Conroy to talk filter today

Communications Minister Stephen Conroy has scheduled a "cyber-safety" announcement at 2pm today in Melbourne in which he is expected to release the results of the live pilot of the government's planned mandatory internet service provider (ISP) filtering scheme.

The minister promised back in October, when he acknowledged that he had received the report from Enex Testlabs, that he would release the document "shortly". In November he said it would be made public in due course.

The trial involved a number of ISPs who tested how filtering of certain internet sites would operate in a live environment at the ISP level. The largest of the nine ISPs that participated in the live trials included Primus, Unwired and Optus.

Some ISPs have met with Conroy over the past months to discuss ways the government could improve its filtering plan. Telstra is understood to have conducted its own ISP filtering trial and had shared the results with competitors, including iiNet.

iiNet's regulatory affairs executive, Steve Dalby yesterday told ZDNet.com.au that while he had no question the technology was feasible to implement, the government needed to be more clear about its policy.

Dalby said the policy in its current form lacked any means for website owners that may be accidentally included on the blacklist of "refused classification" to have the classification redressed.

He also said the government needed to make a clearer statement about what should be included on the blacklist and that the government should appoint, for example, a retired judge to oversee the blacklist of banned sites.