Photo by Bonita Silva
On May 20th last year at the Sydney Writers Festival, UTS students handing out copies of ‘Festival News’ were approached by security guards and staff. All copies of the newspaper were impounded within the first day with only vague explanations provided.
“I decided to go down to the Sydney Writers’ Festival site myself and hand out the papers outside of Festival grounds. Sydney Writers’ Festival staff told me I could be arrested if I stayed there,” recalls Amelia Marshall, journalism student and last year’s ‘Festival News’ Chief of Staff.
Staff and students from UTS’ writing and journalism departments had produced ‘Festival News’ since 2002, as part of a joint promotional venture between the university and the Sydney Writers’ Festival.
When previous Managing Editor Sandra Symons fell sick before the Festival, Journalism lecturer Jenna Price filled her position. It had been smooth sailing on the ‘Festival News’ front until the Festival’s second day, where criticism about the publication’s content began to rear its head. “I had just finished chairing a panel and I walked down the stairs and there was Wendy Were [SWF Artistic Director and Chief Executive], with her hands on her hips, just shouting at me. She said [Festival News] was unprofessional and trashy, and that she would have to take it off distribution,” says Price.
When students and staff accused the Festival of censorship, the controversy hit the headlines, appearing on ABC’s Lateline, in the Sydney Morning Herald, The Australian and Crikey.
Festival Publicist Helen Johnstone agreed to answer questions about ‘Festival News’, but Festival Managing Director Ben Strout contacted Vertigo at the last minute and refused to answer questions, referring us to the Festival’s existing statements on the matter.
“Today’s edition seems more like a trashy magazine, filled with gossip and sniping which insults the Festival and its supporters,” wrote Wendy Were to Jenna Price in an email obtained by Vertigo.
The Festival alleged that UTS students and staff acted unprofessionally in aggressively trying to gain access to events and guests, a charge that they vehemently deny.
On its first day, ‘Festival News’ had run an item in its tongue-in cheek gossip column, ‘Write Wing’, criticising members of the then-Iemma Government. The controversial paragraph, written by student Matthew Knott, read: “Premier Morris Iemma was conspicuous by his absence at the Premier’s Literary Awards on Monday night… News of Iemma’s snub created an icy mood, but things went sub-zero when his replacement was announced: Minister for Planning and the Arts, Frank Sartor.”
It quickly became apparent that Festival staff were in no mood for a joke. The Ministry for the Arts was a major sponsor of the Festival, and the irreverent comment became the catalyst for the scandal.
Knott says, “some have suggested that we wanted to create a scandal but nothing could be further from the truth. Most of the paper was straight reporting on festival events and the Write Wing gossip column was meant simply to provide some light-hearted relief.”
In her email, Were wrote, “to find a publication at our venue that is riddled with disparaging content about the festival and our sponsors is beyond disappointing.”
Lecturer at the University of Melbourne’s School of Culture and Communication, Mark Davis, suggests the Festival’s angry reaction was underpinned by commercial motivations. “It’s basically down to the Festival not wanting to upset the Government and upset their funding,” he says.
Amelia Marshall believes that Festival News writers were well within their rights to direct criticism at the Government, regardless of its relationship to the Festival.
“I would contend that Sartor has had much worse things said and written about him. He’s a politician, and politicians have to be open to criticism in a democratic society,” she says. Despite the accusations from both sides, ‘Festival News’ was back to being distributed the next day.
“The two Wendy’s [Bacon and Were] were at it hammer and tongs about it all day,” says Jenna Price.
Last year’s ‘Festival News’ staff and the Writers’ Festival both point to a contract drawn up between UTS and the SWF to support their arguments.
In a statement on their website, the SWF states: “The production and distribution of the paper was, by contract, “a promotional and marketing activity in support of the Sydney Writers’ Festival” for which the Festival regularly provided much in-kind support.”
The contract, viewed by Vertigo, clearly specifies that the promotional activities agreed to be undertaken by UTS were separate from the activities and guaranteed coverage of events relating to Festival News.
One group particularly shocked by the ‘Festival News’ controversy was the UTS’ Writing department, who previously contributed to running the paper and have had close ties with the Festival over the past decade. Several members of writing staff are involved in forums and Festival panels, and the ‘UTS Writers’ Anthology’ is officially launched at the site every year.
“I think that the last year, when it was managed by certain staff in the journalism area, it changed what the relationship with ‘Festival News’ had been …it had a far more negative aspect to it, it was critical of writers, it was critical of the festival organisers,” says UTS Head of Creative Practices in the writing faculty, John Dale.
