ASPA Supports Salient

aotearoa-student-press-association

Wed Oct 05 2005 13:00:00 GMT+1300 (New Zealand Daylight Time)

ASPA Supports Salient

Wednesday, 5 October 2005, 8:52 am
Press Release: Aotearoa Student Press Association

ASPA supports Salient

The Aotearoa Student Press Association (ASPA) spoke out today in support of Salient’s decision to publish an article on student fees based on leaked information, and condemned the actions of Victoria University in taking out an injunction against Salient and seizing 6,000 copies of the magazine

“Freedom of the press is a key tenet of our democracy, and in acting on leaked material, Salient was simply exercising its journalistic right”, said ASPA President and Critic Editor Holly Walker. “That the University, a place of supposedly free debate and the exchange of ideas, should seek to curtail this right is both heavy-handed and counter-productive”.

Walker said that there was nothing notable about Salient obtaining leaked information and writing about it, and that this was common practice in the mainstream media. “There have been many, many important stories of public interest which would never have broken without this practice”, she said. She added that the information in Salient’s story, pertaining to potential fee rises, was clearly of interest to Salient’s readers, the students of Victoria University, who had a right to know about potential changes to their fee schedule.

“ASPA stands in full support of Salient, and hopes that Victoria University will desist from this high-handed behaviour and the distribution of this week’s issue”, Walker said. “In fact, they would have been better off to do so in the first place, given the negative attention they have attracted over this issue”.

ENDS

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