Who stole the Craccums?
A very disturbing story about the theft of 800 copies of Craccum, which featured on TVNZ last night.
One could argue about whether one can steal a free newspaper, but the clear intent of the thieves was to stop people being able to read it, because they objected to some content.
So what was the content objected to? Was it how to kill yourself? Was it about drug rape? Was it how to wip WINZ off? No it was about Falun Gong.
The thieves say they stole the copies because of an advertisement in the magazine promoting people to buy tickets for a dance group that has links to the Falun Gong, the spiritual movement that is outlawed by China’s government.
They say they had asked Craccum to withdraw the advert because they believed it was too political.
“We don’t want to see these advertisements…it does not represent the Chinese people (the dance group) at all,” said Jim Sun, on of the advertisement’s opponent’s.
I think it is incredibly disturbing that a group of (presumably) students would conclude that they have the right to remove content they disapprove of.
Freedom of speech is a fundamental right and if people are not willing to respect the rights of others to advertise a message they do not like, then they should face serious consequences for it.
Threats to freedom of speech are growing. The threats over cartoons, the pressure on Councils to censor, the diplomatic and trade pressure on certain issues have all combined to undermine what is almost the most fundamental right. I value my right to free speech far far more than my right to vote – I only vote once every three years.
One of the ideas I might push at some stage, is whether NZ should have a Free Speech Commissioner. Yes I know it is part of the Human Rights Commission (and they were admirably strong on the Electoral Finance Bill) but just as you have a dedicated Commissioner sticking up for our rights to privacy, what about a dedicated Commissioner whose job it is to highlight and resist all encroachments on our rights to free speech and rights to access information?
April 2nd, 2008 at 2:46 pm
I just wonder if this blog is available in China? To the topic, I personally feel that the HRC should have members designated to look to specific issues- privacy, free speech, etc rather than creating yet more bureaucrats.
April 2nd, 2008 at 2:55 pm
“Threats to freedom of speech are growing. The threats over cartoons, the pressure on Councils to censor, the diplomatic and trade pressure on certain issues have all combined to undermine what is almost the most fundamental right.
Um, what about the right to life? Surely that’s more important than the freedom to speak your mind. Because if you can’t speak your mind if you’re…well, dead.
April 2nd, 2008 at 3:05 pm
I said almost!
April 2nd, 2008 at 3:05 pm
The students who did this would, I am pretty sure, be from Mainland China, rather than say, Taiwan or Hong Kong, and most probably a few are the children of Party officials. They are not used to the idea that their ideas can be challenged. I have seen this again and again here at the UoA in classes and discussions. Freedom of expression and open, honest debate is not a prized value. But I’d have to say the same attitude seems to apply to Falun Gong, but they do have the right to express their in NZ , however much I may disagree with them.
April 2nd, 2008 at 3:12 pm
Right on, Farrar, it actually isn’t just government that is capable of repressing speech. I fear that a lot more of this sort of thuggery could be ahead yet on a wider range of issues, especially seeing the younger generations are getting so propagandised by radical political ideas……….
April 2nd, 2008 at 3:15 pm
Of course, stealing them has had the opposite effect. Now more people will see the ad than innitially would have, had they left the copies of Craccum in their boxes.
Not the first time that Craccums have gone walkabout.
April 2nd, 2008 at 3:16 pm
Although I hate censorship, and condemn what they did
How on earth can you “steal” a free newspaper?
April 2nd, 2008 at 3:17 pm
What’s wrong with ‘radical’ PhilBest?
Jeez this is disturbing though…
April 2nd, 2008 at 3:18 pm
Oddly I was having a very similar discussion with an American friend this morning who is dating a Chinese national. His partner was completely okay with censorship in China. She said to him “just take it or leave it, that’s how it’s always been”. That’s an incredibly scary sentiment! I hope Craccum reprints the entire magazine next week but with people handing them out individually to show they’re not intimidated. Much better than rigging an online poll.
April 2nd, 2008 at 3:24 pm
Hoolian [above ]
“Threats to freedom of speech are growing. The threats over cartoons, the pressure on Councils to censor, the diplomatic and trade pressure on certain issues have all combined to undermine what is almost the most fundamental right.
Um, what about the right to life? Surely that’s more important than the freedom to speak your mind. Because if you can’t speak your mind if you’re…well, dead.
April 2nd, 2008 at 3:24 pm
Surely this was just a student prank. COme on guys lighten up!
April 2nd, 2008 at 3:28 pm
Free Speech Commisisoner not a good idea. Put a govmnt toadey in charge and it quickly becomes something rather Orwellian – e.g. quickly asking for people to show ‘respect’ to other views by not saying things, not printing the danish cartoons etc…. soon we would also have a Minister for Truth (TM).
