Honi Soit

This article is about the Australian student newspaper. For the album by John Cale, see Honi Soit (album). For the motto, see Honi soit qui mal y pense.

Honi Soit

210px The February 26, 2014, front page of Honi Soit
Type	Weekly newspaper
Format	Tabloid
Owner(s)	University of Sydney Students' Representative Council
Editor	Andrew Bell, Natalie Buckett, Max Hall, Tom Joyner, Sam Langford, Alexandros Tsathas, Subeta Vimalarajah, Mary Ward, Victoria Zerbst, Naaman Zhou
Founded	1929 (1929)
Language	English
Circulation	10,000
Website	honisoit.com

Honi Soit is the student newspaper of the University of Sydney. First published in 1929, the paper is produced by an elected editorial team and a select group of reporters sourced from the University's populace. The name is an abbreviation of the Anglo-Norman "Honi soit qui mal y pense" ("Shame upon him who thinks evil of it").

Layout

Format and organisation

Published as part of the activities of the Students' Representative Council (SRC), Honi Soit is a tabloid-style publication incorporating a mixture of humorous and serious opinion articles. Its standard book size is 24 pages, but that is sometimes extended to 28 or 32 pages at the discretion of the editors and publisher.

Issues are published weekly during university semesters, typically containing a topical feature article and interview, letters to the editor, campus news, pop culture articles and news satire. Special editions are published yearly, including Election Honi, devoted towards covering the annual Students' Representative Council (SRC) student elections, Women's Honi dedicated to feminism and women's issues, and Queer Honi, dedicated to covering LGBT issues. The final edition each year is typically presented as a spoof or parody of an existing newspaper. These editions were traditionally sold on the streets of Sydney to raise money for charity as part of the University's Commemoration Day festivities, though this practice has been discontinued since the 1970s.

Honi Soit is the only student newspaper in Australia that remains a weekly publication.

Comedy

Honi has a strong history of irreverence, often printing humorous and satiric stories alongside traditional journalistic pieces. This has in turn inspired breakaway satiric publications Oz Magazine and the Chaser.

In 2010 and 2011, the last three pages of each issue were presented as part of fictional newspaper The Garter, which parodied numerous sections of The Sydney Morning Herald. In 2012, The Garter was discontinued; however, a similar section was reintroduced in 2013 called The Soin, parodying conservative rag The Sun. The Soin gained notoriety after a number of articles went viral, one of which was reprinted in The Sydney Morning Herald. The Herald also reprinted a popular tongue in cheek list of Sydney's worst bus routes, which had originally appeared in Honi.

In 2015, The Garter returned to the paper.

Editors

Appointments

The office of editor is highly sought after, and was originally filled by single honorary appointment for outstanding merit in the field of writing. Since the 1980s editors have been annually elected by fellow students as a "ticket" of up to 10 editors during SRC elections, with two or more groups campaigning for the role. Guest editors will normally be nominated for the annual Women's and Queer editions by the relevant interest groups on campus.

Funding

For a time editors of the paper were given a yearly scholarship of £100 (roughly equivalent to $2,700 in 2014) by media baron Rupert Murdoch, though this was discontinued by 1966, and the SRC began to pay editors a small allowance instead from this point on.

Editorial Team

In 2016, the editors are Andrew Bell, Natalie Buckett, Max Hall, Tom Joyner, Sam Langford, Alexandros Tsathas, Subeta Vimalarajah, Mary Ward, Victoria Zerbst, Naaman Zhou.

Notable past editors include Lex Banning, Bob Ellis, Verity Firth, Clive James, Laurie Oakes, and Keith Windschuttle.

