{"id":32195,"date":"1970-01-01T00:00:00","date_gmt":"1969-12-31T23:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/breaking-news\/australian-activist-defeats-spy-cameras-in-landmark-case\/32195\/"},"modified":"1970-01-01T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"1969-12-31T23:00:00","slug":"australian-activist-defeats-spy-cameras-in-landmark-case","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/breaking-news\/australian-activist-defeats-spy-cameras-in-landmark-case\/","title":{"rendered":"Australian Activist Defeats Spy Cameras In Landmark Case"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Australian<\/a><\/div>\n
\n

Freedom Strikes Back Down Under \u2014 CCTV breaks Australian privacy law, cameras switched off<\/p>\n

Steve Jolly<\/strong>
Prison Planet.com
May 9, 2013<\/p>\n

Expansion of the global surveillance grid was dealt a major blow in Australia last week after a legal challenge by an individual against the State of New South Wales brought about a landmark ruling.<\/p>\n

\n

Image: Wikimedia Commons<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

A local resident opposed to the introduction of CCTV cameras succesfully proved that public surveillance carried out by his city council not only broke Australia\u2019s privacy laws, but also did nothing to prevent crime \u2014 the supposed reason for its installation.<\/p>\n

This important ruling effectively challenges the legality of public space CCTV in New South Wales and sets a highly significant precedent with far-reaching consequences across the State and potential implications for the rest of Australia.<\/p>\n

The legal decision announced on 2nd May 2013 by an Administrative Decisions Tribunal for the State of New South Wales ruled that:<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cThe Council is to refrain from any conduct or action in contravention of an information protection principle or a privacy code of practice;<\/p>\n

[and]<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Council is to render a written apology to the Applicant for the breaches, and advise him of the steps to be taken by the Council to remove the possibility of similar breaches in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The tribunal also ruled that \u201cthe expert evidence suggests that CCTV does little to prevent crime,\u201d and that \u201cthe Council has not demonstrated that filming people in the Nowra CBD is reasonably necessary to prevent crime.\u201d It also found that \u201csince the Council\u2019s CCTV program was implemented, crime has increased in the Nowra CBD in the categories of assaults, break and enters and malicious damage.\u201d<\/p>\n

Full details of the adjudication can be found here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

As a result of this landmark ruling, cameras installed in the city of Nowra, New South Wales have been switched off while the local authority, Shoalhaven City Council and the State government of New South Wales consider their next move.<\/p>\n

Adam Bonner, the man who took the council to court, is not a lawyer or a seasoned campaigner, but a local farmer who simply acted on his principles, as he explains:<\/p>\n

\u201cFor many years, even before I started this whole action back in 2009, I had always believed in a free and fair society that a person should have to consent to have their personal information collected and stored by the state.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cThere is also something very unsavoury <\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on : Prison Planet<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Freedom Strikes Back Down Under \u2014 CCTV breaks Australian privacy law, cameras switched off Steve JollyPrison Planet.com May 9, 2013 Expansion of the global surveillance grid was dealt a major blow in Australia last week after a legal challenge by an individual against the State of New South Wales brought about a landmark ruling. Image: […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":32196,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[487],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-32195","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-breaking-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32195","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32195"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32195\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32196"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32195"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32195"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32195"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}