April 2nd, 2008 at 3:28 pm
Ironically, since it is a free newspaper, they could have put Craccum’s editors on the spot by arriving en masse to collect the free newspapers, making sure there were none. Of course then they would have to have the balls to show their faces. Admittedly I would prefer such an innovative protest tactic was done by a group whose goals I agreed with, but if they had done the above, nobody could have criticised their actions as theft.
And it’s a bit bloody rich, it’s not like Craccum was complaining about Chinese treatment of Falun Gong, it was just an ad… not that it would have been justified if Craccum had been complaining, of course.
April 2nd, 2008 at 3:28 pm
Oh God, Craccums getting stolen because someone disapproves of the content. The more things change, the more they stay the same. Well at least nobody set fire to them or dumped them in Mt Eden this time.
I think the culprits should be punished by having their organs harvested
P
April 2nd, 2008 at 3:34 pm
Welcome to China Inc. a truly multinational operation with an expanding overseas market.
This is just another step on our way to having a Chinese PM – forget the idea of a Maori PM – some time this century.
For better or for worse (I suspect worse, much worse) this scenario seems increasingly likely as successive NZ governments bend over backwards to welcome and accomodate the Chinese. We already have the Chinese government telling ours what to do.
Just remember: they don’t do democracy, or human rights. We think we can change their way of operating. They must be laughing all the way back to Beijing.
April 2nd, 2008 at 3:46 pm
My ‘taking the piss-o-meter’ is broken Lee C…did you see the quote in the original post?
April 2nd, 2008 at 3:47 pm
“(presumably) students ” one hell of an assumption here David, that makes three doozies this week.
[DPF: Assumptions are only bad when they are implicit. I have stated my assumptions, so people can decide for themselves. But feel free to whine]
April 2nd, 2008 at 3:51 pm
“This is just another step on our way to having a Chinese PM”
Cool and the problem with that is…?
Are they infectious, do they spread disease, will we grow extra limbs? I’m glad you have the concerns of the nation at your heart toffee (it still galls me that someone so right could be of the ‘peoples club’)
Chinese PM, Maori PM, Alien PM, can I vote for Dr Who? Do the timelords have candidates, or are they multigenerational – now there’s a concept – a timelord PM spanning several generations.
April 2nd, 2008 at 3:53 pm
Lee C – it was a not a prank. The thieves said they did it because they objected to an advertisement, which they have now ripped out.
Incidentally on the right to life vs the right to speech, I’ll make the case that it is by having a free media and the right to speak up and communicate that governments can’t get away with just killing people they don’t like (I am not talking NZ here). The right to free speech protects almost all our other rights.
April 2nd, 2008 at 4:08 pm
“can I vote for Dr Who?” Please Paul when you are talking to him jump into the Tardis and never return.
April 2nd, 2008 at 4:12 pm
Paul
It’s not very complicated, if you think about it.
You say it’s cool that we have a Chinese PM? Really? The people of Tibet don’t like the idea and for good reason.
Its a repressive, racist (ask any African student who studied there even when the Chinese still claimed to be communist and liberators, myths which they have now jetissoned) and acutely hypocritical regime which has conquered its own people. They are now set on conquering other lands, first economically and later politically if they wish.
Addressing the growth of China in NZ with a set of liberal values is a grave mistake.
April 2nd, 2008 at 4:16 pm
The little irony is that if there students had been stealing ideologically objectionable texts from the campus bookstore or the library this would be a Police matter, and (potentially) grounds for rustication. If these gentlemen aren’t students, there’s also questions of tresspass. As far as I’m aware, the Auckland University campus and Student Union complex is private property.
April 2nd, 2008 at 4:22 pm
Kiwi – the people of Tibet (and as much as I admire their plea for independence) have been under the rule of one people or another other than themselves for dozens of generations (not a defense), indeed the very position of Dali Lama was created by the Mongol lords who ruled Tibet to quell any unrest.
Hang on, I think what you are saying is that instead if a Chinese PM voted for by the people of NZ, you are advocating some loonie idea that the reds over the sea are going to take us over – oh glad we are on planet reality.
Having spent the last 6 months in Vancouver, the latest of 3 lengthy trips to that great place, the wonderful people of that d town have thrown away (on the whole) their notions of Zenophobia, it makes for a wonderful place to live, and of course that most horrid of situations – understanding of other people.
April 2nd, 2008 at 4:32 pm
Paul
You can’t resist a barb can you! LOL.
