In an embarrassing turn of events, the co-editor of UNSW’s student newspaper, Tharunka, has been caught deleting articles from the publication’s archive for (surprise!) real petty and political purposes. Brendan Byron, a young Labor-Right hack, last week admitted to deleting multiple articles that criticised him personally and/or his esteemed student faction.
It’s not the paper’s first political scandal. This year, editors have been criticised for actively advocating for factions on campus. Some have also reportedly deleted Facebook posts and comments criticising them as mouthpieces of the Student Unity Labor faction, with contributors blocked for similar reasons.
In response to the criticism, Byron has taken to Facebook. “You got something to say to me, say it to my face and put your name on it. I can take legitimate criticism, but I’m not going to put up with cowardly bullshit,” he posted last Monday.
As to why he deleted the content, “I deleted it because Tharunka should be better than a weapon you use to bludgeon fellow students with. It should tell the truth and it should fight for things.”
However Honi understands Tharunka hasn’t been telling too much truth recently. While supposedly a fortnightly publication, there have only been two hard copy editions actually produced this year.
