Alliance Party Media Release - For Immediate Release - February 23rd, 2009

Alliance Party Supports Internet Blackout Campaign

The Alliance Party of New Zealand is supporting the Creative Freedom Foundation's Internet Blackout campaign that protests against new Internet Copyright Laws that were due to come into effect this Saturday. That was until Prime Minister John Key temporarily pulled the plug on their introduction today.

"The new copyright laws are a blatant disregard for the basic human right of a fair trial but we are glad that John Key and National have just today seen some sense in the calls for the law not to go ahead for this reason by temporarily stalling its introduction" says Alliance Communications and IT Spokesperson, Richard Mitchell.

The new laws, if unchanged, could give power to Internet Service Providers to disconnect a user's internet connection if they suspect the user may have breached copyright laws.

"The Alliance supports the rights of copyright owners, however, we also believe in the principle of Innocent until proven guilty. Everyone should be given a fair trial" states Mr Mitchell.

Furthermore, the Alliance says that "work on the proposed voluntary code might not be enough and we believe that the National-Maori-Act-United Coalition should pull the plug on the law permanently and start again afresh," said Mr Mitchell.

The Alliance is still urging the New Zealand public to support the Creative Freedom Internet Blackout campaign by signing the petition here (http://creativefreedom.org.nz) or by writing to your local Member of Parliament as people power appears to be working on this issue, stated Mr Mitchell.

ENDS

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