The controversy had seemingly blown over, with a year passing without mention of the event in the media. That was until an apology from UTS’ Dean of Humanities and Social Sciences, Professor Theo Van Leeuwen, unexpectedly appeared on the SWF website earlier this year.
“A friend of mine rang me and I said, ‘bullshit’,” says Jenna Price.
Professor Van Leeuwen had not consulted with or informed members of the Journalism faculty that he intended to apologise for the controversy. He was soon fielding unhappy calls from both Price and head of journalism, Wendy Bacon. Both students and staff associated with Festival News were devastated.
“What really upset me is that not only was I not consulted, but that it [the apology] wasn’t correct,” says Professor Wendy Bacon.
The Dean apologised in an attempt to salvage the relationship between the Festival and UTS, trying to ensure ‘Festival News’ continued in 2009. He was concerned that the long-standing relationship would be permanently severed.
“I was worried that they really wanted… nothing to do with UTS anymore, that they would react stronger than what, in the end, they have,” he says.
However, Professor Van Leeuwen insists that the apology was not part of a deal with Sydney Writers’ Festival and that the festival did not explicitly threaten to stop its involvement with the Writers’ Anthology.
“I didn’t straight away realise that [the apology] would be public. I agreed when I was asked to publish it, but I didn’t originally intend it to be published. I agreed to it. I made that decision, and in hindsight I should have at least informed [the Journalism faculty] before that,” he says.
Professor Van Leeuwen’s attempt at diplomacy backfired when he was faced with criticism from Journalism staff and students.
“The most upsetting thing about this whole affair for me has been what actually happened seemed not to matter. We are supposed to be teaching students that the facts in journalism matter. In this case, there was so much evidence available,” says Professor Bacon.
“I understand he’s made a mistake you know we all make mistakes, but the fact is I would like him to have acknowledged that there was an attempt to control the content, there was a very explicit attempt to control the content, and to go along with that is contrary to our ethics,” she says.
The festival refused to confirm whether Theo Van Leeuwen withdrew his apology, saying instead that it was their decision to remove his apology from their official website.
Despite negotiations that were moving to transfer the control of ‘Festival News’ to the UTS Writing department, Sydney Writers’ Festival issued a statement in the wake of the Dean’s retraction saying: “We regret that we have been unable to find a mutually satisfactory way forward in 2009 and therefore Festival News will not be appearing this year.”
“They were no longer willing to negotiate and it was just… if [there was] no apology there was no Festival News,” says Professor Van Leeuwen.
Although the issue seems to have been finally laid to rest, its impacts are still being felt within the University and particularly between members of the Writing and Journalism faculties.
“Creative Practice students and most staff support freedom of expression and understand that student reporters should not be expected to do a PR job for a Festival so University lecturers can gain some special access to events,” says Professor Bacon.
At the time of printing, the 2009 Writers’ Anthology launch at the Festival remains a certainty.
“I speak for all the writing staff , I think we were really disappointed with what happened, and we just hope we can make a new start next year. It’s really caused serious problems between certain staff and between perhaps the two areas,” says John Dale.
Despite making national headlines, Journalism staff and students are confident that the faculty’s proud reputation has not been tarnished by the ‘Festival News’ incident and related events.
“Festival News was a great opportunity for UTS Journalism, but not one worth compromising our ethics for,” says Amelia Marshall.
Paddy Cannon, executive member of the UTS Journalism Society, believes the eventual canning of Festival News, while disappointing, comes as a blessing in disguise. “I don’t believe that the paper should exist if it were to be the PR pamphlet that the Writers’ Festival would have us write,” he says.
Ms Price echoes this sentiment. “[The Sydney Writers’ Festival] is used to the kind of literary journalism that licks the hand that feeds it,” she says. “We didn’t bite the hand that fed us, but we certainly sniff ed it.”
Confusion between the organisers of the festival and the UTS Journalism department over the purpose of Festival News was at the crux of the dispute.
“It would be against the Journalists’ code of ethics to deliberately go back into a situation next year in which we are expected to produce promotional material,” says Professor Bacon.
The conflict has cast doubt on future collaboration between UTS and the Writers’ Festival.
“I think the sponsors and the festivals have to be big enough and mature enough to realise that writers are unruly beasts and often say what they think,” says Mark Davis.
Amelia Marshall says the incident highlights the increasingly commercial nature of arts and lifestyle journalism. “I’ve now come to the conclusion that the Sydney Writers’ Festival is not about writers and free speech at all. It’s about selling books and keeping the sponsor’s dollars rolling in, at any moral cost.”
