Saturday, October 11

Culture

Words, not witch hunts
Culture

Words, not witch hunts

“censorship is narrow-minded. It’s shortsighted. Yes, it’s a natural impulse to ideas we find abhorrent. But it’s through calling them out that progress is made, not by cancelling them.” – Jillaine Heather of @NZFreeSpeech

Silenced for exposing foreign interference in NZ? Surely not.
Culture, Politics

Silenced for exposing foreign interference in NZ? Surely not.

Courage comes in all shapes and sizes. I saw this for myself last Friday in the Manukau District Court when I went to supportPortia Mao on behalf of the Free Speech Union. Don’t let Portia’s appearance or gentle demeanour fool you. This pint-sized Kiwi-Chinese journalist isn’t backing down to anyone or anything. Portia is a […]

The enduring confusion around free speech
Culture, Politics

The enduring confusion around free speech

William McGimpsey, a prominent voice of the so-called “woke Right” in New Zealand, recently posted on X a condemnation of Ani O’Brien’s open letter to the Helen Clark Foundation, accusing her of engaging in “cancel culture” for calling out Professor Peter Davis’s comments linking the Netanyahu government to rising antisemitism. According to McGimpsey, Davis’s comments […]