Friday, April 15, 2005
Apart from two of my recent letters to papers below, I need to comment on the George W Bush hysteria on the euthanasia death of Terri Schiavo, who was brain dead for 15 years and whose husband won the legal right to have her feeding system withdrawn so that she died two weeks later. The hypocritical stand taken by the pseudo cristian right and its mates led by the united states president can only be matched in breathless cynicism by the deaths of the huge numbers of Iraqi men, women and children due to the invasion of Iraq for oil purposes and middle east control by the neocons and the bush administration whose cristianity has deserted them over this matter of human rights abuses, to say nothing of the Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo bay abuses which are also ongoing and hidden from the public gaze.
28 March 2005
Attention Andrew Jaspan Editor-in-Chief The Age
The letter below was sent to the Sydney Morning Herald on 17 March 1985 and published on 22 March 1985.
Twenty years later the letter has ongoing relevance as the editors of the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age decide to censor a cartoon because it uses the word "bestial"! The use of censorship by editors stems from at least two possible factors. One of the factors is the possibility of prosecution if something may be libellous and the item may need checking by the papers' lawyers. Another possible reason for self-censorship is to ensure that the politicians - in this case John Howard, Philip Ruddock, Amanda Vanstone and a few others - are not so upset by what is being said that they threaten to take action against the said papers, by closing them down, for instance. This is not so far-fetched as it sounds, considering that after 1 July 2005, when the Howard government gets control of both houses of parliament, it will be able to pass whatever legislation it deems necessary for the "safety and security of the country." It is an act of cowardice to censor a cartoonist's words and hide behind the statement that it is an editor's job to edit. While this may be true, it is not an editor's job to censor! That is a job for other bodies to do, and the end result is that the public is denied access to information which is in the public's interest to know. You, as editors, can make as many changes as you want to the cosmetic appearance of your papers, but once you tamper with censorship, you lose all credibility. Censorship is pernicious, and once started is difficult to stop. We are fortunately blessed with the powers of discretion, and are able to work out what is credible and what isn't. We don't need editors to do it for us! Fortunately we have the Internet and World Wide Web, and therefore have access to much that editors and governments would like to keep out of the public domain. Mannie De Saxe 2/12 Murphy Grove Preston Vic 3072 Phone: (03)9471 4878 email: josken@zipworld.com.au
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17 March 1985 (published in Sydney Morning Herald on 22 March 1985)
A Paper Closes
SIR: It was most distressing to hear that the Johannesburg newspaper the Rand Daily Mail will be closing down in the next six weeks. The regime in South Africa has at last realised one of its earliest goals, the silencing of one of its loudest critics. The Mail has been a thorn in the flesh of the regime because it has never let up on its investigative journalism and social commentary of the peoples of South Africa, both black and white. It was the Mail which broke the Information scandal several years ago which helped to rid the country of John Vorster. Despite the most draconian anti-press and censorship laws, the Mail continued, within the strictures imposed on it, to write about man's inhumanity to man, and continued pleading with the regime to moderate its harsh race laws which have now led that poor country to the brink of the revolution which has been building up for so many years. The pressure cooker is about to explode. It is a salutary lesson for the media of all countries. It is absolutely essential to allow a free and uncensored press to expose social and political injustice and to allow the population at large to have a say in its destiny, together with a democratic form of government. It is a black day for Johannesburg, and for South Africa. Oppression by the regime of newspapers and news people has been a long tradition, as people such as Donald Woods of the East London Daily Despatch and Percy Qoboza of The World, among hundreds of others, can bear witness (not in South Africa, because many are banned people who may not be quoted in that country). Let us hope that one day justice will be done and the exiles will be able to return. As Alan Paton said, ”Cry, the beloved country”. E.J.(Mannie) De Saxe, Military Road, March 17 (1985) Neutral Bay.
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29 March 2005
Mannie De Saxe and Kendall Lovett, Lesbian and Gay Solidarity, Melbourne PO Box 1675 Preston South Vic 3072 Phone:(03)9471 4878 email: josken@zipworld.com.au web: http://www.zipworld.com.au/~josken
School Homophobia and Teacher Sacking
We were somewhat perturbed today (29 March 2005) to hear you say categorically that the law would not be changed - with reference to the sacking of a mathematics teacher in Orbost in March 2005. This teacher has had his life ruined over an incident that occurred when he was 20, more than ten years ago, and which had nothing to do with his career as a teacher. The complainant at the time was not the other participant in the incident, who was a willing partner in the so-called offence.
We were just as perturbed to discover that your government is not doing what needs to be done to stamp out homophobia affecting teachers and students in schools. If there is anti-discrimination, anti-vilification and equal opportunity legislation, why is your government not doing more to stamp out bullying by the Department of Education, and by teachers and students to the extent that life is being made a torment for gays and lesbians or those perceived to be gay or lesbian?
The student teacher was sacked from her placement at a government school because the principal discovered she was a lesbian. Justice was not done because the principal of the school and the students have been allowed to get away with this act of discrimination Likewise the government's act of discrimination in not reinstating the Orbost mathematics teacher suggests that the teacher was guilty of an act of pedophilia. The legislation needs to have a discretionary clause for school principals. Does discretion or admitting you were wrong not play any part in government any more? Are you emulating your federal counterparts in both major parties by pandering to the homophobia of the religious right?
We are aware that it was the Australian Labor Party which gave the last Victorian Senate seat in the recent federal election to Family First. Are you now kowtowing to the religious right in moving away from equal rights for all citizens of this state irrespective of their sexual orientation?
Mannie De Saxe and Kendall Lovett, For Lesbian and Gay Solidarity, Melbourne
