Magdalen Junior Common Room was forced to censor a comment on their JCR message board after a student complained that they found it offensive. The censorship caused some outcry amongst members of the JCR as they suggested that their right to free speech was being threatened.
A student took offence after a request was made for a stripper for a friend’s birthday. The affronted student complained to the JCR welfare representatives which led to the President having to remove the thread.
Jon Wright at Magdalen was drawn into the debate after somebody suggested he apply for the stripper position and suggested that the JCR had overreacted. He said, “As far as I'm concerned, whether or not that sort of thing is suitable for the JCR website should be up to the discretion – and sense of humour – of individuals.”
“Admittedly, as threads go it probably wasn't the best use of JCR web space but to find it offensive would presumably require an almost superhuman degree of thin-skinned humourlessness,” he added. “At any rate, the only person with grounds for a legitimate personal grievance was me, since a friend posted a comment along the lines of "Jon Wright'll do it. I hear he's desperate for money…”, which certainly didn't offend me in the least, though I did almost choke to death on a cup of tea from laughing.”
JCR President, Jon Griffiths, explained that the situation proved difficult due to the conflict of interests faced by the JCR, he said, “Welfare did indeed receive a complaint that someone was uncomfortable with the nature of the post and it was removed. This opens up a bit of a can of worms – welfare officers are mandated to cater to the needs of the JCR, whilst as a student body we have professed our defence of freedom of expression on several occasions in the recent past – but the area where the two meet is very hazy.”
Currently if a student does not wish to appear in Magdalen’s college magazine, the ‘Bogsheet’, then they can make a request to the Welfare representatives who will ensure the removal of their name. Jon Griffiths explained that it was this precedent that had been followed after a student complained about the content of the JCR thread, “a complaint to Welfare leads to removal of the offending comment by the person responsible for the upkeep of the medium used, in this case the Computer Rep. However Welfare, the Computer Rep and I recognise that this raises issues; we are treading on new ground, and policy regarding it requires clarification.”
Those who opposed the decision to remove the thread argued that the JCR was being hypocritical, having passed a motion defending the Union’s invitations to Irving in Michaelmas term in defence of free speech. Gil-Aid Schwartz was against the censorship and said, “There is a fundamental distinction between the interests of a person included in the content of a comment (such as gossip reported in the Bogsheet) and the interests of a third party. For that reason there is a logical flaw in the "Bogsheet precedent" which was applied.”
Since the incident there has been an Equal Opportunities committee meeting which agreed to propose a change to the JCR constitution. The change will propose a clear cut policy defining what is unacceptable on the message board, similar to the codes of conduct that many forum sites already have. Complaints received by Welfare would be dealt with in strictest confidence to decide whether they should be upheld according to this policy, and, if so, the Computer Rep as moderator would edit the offending post alone, explaining why.
President Jon Griffiths admitted that under the new constitution the censorship would not have taken place, but added that to focus on such a detail was to miss the point. He said, “Posts drawing complaints will still put Welfare in a difficult position when not covered in the agreed policy; they have a duty to the JCR to do whatever they can to address their concerns, whilst being powerless to deal directly with things said that are perfectly within one's rights, but equally could offend or intimidate. We will now have clear guidelines to determine if a post should be removed, and if not, Welfare can still act in a personal capacity to address said concerns.
He urged students to use the message board responsibly in the future. “Given the usual content of our message boards, I think this issue has become one of principle rather than genuine concern for a lack of freedom of speech. Hopefully with the matter settled common sense will prevail, and our message boards can return to being a beneficial resource for the whole JCR.”
