The art of censorship

But censorship on campus is not just imposed by an external hand: some student publications are at the mercy of their own student government. According to National Union of Students president Felix Eldridge, student newspapers "are not set up to represent the views of student organisations, but to represent the views of students". Student newspapers, he says, are often partly - if not entirely - reliant on funding from student bodies, which sometimes misuse their power by putting political pressure on editors.

Earlier this year, the Liberal-dominated University of New England Students Association froze all funds to the student magazine Neucleus. Its editor, Seren Trump, had refused to hand over editorial control to UNESA's president to harden the association's pro-voluntary student unionism position.

"A lot of students on campus are anti-VSU and there's been a lot of material coming into Neucleus that is critical of VSU," says former UNE director of student media Brian Hail. “If the president or executive have the power to vet Neucleus, they could also vet criticisms of VSU."

For students at the private Notre Dame University, the university’s Catholic hierarchy managed a good showing of its religious glorification by tabooing topics from “abortion, contraception and gay unions,” says Quasimodo editor Chris Bailey. “Censorship has been extended to include most sexual references, profane language and even criticism of the university.”

The university elected a review committee, comprised of members of the university and the students’ association, to check each edition and curb any outbreaks of religious protest. Evaluation procedures are enshrined in the Constitution of the Students Association, though not specifying what material may be excluded. “The Quasimodo now is very much G-rated,” says Bailey, leading him to dub the group of interventionists the “Censorship Committee”.

Editors considered it a distasteful lesson when the vice-chancellor ordered an immediate ban on the magazine after an article on the morning-after pill became the subject of discussion. No further actions were taken, but Bailey and his team were “unofficially told by university staff that students involved in defying the university may be kicked out of uni”.

John Bransgrove is an outspoken critic of student rights at Macquarie University and believes a “student government works like any government”. By this he means that “if Macquarie were a f---ing country, a revolution would take place”.

The conservative Macquarie University Students Council (MUSC) pulled the plug on Macquarie’s student paper, Muscateer, to further the political ambitions of President, Victor Ma. Since elections were unconstitutionally suspended last year, Ma allegedly planted one or two of his confidants into the editorial team. During his reign of two years, only a single edition of Muscateer appeared on shelves.

I think it’s disappointing that the university is deprived of a student newspaper out of the control of internal parties,” says Matt Christensen, a former Muscateer editor. He and four associate editors settled on producing a second issue, but the verdict of other two remaining editors, along with the blessing of Ma, was odd enough reason to ditch the magazine. Ma declined to comment on the matter.

Some student publications may push the boundaries too far on occasion, but these incidents nevertheless raise questions about the right to dissent. “If I was a liberal democrat, I would of course believe that the law should apply to anyone. But I’m not!” says Boey. “I don’t think the legal system should play any role in censoring people’s views, especially students”.

Duncan, this year's editor of the UNSW paper Tharunka, says the Rabelais episode still resonates. "The Rabelais scandal is dusted off and paraded around as justification for student press censorship every time controversial content is being negotiated," she says.

The VSU issue has drawn fire from student newspapers across the country and is perhaps the greatest threat to freedom of speech and thought among students. Many young editors now fear that censorship will lead to silence as funds dry up by July next year.