Editors 1929–2015

1929–1930: A.E. Crouch

1931: Colin H. Grace

1932: W.A.W. Wood, (7 September) P.J. Kenny

1933: P.J. Kenny

1934: K.L. Park

1935: W.P. Ash

1936: H. Gilchrist

1937: D.J. Benjamin

1938: G.F.R. Cowdrey

1939: E.L. Sommerland

1940: O.L. Edwards

1941: W.B. Pritchett

1942: P.C. Gibbons

1943: K.A. Dan, (February–April) Emily S. Rossell, (April–December) Bruce Miller

1944: Murray Sayle

1945: Jean M. Wilson

1946: Alan Barcan, John Redrup

1947: Dick Barbour

1948: Kevin Kemp, Adrian Roden

1949: Lex Banning, Mike Lazar

1950: Dick Woodward

1951: John Malone

1952: Meg Cox

1953: Edmund Campion

1954: Marie Burns, Geoffrey Davis

1955: Ian Johnston

1956: Martin Davey, Brian Hennessy

1957: Colin Aislabie

1958: David Solomon

1959: Clive James, Graham Macdonald

1960: David Ferraro, Graham Macdonald

1961: Michael Newman, David Solomon

1962: Peter Grose, Richard Walsh

1963: Bob Ellis, Jim Coombs, Laurie Oakes

1964: Dean Letcher, Bob Thompson

1965: Rod Macdonald, Richard Nichols

1966: David Salter

1967: Robert Trebor, Keith Windschuttle

1968: Chris Ruhle, Keith Windschuttle

1969: Geoff Anderson, Norm Rowe

1970: Mel Bloom

1971: Peter Vaughan

1972: Steve Cookson

1973: Matthew Peacock

1974: Simon Grose, David Margan

1975: Chips Mackinolty, David McKnight, Paula Taylor

1977: Martin Hirst, Anne Talve

1978: Pat Lane

1979: Dave Ball, Jenny Pitty, Gary Taylor

1980: Julia de Meyrick, Diana Haig, Richard Langereis

1981: Peter Lowe

1982: Michael Mullany

1983: Rex Butler, Claudia Castle, David Messer

1984: Honi Collective: Anni Baldwin, Maria Barac, Jane Basden, Amanda Bishop, Gordon Bull, Debbie Clark, Lisa Collins, Marikje Conrade, Susan Cornish, Colin Griffith, Steve Hardman, Melissa Harpley, Leonie Hellmers, Karen Herne, Judy, Daniel Luscombe, Jane Marquard, Fiona McCulloch, Marc Gration, Rachel Loos, Chris Morgan, Suzanne Payne, Tasio Sclavenitis, Richard Brass, Tim Williams

1985: John Basdeen, John Butt, Phoebe Churches, Jane Clements, Susan Cornish, Sam Davis, Chris Jordens

1986: Joshua Dowse, Nicholas Fowler, Catriona Simpson

1987: Samantha Gazel, Fiona Gray, Nick Stravs, Jeremy Venkataramiah, Brendan Wong

1988: Ros Bragg, John-Paul Byrne, Stephen Craft, Pierre Hasdell, Andrew Kell, Phil Lavers, Suzie Lavers, Peter Lewis, Ronnie Lifschitz, Julia Martin, Martin Mercer, Paula Sharland, Adam Suckling, Jane Sutton

1989: Karin Bishop, Jason Harty, Julia Leigh, Daniel Nettheim, Madeline Preston, Andrew Ryan, Jacqui Shulz, Geoff Thompson, Greg Waters

1990: Peta Donald, Susan Humphries, Cyrus Katrak, Adam Kerezsy, Suzie Lavers, Tieu-Tieu Le Phung, Damien Lucas, Nicole Moore, Jacqui North, Antonia Presenti, Mat Schultz, Brett Solomon

1991: E.M. Berridge, Gabrielle Jean Carey, Matthew Coyle, Martin Graham, Benjamin Haslem, John Hopkins, Jehangir Meher-Homji, Gabby Millgate, Kate Pearcy, Anthony Sharwood, Dominique Tubier

1992: Emma Barron, Emma Boutell, Kylie Burtland, Michael Fullilove, Julie Gordon, David Hunt, David Killick, Fiona Kwok, Julian Milthorpe, Trish Pender, Seb Smee, Russell Ward

1993: Richard Anderson, Ben Blundell, Lucy Burgmann, Aaron Curnow, Verity Firth, Claire Hooker, Andrew Leigh, Kit Messham-Muir, Victoria Skinner, Cathy Vidler, Abbie Widen, Murray Woodman

1994: Jenny Cush, Ravi de Costa, Tom Donald, Kate Fagan, Miranda Heckenberg, Terumi Narushima, Juhyun Pak, Demetrius Romeo, Brendan Wynter

1995: Sophie Collins, James Edwards, Charles Firth, Rebecca Graham, Angus Gray-Weale, Sholto MacPherson, Nick Purtell, Teng-Han Tan, Jayne Toman

1996: Toni Baldo, Kate Beattie, Louise Buckingham, Toma Dim, Andrew Hansen, Craig McManus, Jessie McNicoll, Craig Reucassel, Fiona Romeo, Ben Saul, Gregor Stronach

1997: Leah Charlson, Anthony Cordingley, Hannah Edwards, Ming Yu Hah, Matthew Hoare, Jonathan Kirkwood, Alexandra Kopra, David Low, Keir Smith, Andrea Sophocleous

