USYD newspaper to host prominent writers, academics, politicians

By WILL THORPE

The University of Sydney student newspaper Honi Soit is to host a suite of writers and other prominent figures at the upcoming Student Media Conference, which will be held from the 27th to the 29th of September.

Among the writers who are slated to speak is Herald chief investigative reporter and ten-time Walkley winner Kate McClymont, who will discuss her career as a journalist. Other scheduled writers include Sarah Ayoub and writer & poet Sara M. Saleh. Antoinette Lattouf, who won an unfair dismissal case against the ABC after being sacked from a temporary role following pressure from a pro-Israel lobby group, will speak at the opening ceremony.

Student Media Australia wrote that they are “commencing the festival with not a bang, not a whimper, but an Opening Ceremony to rival the Parisian athletic display earlier this year.”

Now-independent senator Fatima Payman is billed to “discuss the importance of mobilisation for Palestinian liberation.” Payman quit the Labor Party after being suspended for breaking the caucus solidarity rule over a bill seeking to recognise Palestinian statehood. The event description states that Payman “recently left the Labor Party due to its complicity in the genocide in Gaza, and had conversations with students at the [Palestine student] encampment surrounding mobilisation.”

Not to be the solitary member of parliament invited, deputy Greens leader Senator Mehreen Faruqi is set to “discuss the importance of student activism and student journalism, and how it can impact politics.”

The event description posits Faruqi as “an unflinching voice on social, environmental and racial justice, pushing to dismantle the systems of power, privilege and patriarchy that allow these injustices to continue.” Faruqi has made a number of incendiary comments, including following the death of Queen Elizabeth II and following the illumination of Parliament House in the Israeli flag colours after the Hamas-led atrocities on 7 October last year, as well as during the subsequent Israeli invasion of Gaza.

Academics including climate action advocate Karl Kruszelnicki will also speak. Kruszelnicki will discuss the importance of understanding climate change as a precursor to countering false information about it.

Honi Soit has rigorously promoted the event, with the endorsement of the university’s Students’ Representative Council, emphasising the variety of sessions on offer:

“Fan of magazine workshops? Career pipelines? Writing info-sessions? Drinks and giggles with friends? Find all this and more at the 2024 Student Media Conference. We’ve done the thinking and the planning. Now we want YOU to do the attending and the enjoying!”

Such conferences have not been regularly held, but have been a very occasional feature of Australian student media.