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January 2017
and demonising’ groups including immigrants, refugees, disabled people, the LGBT+ community and ethnic minorities are behind Plymouth University SU’s decision to follow City in banning The Sun, Daily Mail, Daily Express and their Sunday editions. Both SUs said they agreed with free speech, but their critics have accused them of censorship and shutting down debate. Sophia Smith Galer, a broadcast journalism student at City, started a petition, signed by more than 200 people, against her SU’s ban. She said: ‘I didn’t expect these tabloids, which employ a lot of our grads, to be banned. ‘I started the petition to make it clear that a lot of people were against it and it was an opportunity not only for current students to have a say but for graduates, alumni and people in the industry to comment on it as well.’ She said while supporters of the petition recognised the banned papers were occasionally guilty of demonising certain sections of society, they believed they should be ‘held to higher account’. ‘To be able to hold them to account, you need to be able to read, fact check and criticise them,’ she added. ‘The motion wanted to oppose social divisiveness yet millions of people read these newspapers every day, which disqualifies the opinions being made – opinions which are obviously being agreed with by a section of the British public. ‘The ban doesn’t help social divisiveness, in fact it makes social divisions wider.’ She added fellow masters students
The ban doesn’t help social divisiveness, in fact it makes social divisions wider Sophia Smith Galer, City, University of London
had drafted a proposal calling for the ban to be lifted, which is expected to go before a meeting of the students’ union next month. Other City journalism students filmed themselves reading the banned papers for a mannequin challenge in November. Organiser Lindsay Greenhouse said: ‘Every single journalism student I’ve spoken to thinks the ban is absurd. I thought this was a peaceful way to protest, rather than storming the students’ union. ‘We want people to know we won’t stand for censorship at City, no matter which newspaper it is.’ She said the ban had an added element of absurdity because no newspapers were sold at City. ‘I’ve spoken to one of the guys from the SU who passed the motion and he said the ban is essentially meaningless, because you can’t ban people from bringing in whatever they want to read,’ she said. ‘The only reason they passed the motion is because the second clause explains how we would campaign against racism and hatred, which is what everyone is for at City.’ Plymouth SU’s ban was also met with protest when students at the smaller University of St Mark and St John, across the city, voted to jokingly ban orange juice with bits
in to make a point about freedom of choice. ‘To remove [tabloid] papers from sale is to deny a chance of intellectual debate and to shelter [students] from what is out there in the real world, outside of campus life,’ its SU said in a post on Facebook. ‘After all, isn’t that what university is about? Stimulating discussions and debates,’ it added. ‘You can no longer have the same levels of discussion when you begin to censor things.’ It continued: ‘Orange juice is a different matter, though. ‘Such is the hateful nature of bitty orange juice, we felt strongly that it should be removed from our campus to ensure our students weren’t brainwashed into having moronic taste buds.’ But City and Plymouth are far from the only unions to have banned papers or magazines in recent years – more than 30 have voted to limit print media. The Sun, which was the subject of an anti-Page 3 campaign by unions before the feature was pulled, is the most widely barred. But SUs have also clamped down on other tabloids, as well as student publications, lads’ mags, papers deemed sexist. The University of Bristol students’ union banned French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, shortly after 12 of its staff were killed by gunmen in 2015. Dr John Steel, a journalism lecturer at the University of Sheffield whose research focuses on free speech and freedom of the press, criticised this stance. ‘Ideas, however repugnant and horrible, however much we may disagree with them, as long as they’re not criminal, then they’re there to be shot down,’ he said. ‘Univerisities are a place of critical enquiry and if you’re going to ban publications that you find difficult or uncomfortable then that is a slippery slope. ‘The best way to challenge
racism and misogyny in society is to have more speech, not less.’ He called City SU’s claim there was fascism in the media ‘disrespectful’. ‘Some of the rhetoric and language used and some of the representations which have been invoked by certain sections of the media are pretty offensive and horrible,’ he said. ‘But to call it fascistic is doing a disservice to the victims of fascism in the past. ‘There may be elements of racist and xenophobic rhetoric but I think it’s a little bit naive and disrespectful to the people who suffered under fascism to call these papers fascist.’ Some, however, say unions should be free to decide which papers are worth selling Alex Liddell is a graduate from the University of East Anglia, where the union council voted to stop selling The Sun in its shop in 2013. ‘Universities, in fact any institution, should be allowed to quality control the products they sell,’ he said. ‘If a newspaper regularly publishes fake news and hate speech, it is a faulty product. ‘Universities should have the option to ban the sale of faulty products.’ A statement to Independent.co.uk, attributed to City SU president Yusuf Ahmad, said: ‘A motion titled ‘Opposing fascism and social divisiveness in the UK media’ was debated and passed by the members in the AGM. The union is currently unaware of any outlets on campus selling the mentioned media publications. As with all motions, the union will be considering how it implements this.’ Plymouth students’ union referred in a statement to a 2015 UN press release telling the UK to ‘curb incitement to hatred by British tabloid newspapers’. ‘It is our duty to protect and empower and represent marginalised and discriminatedagainst groups,’ the union added. ‘Because of these very values that we hold and we are proud of, we believe that it is unethical for us to profit out of the sale of hateful, nonfactual and anti-scientific media platforms.’
TO UNITE AND CENSOR From north to south in Scotland, England and Wales, these 36 students’ unions have stopped papers and magazines being distributed on their campuses... Scotland • Aberdeen SU Lads’ mags • Abertay SU, Dundee The Sun • Edinburgh University SU The Sun England • Newcastle SU The Sun • Lancaster SU The Sun and lads’ mags • York St John SU The Sun and Daily Star • Bradford SU The Sun • Leeds SU Page 3 • Leeds Beckett SU The Sun and Daily Star • Edge Hill SU, Liverpool The Sun • Hull SU The Sun • Lincoln SU The Sun • Manchester SU The Sun • Manchester Met SU The Sun • Sheffield SU The Sun • Chester SU The Sun • Nottingham SU The Sun • Nottingham Trent SU The Sun • Staffordshire SU The Sun • Leicester SU The Sun • UEA SU, Norwich Page 3 • Birmingham SU ‘Sexist’ newspapers • Birmingham City SU Two papers • Warwick SU The Sun and Daily Star • Cambridge SU The Sun • Essex SU The Sun and Daily Star • Oxford SU No Offence (student mag) at freshers’ fair • Oxford Brookes SU ‘Sexist’ publications • City SU, London Tabloid papers • LSE SU, London The Sun, Daily Star and an edition of the students’ newspaper • UCLU, London The Sun • Bristol SU Charlie Hebdo • Bournemouth SU Lads’ mags Wales • Aberystwyth SU Daily Express, The Sun and Daily Star • Swansea SU Lads’ mags • Cardiff SU The Sun
SOURCE: SPIKED
Aberdeen
Dundee Edinburgh
Newcastle
Lancaster Bradford
Edge Hill, Liverpool
Manchester Chester Staffordshire
Leeds
York
Hull Lincoln Sheffield Nottingham Leicester UEA, Norwich
Aberystwyth
Birmingham
Warwick Cambridge
Swansea Do you think some papers should be banned by students’ unions? Email your thoughts to editor@unipaper. co.uk
Essex
Oxford Cardiff Bristol
Bournemouth
London