1998: Sunny Balasubramanium, Caitlin Boyce, Louise Buchanan, Melita Grant, Jeremy Heimans, Wendy Lee, Leah McLennan, Greg O'Mahoney, Richard Pearshouse, David Pecotic, James Slezak, Kate Stenner, Natalie Stevens, Melanie Wyld

1999: Andrew Charlton, Adeline Cheok, Jo Choe, Hugh Fitzsimons, Saadiah Freeman, Dominic Knight, Tom Lord, Emily McCosker, Arion McNicoll, Catherine Morris, Sanushka Mudaliar, Justin Norrie, Peter Phillips, Catriona Pike, Lisa Pryor, Justin Vaughan

2000: Dora Anthony, Thalia Anthony, Roozi Araghi, Anna Boucher, Chloe Burnett, Anna Clark, Richard Cooke, Jamie Hall, Aysha Pollnitz, Aaron Timms

2001: Emma Banyer, Toby Brennan, Jasmine Bruce, Gilbert Caluya, Sam Indyk, Sean Kelly, Lara Kostakidis-Lianos, David Lawrey, Adam McGrath, Lucy Rhydwen-Marett, Alecia Simmonds, Ariane Welch, Sary Zananiri

2002: Gigi Adair, Ivan Ah-Sam, Cameron Brockmann, Jenny Kaldor, Sarah Drury, Simon Greiner, Alice Grey, Jo Haylen, Anthony Jones, Nick King, Sonja Shuttleworth, Sophie Wiesner, Chris Wright

2003: Sophia Chua, Angela Cummine, Ruth Greenwood, Rima Hor, Rico Jedrzejczyk, Oliver Jones, Joanna Mascarenhas, Rowan Mawa, Fiona Roughley, Dom Thurbon

2004: Albury Belford, Sarah-Jane Collins, Steve Dziedzic, Sophie Farrell, Andrew Garrick, Nick Maconachie, Oscar McLaren, Shannon Price, Anna Rose, Emma Swift

2005: Tarah Barzanji, Chris Croke, Dave Cubbin, Adriana Edmeades, Anna Garsia, James Greenwood, Jeremy Moore, Claire O'Neill, Mitali Tyagi, Jordan Walsh

2006: Rima Sabina Aouf, Isobelle Barrett-Meyering, Irina Belova, Amy Corderoy, Nikolas Kirby, Oliver Levingston, Stuart Thomson, Alice Williams, Evan Williams

2007: Julia Bowes, Rob Clark, Nicole Cini, Maggie Lloyd, Louisa Macdonald-Hall, Alex Meagher, Naomi Oreb, Sarah Vaughan, Amelia Walkley, Daniel Wodak

2008: Lucy Boyle, Ed Burn, Alice Dixon, Steve Hind, Kate Leaver, Bennett Mason, Hamish Nairn, Anya Poukchanski, Daniel Selikowitz, Kip Williams

2009: Will Atkinson, Katherine Connolly, Bronwyn Cowell, Mark Di Stefano, George Downing, Giselle Kenny, Michael Krasovitsky, Alexandra Lee, Paul Mackay, Sriram Srikumar

2010: Bridie Connellan, Carmen Culina, Naomi Hart, Henry Hawthorne, Ben Jenkins, David Mack, Joe Payten, Anusha Rutnam, Joe Smith-Davies, Diana Tjoeng

2011: Jacqui Breen, Neada Bulseco, James Colley, Bridie Connell, Shannon Connellan, Andy Fraser, Julian Larnach, Michael Richardson, Laurence Rosier Staines, Tom Walker

2012: James Alexander, Hannah Bruce, Bebe D'Souza, Paul Ellis, Jack Gow, Michael Koziol, Rosie Marks-Smith, James O'Doherty, Kira Spucys-Tahar, Richard Withers, Connie Ye

2013: Rafi Alam, Bryant Apolonio, Max Chalmers, Avani Dias, Mariana Podesta-Diverio, Nick Rowbotham, Hannah Ryan, Xiaoran Shi, Nina Ubaldi, Lucy Watson

2014: Georgia Behrens, Felix Donovan, John Gooding, Georgia Kriz, Andrew Passarello, Justin Pen, Astha Rajvanshi, Michael Rees, Lane Sainty, Christina White

2015: Tim Asimakis, Joanna Connolly, Alexandra Downie, Dominic Ellis, Sophie Gallagher, Samantha Jonscher, Patrick Morrow, Alexi Polden, Peter Walsh, Rebecca Wong

2016: Andrew Bell, Natalie Buckett, Max Hall, Tom Joyner, Sam Langford, Alexandros Tsathas, Subeta Vimalarajah, Mary Ward, Victoria Zerbst, Naaman Zhou

History

Founding

Honi Soit was created in 1929 to counterbalance ongoing criticism of Sydney University's students in the Australian media, which came to a head when students were alleged to have dressed a soldier's statue in women's underwear during a graduation festival. The Sydney Morning Herald referred to the incident as a "vulgar desecration", and students were described as “educated louts” for their actions.

