The war on sedition: "Anglosphere" allies crack down on speech in the name of fighting terror.

• Author: Welch, Matt

IF AUSTRALIAN PRIME Minister John Howard gets his way, citizens down under will soon face seven years in prison if they are convicted of "sedition." That's not entirely new--sedition laws have been on the country's books for at least 40 years--but the proposed legislation more than doubles the penalty. It also expands the definition of criminal speech to include "assist[ing], by any means whatever, an organisation or country ... at war with the Commonwealth, whether or not the existence of a state of war has been declared."

What comprises such "assistance," and how on earth do you know when an organization is at "war with the Commonwealth" in the absence of a declaration to that effect? The answers are not clear, even after one very heated month of public debate and outcry.

"Taking the puff out of someone in a cartoon, or puncturing an ego in a play, is a vastly different proposition from encouraging impressionable young people to become suicide bombers, or inciting violence against our soldiers," Howard wrote in a November 28 Melbourne Herald Sun op-ed piece, during a week in which he had to face down a rebellion by legislators from his own party who objected to the sedition provisions of his signature counter-terrorism package.

"The distinctions are not blurred, they are as stark as the difference between day and night.... What will not be tolerated will be actions or words designed to harm Australian troops [or] language designed to incite action against our troops in Iraq."

Australia wasn't the only English-speaking American ally to put the squeeze on speech last November in the name of fighting Islamic terrorism. At the seat of the monarchy that--on paper, anyway--still reigns over the former penal colony, Prime Minister Tony Blair pushed through by a single vote legislation outlawing the "glorification of terrorism," defined as speaking or publishing words that would encourage the "commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism." This measure came on the heels of another Blair bill, also passed by the House of Commons, outlawing "inciting religious hatred."

In the United States, thankfully, you can glorify terrorism every day. As you read this, thousands of college kids and even toddlers are walking around in T-shirts bearing the iconic image of the terrorist Che Guevara without fear of being tackled by cops. Last year I attended a Hoboken fundraiser for the city's annual St. Patrick's Day parade in which the band played...