Anyway, returning to the point and keeping it simple…
It’s the nature of contemporary China, not ancient Tibet, that is the point. We don’t want it – political repression, racism, secret police, quasi-slave labour – here. We don’t want it there either, but that’s another matter.
The influence of the Chinese government is growing. It won’t go away with a ’softly softly’ approach. As well as democracy and human rights, they don’t do ’softly softly’ either.
April 2nd, 2008 at 5:33 pm
Round the bastards up, point out the error of their ways, tell them to leave their attitudes and their problems in their homeland, make them return or play replacement costs for said booklet and if they don’t like any of those ideas show them where the airport is.
April 2nd, 2008 at 5:52 pm
CIA stated once that the Chinese are sending thousands of spies to the US each one to steal a little piece. These were probably agents of the Chinese government. Makes any mainland Chinese come under suspicion.
April 2nd, 2008 at 6:08 pm
A Free Speech Commissioner is a great idea. I don’t see why the government should get to choose the person so I nominate David Farrar. Funding should be provided by sacking the Chief Censor and abolishing his office.
April 2nd, 2008 at 7:24 pm
Hello everyone;
Just an update. I met with Jim today, along with some AUSA staff and President David Do and we’ll be meeting again tomorrow. Several hundred copies of the magazine were returned today at some point to the distribution box near the engineering building, but they were missing the whole last page, not just the small quarter page advertisement. This means we have also lost review content and our ‘Tribute to Highlanger’ photoshoot as well as the small Divine Performing Arts advertisement.
April 2nd, 2008 at 7:31 pm
Hey there everyone. I thought I had posted this, but it appears to have vanished into the nether-regions of Kiwiblog.
I met with Jim today, along with AUSA staff and AUSA President David Do. We ran overtime, and there willl be another meeting to continue where we left off tomorrow. We also had several hundred Craccums returned to our boxes today, but they are missing an entire page, instead of just the one quarter-page advertisement that we were told would be cut out. This meant that some of our content has also been compromised, not to mention the commercial impact of having any amount of magazines removed from our circulation.
Dan Sloan
Craccum Editor
April 2nd, 2008 at 8:59 pm
Good post, DPF.
April 2nd, 2008 at 9:03 pm
DPF: Freedom of speech is a fundamental right
In NZ it isn’t. Labour and the Greens have been shutting down websites this year for example.
It was a fundamental right.
And John Key won’t turn this back.
April 2nd, 2008 at 10:24 pm
People have been stealing Craccum for years. Probably since it first came out. When I was at Auckland stealing Craccum was considered a legitimate tactic by the children playing student politician on both sides of the spectrum. The other side would stamp their feet and beat their chests with indignation only to find the shoe on the other foot a year or so later.
What these intellectual giants don’t seem to realise is that creating a scandal makes more people take an interest in the very subject they are trying to suppress!
April 3rd, 2008 at 2:18 am
I believe the plural is Cracci.
April 3rd, 2008 at 8:47 am
Of course, one of the issues that is never raised in these discussions ( because it’s not “nice”) is the very real level of racism and nationalism in China. There is a widely held belief (if not often openly stated) that Han Chinese are the most superior form of human being and hence their culture is superior to all others. The subordinate role China played through most of the 20th Century is seen as a minor blip on their historical record, which they tend to wildly exaggerate. But it is not at all rare to find racism of the sort that was prevalent in the old South Africa, but this time with Han as the superior race, and everyone else as lesser.
But we mustn’t mention this out loud, of course.
April 3rd, 2008 at 12:35 pm
# PhilBest +1 Says:
April 2nd, 2008 at 3:12 pm
“Right on, Farrar, it actually isn’t just government that is capable of repressing speech. I fear that a lot more of this sort of thuggery could be ahead yet on a wider range of issues, especially seeing the younger generations are getting so propagandised by radical political ideas……….”
# stephen Add karma Subtract karma +0 Says:
April 2nd, 2008 at 3:17 pm
“What’s wrong with ‘radical’ PhilBest?
Jeez this is disturbing though…”
MY POINT, sorry if it wasn’t clear, is that it is those radicalised youths who could be the next generation of thugs to act to silence free speech, independent of the agencies of government. I can see physical intimidation of climate change skeptics being common in times to come, for example. Craccum themselves may well be guilty of provoking this sort of behaviour. Environmental Journals have been guilty of condoning vandalism and sabotage. So along with free speech, there needs to be the means of citizens being protected by the State, without favour, from independent intimidation and sabotage. And even though I often don’t agree with what Craccum says, they should enjoy this protection too. But if they or anyone condone criminal behaviour, they should be accountable for that too.
April 3rd, 2008 at 12:43 pm
The plural of Craccum is Cracca.