The first edition of Honi sought to address the ongoing outrage with the stinging retort:

We expected gross exaggeration, and even invention, from certain Sydney journals. What we did not expect was that the journals which can generally be relied upon for sane, safe news would also exaggerate and distort in such a manner as to utterly mislead the general public... Even our apology was sneered at.

The new paper sought to paint the undergraduate varsity in a more favorable light, giving voice to the student's successes and their progressive opinions, a role which it has continued to pursue to the present.

Culture Wars

With the onset of the Great Depression, the rise of the Labour movement, and the growth of the civil rights revolution Honi's left wing and often radical voice helped the publication grow from its roots as a small university publication, with the paper and its alumni eventually playing a pivotal role in the culture wars of both Australia and Britain.

An important line of demarcation for Honi came in the 1960s with editors Richard Walsh and Peter Grose's premature resignation to found Oz magazine, an explosively popular yet controversial humour publication in Australia and Britain. Oz's success played a strong role in defining the comedic and radical sensibilities of future generations of Honi.

Honi became intricately associated with the Sydney Push during the 1960s, turning its focus from arts to politics for the first time, and a number of radical editors followed Walsh's tenure.

In 1967 Honi was implicated in the development of the Anti-Vietnam movement in Australia, being blamed for road blockades that led to the infamous "run the bastards over" affair during a visit by American President Lyndon B. Johnson. The paper was described as "filthy and scurrilous" in the Legislative Council of NSW for their stance against the war, and former editor Richard Walsh was denied entry to the United States in 1966 for his outspokenness on the issue. Despite this, the tide of public opinion eventually turned in Honi's favour as the Vietnam War progressed, largely vindicating their editorial position (see Opposition to the Vietnam War, Public opinion).

Being a left-wing student publication also put Honi at the forefront of the civil rights movement in Australia, with editorial content often directed towards defending the rights of Women, people of colour, LGBT people, and adherents of communism, at times when such views were still widely controversial.

The radicalism of Honi during the 1960s was not without its consequences. By 1967 the paper found itself without willing advertisers to fund its publication, and faced calls for its disestablishment from members of the University Senate. However the SRC declared the paper had become far too important to let it perish, and provided temporary funding on the condition that the publication be restructured back towards a more traditional newspaper, instating conservative editor Keith Windschuttle to placate critics.

Modern Day

Honi retains its position in the Australian media landscape as a hub of counter-cultural journalism and left-wing activism, though its long list of preeminent alumni and position as a leading student publication have somewhat softened its public image, being described by the Sydney Morning Herald as a "venerable institution" in 2013. Current incarnations are comparable to popular American publication Vice Magazine for their blend of arts, news and culture reporting.

Alumni

Since its inception Honi has been an important training ground for many Australian personalities, including many well known journalists, politicians, satirist, writers, and entertainers. Former contributors include art critic Robert Hughes, poet Les Murray, film-maker Bruce Beresford, Oz founder Richard Walsh, media personality Clive James, feminist Germaine Greer, journalists Bob Ellis and Laurie Oakes, MP Malcolm Turnbull, High Court Judge Michael Kirby, author Madeleine St John, historian Keith Windschuttle, intellectual Donald Horne, broadcaster Adam Spencer, and members of comedy troupe The Chaser.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott has named Honi Soit as the impetus for his initial entry into politics, having been inspired to begin writing to the paper by a "quirky" edition which "demonstrated how to build a nuclear bomb".

Controversies

As a counter-cultural publication, Honi has a long history of generating controversy dating back to its founding issue. The constant controversy surrounding the paper was lampooned in a 1967 edition which contained a cutout "libel coupon" that would make it easier for readers to "sue Honi Soit for all it's got (two battered typewriters)".

The Art of Shoplifting

In 1995, Honi Soit reprinted a controversial article from Rabelais Student Media, its La Trobe University counterpart, entitled "The Art of Shoplifting"—one of seven student newspapers to do so. Although the Rabelais editors responsible for the original article were prosecuted for ignoring a ban on publication issued by the state's Chief Censor; the editors of the other seven newspapers were not targeted by the authorities. Charges against the Rabelais editors were later dropped.

