects a government that the bourgeois brats disapprove of, the bourgeois brats will bash the same government in the media to undermine the demands and voice of the masses, and represent minority interests as majority interests. I strongly urge MPs to reject this bill. I strongly urge MPs to refuse to give up the power of the people to the anti-democratic bourgeois brats. We must remember that: - a state-owned media organisation wouldn't bash the state - only a private media organisation would bash the state - private media organisations are run by private funds - criticism of the government (through mass media) will more likely be from the wealthy than from the common man - the Presidium is democratically-elected by the people, and speaks and acts on behalf of the people - anything that "the government" doesn't approve of is something that "the people" don't approve of Let us also stop paying attention to this lie that our restrictive media laws messed up our foreign relations. Lodamun had restrictive media laws and anti-Hosian laws for over a century, and our foreign relations flourished even when we made it obvious that we had heavily-regulated media and the suppression of Hosians. Hosian nations and governments even collaborated with us, because they had no choice. We were bold. The downfall of Lodamun was caused by liberals making Lodamun's state look weak. Once the international bourgeois Hosians noticed this, they funded efforts to sabotage our Great Democratic Republic to establish a monarchy and a Capitalist system in Lodamun. They noticed we had liberal media laws, and they took advantage of them. They noticed we had liberal citizenship laws, and they started taking advantage of them. -- Gordon Fertig, Chairman of the GNRG |
| Date | 18:27:14, September 14, 2014 CET | From | Lodamun Libertarians | To | Debating the Media Freedom Act |
| Message | Mr. Speaker- The proposed bill is a much needed reform of the current system, which systematically stifles the liberties possessed by every Lodamese citizen. Further, we cannot ever be afraid of a media organization that criticizes the state. True freedom consists in a national forum of ideas in which all voices can be heard. Naturally, those with wealth will have an easier time of putting forward their ideas into the national forum. However, our party stands firm on the idea that the citizens of our nation are smart enough to be able to sift through all the information put forward by various media outlets in order to form their own conclusions. If we do not believe that, then we as the representatives of Lodamun cannot see eye-to-eye on what it means to be a democracy. Martin Croix Chief of Lodamun Libertarians |
| Date | 19:56:22, September 14, 2014 CET | From | Conservative Monarchist Alliance | To | Debating the Media Freedom Act |
| Message | Mr. Speaker, I thank Martin Croix for his comments, and hope they will be heeded by the Presidium. Predictably, Gordon Fertig's remarks are less enlightening. Only he and the GNRG could seriously try to argue it is somehow more democratic to prohibit criticism of the government than to permit it. What he is arguing for is effectively an elective dictatorship, where citizens briefly enjoy a bit of power at election time and then are allowed no say whatsoever for the rest of the time. The reality is that you cannot have a proper democracy without a free media. Anton Rietveld Chairman of the Conservative Monarchist Alliance |
| Date | 01:48:55, September 15, 2014 CET | From | Great National Republican Guard | To | Debating the Media Freedom Act |
| Message | Mr. Speaker, The Presidium is already a "national forum of ideas in which all voices can be heard" so this bill is unnecessary. The Presidium is the central organ of demcoracy in Lodamun, not the private media. This continued liberalisation will give rise to an upper class and force the nation to focus on the demands of the upper class. -- Gordon Fertig, Chairman of the GNRG |
| Date | 03:13:19, September 15, 2014 CET | From | Conservative Monarchist Alliance | To | Debating the Media Freedom Act |
| Message | Mr. Speaker, How does Gordon Fertig expect the people of Lodamun to form a balanced judgement about how to use their vote at election time if their media is forbidden from publishing anything that is critical of the government? There is no point allowing people to vote for members of the Presidium if they are denied by law the means to inform themselves about the issues surrounding that choice. Anton Rietveld Chairman of the Conservative Monarchist Alliance |
| Date | 06:49:42, September 15, 2014 CET | From | Great National Republican Guard | To | Debating the Media Freedom Act |
| Message | Mr. Speaker, The citizens can check the voting records of the parties. In the end, those are the only things which truly matter, not some wealthy snob's opinion of the government. It isn't the entire Presidium that is in government. Lodamese citizens may see alternatives to the government that they support, based on voting records and things expressed in debates. -- Gordon Fertig, Chairman of the GNRG |
| Date | 13:44:18, September 15, 2014 CET | From | Conservative Monarchist Alliance | To | Debating the Media Freedom Act |
| Message | Mr. Speaker, Gordon Fertig obviously has a very low opinion of the intelligence of people who are not wealthy. Otherwise, he would not seek to deny them the ability to access a free speech so they can form judgements of their own. Anton Rietveld Chairman of the Conservative Monarchist Alliance |
| Date | 15:50:46, September 15, 2014 CET | From | Great National Republican Guard | To | Debating the Media Freedom Act |
| Message | Mr. Speaker, It isn't about the intelligence of non-wealthy voters; it is about the visibility of the high-wealth interests as opposed to the visibility of lowe-wealth interests. We want equality and democracy, not liberal madness. -- Gordon Fertig, Chairman of the GNRG |
| Date | 18:20:50, September 15, 2014 CET | From | Conservative Monarchist Alliance | To | Debating the Media Freedom Act |
| Message | OOC: Meant to say "free press" rather than "free speech" in my last post. Brain must be going! |
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Voting
| Vote | Seats | ||||||
| yes |
Total Seats: 457 | ||||||
| no | Total Seats: 142 | ||||||
| abstain | Total Seats: 0 |
| Random fact: Particracy isn't just a game, it also has a forum, where players meet up to discuss role-playing, talk about in-game stuff, run their own newspaper or organisation and even discuss non-game and real-life issues! Check it out: http://forum.particracy.net/ |
| Random quote: "Isn't it about time that the US government stop supporting dictatorships and avaricious oligarchies with our tax monies, munitions, and diplomacy?" - Ralph Nader |