‘Preventing censorship of the media’ was James Skuse’s key pledge when he ran for Democracy and Communications Officer in February. Given the mind-numbing unimportance of student politics, hacks like Skuse are rarely given the opportunity to stand by their lofty ideals. Unfortunately, sometimes they are. Despite his election being a rubber stamp sham - he was ultimately elected unopposed - you would expect the man in charge of student media to at least try to honour his promise. In the first two months of his job, Skuse has been instrumental in UCL Union’s attempt to censor The Cheese Grater, requesting the removal of pre-approved content from the society website. Spinelessness or sheer incompetence? We’re still trying to work it out.
The request followed a harassment complaint made against The Cheese Grater on 17 August 2011 by a student who featured prominently in three issues of the magazine between December 2009 and March 2010. Given that the articles were checked by the relevant UCLU sabbatical officer prior to publication, and noting the extraordinary gap in time between the articles being written and the complaint being made, The Cheese Grater can be forgiven a little incredulity. In fact, it has now emerged that Skuse is attempting to manipulate the Union’s power to rally against the magazine. In a draft email leaked to The Cheese Grater intended for the Union trustees (who consider the legal and financial liability of the Union) Skuse wrote, “a UCL student has formally complained under UCL’s policy on bullying & harassment that a number of articles… between December 2009 and December 2010 [sic], amount to bullying and harassment”.
Whitewash
Skuse however failed to mention that the student also expressed in writing on three occasions that (s)he was “flattered” by the articles, as well as stating in an email that “I do not think this is a pastoral matter”.
UCLU Finance and Services Officer, Tim Rees Jones (pictured above), who is also a Union trustee, responded hotly to this email, writing: “this draft doesn’t do full justice to the ambiguity of the situation as it stands at the moment”.
“It needs to be made clear that these are allegations, and no conclusion has been reached of their validity yet… In short, if the trustees are ultimately expected to take a view on this case, they need to be fully appraised of the complexities of the situation from the outset.
“The view represented in the current draft seems to predetermine the outcome of the case. It implicitly suggests that the only issue here is purely one of the bullying of a student by a Union society. But that is only one take on the matter. Another is that the Harassment and Bullying procedure is being misused to whitewash the reporting of homophobia and racism on campus.”
Rees Jones also strongly advocated a motion at an emergency session of Union Council on 23 September 2011 that would have limited the ability of the sabbatical office to make censorship attempts of this nature (see Down Your Union - p.4). Unfortunately, the motion was shot down by Skuse, among others, and was referred back to the proposer for further amendments.
The decision to request the removal of articles was made collectively by the sabbs, but due to conflicts of roles, half of them have not been privy to any case details at all. This has left those who have (Skuse, Amy Evans and Rees Jones) to present the case to the others.
The sabbs are acting under legal advice, but the lawyers were apparently provided with none of the background information on which to base their opinions. Unsurprisingly, given the lack of such information, the credibility of the harassment complaint was not “the main concern” of the advice, according to UCLU Student Activities Officer Amy Evans.
Instead, the legal advice focussed on the oddly technical issue of whether UCLU is in control of a website operating “under [its] name”. This seems bizarre, considering that The Cheese Grater website content is regulated by the society publicity statement, which states that the President and Treasurer of the society take all responsibility for communications not directly approved by a sabb. In fact, UCLU does not need further control: unauthorised communications are of no legal or financial concern.
The problem arises when the Union wishes retroactively to censor content that it has already approved. While The Cheese Grater does not dispute the consistent fallibility of sabbs, the specific case at hand sets an alarming precedent for student media societies.
Farcical
No harassment on the part of The Cheese Grater has been proven. Decisions have been taken by officers without knowing any of the details of the case. Legal advice affecting Union policy has been offered without considering the relevant history of the complaint. The decision to request the removal of articles followed a highly dubious harassment complaint, before an investigation had even been concluded. These facts paint an utterly farcical picture of the new Union brooms, and should set alarm bells ringing in the heads of student writers and journalists everywhere.
While all of the sabbs are complicit in the cowardice shown on this matter (except Tim Rees Jones, as above) there is yet more to say about the yellowest banana in the bunch: James Skuse.
As Democracy and Communications Officer, the issue is certainly within Skuse’s remit, but given his election platform the betrayal takes on an even more bitter flavour. After campaigning to prevent censorship of the media, Skuse was unable even to define censorship, after a long pause offering only the glib: “where’s the OED?”
Accused of breaking a manifesto pledge, Skuse responded “that’s a fair comment”.
Skuse is the only sabb who has attended all meetings with The Cheese Grater but even someone with his level of immersion has admitted: “I haven’t been able to read all of [the emails] in detail”, five days after being provided with a cache of emails that should have been recorded by the Union.
Spineless
It beggars belief that anyone would compromise an election promise so cheaply, and the gusto with which Skuse defends the censorious request in public and in private begs the question of whether he ever really cared about freedom of expression at all. In the words of one Union insider, Skuse has been “totally spineless - and has obviously forgotten the students who put him where he is today”.
It is not the position of The Cheese Grater that welfare issues are unimportant, but we do expect that damaging allegations of this nature be at least properly scrutinised before decisions are made. That the actions of James Skuse load even more dishonour onto the already laden shoulders of student democracy only serves to foster resentment towards already self-righteous student leaders.
Freedom of expression is a right. But it exists by requiring inaction from those in authority – i.e. that they refrain from censorship. While there have always been limits placed on such freedoms, the opportunity to present honest opinion and provide public scrutiny is universally seen as valuable in its own right. Freedoms like these should not be compromised cheaply, and certainly not at the whim of those who were specifically elected to uphold them. The Cheese Grater will continue to resist all attempts at censorship without proof of guilt, or valid Union procedure based on democratic policy.