No chance of sedition in Wollongong
Arts Hub Australia
Wednesday, August 30, 2006
The head of the Australian Society of Authors
(ASA) has drawn comparisons with Nazi Germany, after the South Coast Writers
Centre were prevented from conducting a poetry reading at the Woollongong Mall
during National Poetry Week.
The mall was only willing to let the poets
go ahead, said Dr Jeremy Fisher, if there was a guarantee that thered be
nothing religious or against the government, essentially.
We dont even
know if there was any (such content). It was simply a matter of applying to do a
poetry reading, and they were denied permission on the grounds that there
could have been something political.
It may not be a coincidence,
says Fisher, that the malls current policy on religious or political
content came into force last November, when the Howard Governments sedition
laws were being pushed through Parliament.
The only reason we can see
why this poetry competition has been banned was that the mall authorities were
not prepared to allow political content to go forward that might have been
interpreted as anti-government
These sorts of decisions highlight the
problems caused by the sedition provisions of the governments anti-terrorist
laws. Administrators of public property feel it is safer to totally prohibit
public performance rather than risk anti-government comments being made. This of
course is exactly what sedition laws are designed to do stifle public
debate.
Which of course is how commentary was discouraged in Nazi
Germany.
Contacted by Arts Hub, the Malls press office
complained of a great deal of misreporting about this issue by our local
media.
The facts of the matter are the Crown Street Mall management
received a request to stage the poetry reading, to which they agreed. They
reminded the organisers of sections within the many-years-old Mall Code which
exclude the use of the Mall for the presentation of items which may cause others
offence. This is a standard clause which applies to all activities in the Mall.
The request was at no time refused.
However, the organisers have
incorrectly publicised this as a refusal. That is all we have to say on the
issue.
The South Coast Writers Centre has more to say. It plans to hold
a protest reading, featuring political and religious poems, in Wollongong on 6
September.
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