Letter to The Editor

To The Age
So the Turnbull government, like the Abbott government before it, has been unable to return to Australians free speech on race and matters involving ethnicity.
I wonder if supporters of 18C are really aware of the intense ongoing attack on free speech that is happening around the world and which threatens to further limit debate here. Just two examples. The first is the currently showing film 'Denial' which is a political attack on British historian David Irving designed to stifle interest in his vast range of writings. 'Denial' visually distorts the truth by casting a screen goddess to play the very ordinary-looking Deborah Lipstadt and making a troll out of a male actor in order to show Irving as an inhuman ogre. That is only where the misrepresentation begins.

Second example: the London School of Economics where efforts are being made to censor American professor Richard Falk and Jewish writer Gilad Atzmon because of their defences of the Palestinians and negative assessments of Jewish activities. "Known fascists shouldn't be allowed on campus,' one Jewish activist stated.
The protection of free debate on momentous political and religious controversies is far more necessary for human welfare than Nanny-state laws to prevent hurt feelings.
NJ, Belgrave, Vic