Letter to the Editor - Federal government abandoning principle in order to please a financially powerful lobby

To The Australian        I wonder if Rod Steed realizes, while he applauds the cancellation of an entry visa to Australia for controversialist David Icke (22/2), that he is dancing on the grave of free speech. The last minute refusal is not a "defining moment for who we are as a nation" as Dver Abramovich stated ("Jewish genocide denier's visa axed", 21/2), but follows on from the mistreatment of historian David Irving in the 1990's. Both cases regrettably display a federal government abandoning principle in order to please a financially powerful lobby.
  Nigel Jackson, Belgrave, Vic