The St Michael's College hoax

On 11 August 2009, Honi Soit published a feature article, 'The Mystery of St Michael's' later uncovered as a hoax, which claimed a fire in 1992 at St Michael's College, a now derelict residential college adjacent to the University's Architecture building, had killed 16 students. It was implied that a cover-up by the Catholic Church had stifled widespread awareness of the tragedy, and that the site was now haunted by ghosts. The following week, the editors published a retraction, stating: '...after a particularly interesting week of deflecting queries from varying positions of authority... last week's 'Mystery of St Michael's' was an exercise in fictional storytelling. Thank you to everyone who played along or enjoyed.'

"Vagina Soit"

In August 2013, the newspaper made international headlines after printing a cover featuring photographs of 18 vulvae. The newspaper was pulled from stands within hours after it was decided the censoring of the images was not sufficient. This was due to the fact that black bars placed over certain parts of the vulvae were not completely opaque.

A statement released by the female editors stated 'We are tired of society giving us a myriad of things to feel about our own bodies. We are tired of having to attach anxiety to our vaginas. We are tired of vaginas being either artificially sexualised (porn) or stigmatised (censorship and airbrushing). We are tired of being pressured to be sexual, and then being shamed for being sexual.'

"Wallgate"

The paper became a point of contention in the lead up to the 2013 Australian federal election, as a standing record of the unpopular and violent conduct of Prime Ministerial candidate Tony Abbott during his time at University. The controversy came to be known as "Wallgate" in reference to the allegation that Mr Abbott had punched the wall next to the head of a political opponent outside the Honi offices.

ANZAC Day Criticism

In 1958 Honi caused significant national outrage over a story calling for the end of the ANZAC Day holiday. The paper argued that the national holiday was no longer treated as a veneration to the casualties of war, but rather as a national celebration and an excuse for inebriation, backing up the claims with photographs of drunken revelers at memorial events. Despite widespread calls for the editor to be sacked, the SRC resisted, and Honi continued to level criticism at the holiday in subsequent years. The affair has been immortalized as the basis for the play The One Day of the Year by Alan Seymour.

A report by the Department of Veterans’ Affairs in 2012 found the prevailing public sentiment to agree with the allegations made by Honi, with participants stating the "excessive use of alcohol and 'yobbo' behaviour during Anzac Day commemorations...detract[s] from the original spirit of the day and negatively impact[s] on the veteran commemorations and traditions."

Other Controversies

In 1945 the Roman Catholic Society and Evangelical Unions of the University drew media attention after they called for the paper's editors to be sacked for publishing information about birth control, and for misquoting the bible. These complaints were supported by the then Rector of St John's College who suggested its distributors be arrested, though police did not bother to pursue the matter.

In 1950 printers Consolidated Press refused to produce an edition of Honi due to an article relating to an employee of the Commonwealth Security Police (now ASIO) for fear it was a breach of national security.

In 1952 fights broke out over Sydney University, including in the Honi Soit office after the newspaper published reports of drunkenness and savage hazing rituals at the University's ecclesiastical colleges. The brawls were caused by members of the colleges attempting to remove the paper from circulation, going so far as to chase a truck delivering copies out of the university grounds. Police were eventually called in to control the situation.

In 1970 Honi published confidential intelligence files that showed the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation had blocked the appointment of one of its former editors, Hall Greenland, from a job in the public service. Greenland went on to become a Walkley Award winning journalist.

Honi Soit was frequently in conflict with the police in the 1950s through '70s for publication of what was considered indecent material, generally depicting nudity or erotica in various forms, often published to specifically antagonise the authorities. Having won over public opinion by the mid 1970s Honi continued its practice of occasionally featuring nudity up until the 1990s with little interference.

In 1995 the editors (including The Chaser’s Charles Firth) used their colour pages to create an advertisement for Union Board candidate Nick Purtell. The editors were fined $360 (the cost of an advertisement) and asked to apologise for the misuse of advertising space. The editors printed an apology in size 4 font, then ran a full page ad in support of their actions. Mr Purtell did not manage to get elected. This incident was recalled by Charles Firth in the ABC documentary Uni.

In their last edition for 2005, the editors produced “Hx”, an imitation of the free “Mx” tabloid. They used their colour pages to present a biting satire of quality commercial media, with rarely seen images of dead and wounded Iraqis juxtaposed against vacuous magazine style copy, such as "Fashion From the Front Line". The inclusion of images of dead and mutilated civilian casualties shocked many readers. This same year the paper was accused of having turned from its radical roots by comedian Jonathan Biggins after it published a critical recap of his Wharf Revue.

De-classified NSA documents were published by Honi in 2013 which showed the paper had been suspected by intelligence agencies of operating under Soviet influence.

External links

• "Honi Soit" official website site.