Writers festivals on notice after attempt to 'restrict speech' prompts exodus

Antisemitism, Codes of Conduct, and the Bendigo Writers Festival

Write, but do not offend. Speak and comment, but do not divide. Observe cruelties, barbarities and murder, yet refrain from having an opinion. This is the constipating, stifling regime being put in place via suggested codes of conduct for organisers of writer events in Australia. The object of this intellectual veiling: discussing the exterminating war in Gaza. Across the country, the straitjacket of forced social harmony is being applied. The B…

Writers festivals on notice after attempt to 'restrict speech' prompts exodus

A Victorian writers festival's code of conduct has set a "dangerous precedent", one author says, after more than 50 writers and moderators withdrew from the event.