Rabelais Student Media

"Rabelais Student Media" is a student newspaper at La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia, named for French Renaissance writer François Rabelais.

From its founding in 1967, "Rabelais Student Media" has been run as a department of the La Trobe University Student Representative Council. The paper is funded by a combination of advertising revenue and a student levy. Editors are elected annually and serve for a single year.

"Rabelais" has a notorious history in the Australian legal world. The July 1995 edition of the magazine published an article which allegedly incited readers to shoplift as a means of surviving student poverty. This edition was subsequently banned by the Office of Film and Literature Classification and the editors of the magazine charged with publishing, distributing and depositing an objectionable publication. In this instance an objectional publication was defined as one that allegedly incited criminal activity. [ Nadya Haddad, ‘Rabble-rousing and "Rabelais": fear of lawless shoplifting students’ (1998) 8(2) "Polemic" 32 at 33.] The editors lodged an appeal, which led to a protracted four-year court case. The appeal was eventually defeated by the full bench of the Federal Court, who refused the editors application to appeal to the High Court of Australia. The criminal charges were dropped in March 1999. [ Federal Court of Australia, "Annual report 1997 – 1998", Chapter 2, The Work of the Court, 2.2 Decisions of Interest ] On campus, the paper is known for casting a critical eye over the actions of the SRC and the University at large.

After many different formats and regime changes over the years, "Rabelais" is published monthly during the school year (March to November) and has a circulation of approx 10,000.

Student media at La Trobe

Between 1979 and 1995, the Bendigo Student Association produced a newspaper called "Third Degree". At the time of the paper's establishment, the Bendigo campus was a College of Advanced Education, from 1994, it was a campus of La Trobe University. "Third Degree" is no longer published.

Notes

ee also

* List of college newspapers

External links

* [http://www.rabelais.org.au/ Rabelais Student Media]

* [http://www.srclatrobe.org.au/ La Trobe Uni SRC]

For full details regarding the controversy surrounding "Rabelais" see archived pages of the Rabelais Defence Committee. This site provides archived links to third party citations including press clippings, media releases and court judgements.

* [http://libertus.net/censor/rabelais_dc.html/ Rabelais Defence Campaign]

* [http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=3988 Christopher van Opstal: The art of censorship]