The following is the exact wording of a bit of the 2005 Anti-Terrorism Bill section 80.2 (remember the controversial sedition laws)

“Urging violence within the community

A person commits an offence if:

the person urges a group or groups (whether distinguished by race, religion, nationality or political opinion) to use force or violence against another group or other groups (as so distinguished); and the use of the force or violence would threaten the peace, order and good government of the Commonwealth.

Penalty: Imprisonment for 7 years.”

FROM: http://www.aph.gov.au/library/intguide/LAW/sedition.htm

If on the other hand Devine made any criticism of the police force well of course they’d be all over her.

I don’t think anybody takes Devine seriously anyway, so there’s not really anything to worry about.

I know Miranda isn’t every one’s cup of tea, but to say she was encouraging the lynching of “Greenies” is a pretty long bow to draw and a comment not worthy of Greg Barns’ byline.

I’m surprised you managed to continue to call her Ms Devine too. I resorted to insults in my first sentence.

What exactly is the context here in Australia - well let me give a few examples well before the tragedy in Victoria, which by the way is the real context, namely 200-300 dead in confusing circumstances and many uneducated in the audience:

* Loggers convicted of criminal assault on the NSW South Coast recently near Cobargo. These same grubs kindly told me if I came back to Wandella area ‘You won’t get out alive’. Nice to hear in a remote forest.
* Video footage of loggers smashing car windows and lights in, while greenies cowered inside - all so they could make private profit from the public’s heritage.
* federal minister in the Howard Govt McDonald calling for loggers to ‘bbq a greenie’ again on the NSW South Coast - forced to retract in federal parliament.
* Picture taken by this writer of a seasonal bushfire fighter visiting a conservationist camp then having rocks thrown at him by carload of loggers, with red weeping bruise above his eye.
* Back to 1993 - logger menacing a green protester with a log loader claw.
* James Woodford told me once how they smashed his car window in while scouting SE NSW forests …..for the SMH.

Just my list, there would be heaps more from others in the green sector. What city folks fed the logging industry bullsh*t don’t really understand is that the business of this industry is death. Take the Eden area - first killing whales, then killing koalas for fur, then killing wild wet old growth forests and the wildlife in them.

The great irony is she got it exactly wrong: The firestorm monstered up on state forest logging tenure after decades of rainforest and wet old growth conversion to dry sclerophyll.

It’s an example of how the media has come to believe it’s a law unto itself (as well as an example of the decline in Fairfax standards). Writing an opinion piece is just that-it’s either Devine’s opinion or it isn’t. So does she mean “Greenies should be lynched” or doesn’t she ?. Either way she is wrong. She is either inciting violence or spouting rubbish she doesn’t believe in. Being a newspaper scribe doesn’t absolve Devine from laws that apply to others.

But there are others to blame for the appaling lynch mentality orgy that the media has indulged in over the past week-the police.They simply love feeding stuff to their favourites in the media who they know will faithfully print prejudical stories about an accused. It’s backfired badly. Now the police ar back-pedalling at a rate of a million miles an hour.

On this subject of police walking hand in hand with the media-where do newspapers stand with their lurid tales of a 13 year old dad in the UK with tales of underage sex ?. I thought it was an offence to even posess stories of underage sex….another question for our intrepid Communication’s Minister and the self appointed “child advocates” who advise him.

Head’s should roll in both the media and the police force.

Oh and Ev, you are the ugly one. Take a look at yourself first.

Seriously though. We all know that every article that she writes is going to be wrong in an intentionally provocative way. That’s what she wants. So just stop reading her. Gone are the days when we don’t have choice for opinion on public affairs. There’s much more sensible material elsewhere.