Arc @ UNSW, the student life organisation at the University of New South Wales and publisher of the student publication Tharunka, has repeatedly limited the Tharunka editorial team’s ability to publish this year.
The operations of Tharunka are governed by their Charter. Previous editorial teams have experienced issues with limiting provisions of the Tharunka Charter. This year’s editorial team has experienced lengthy approval requirements and a mandated month-long pause in publication. The challenges arose after Tharunka published contentious coverage about ARTSSOC Camp earlier this year.
In response to the challenges, the Managing Editor made a formal complaint about the unethical enforcement of the Charter and issues in their working conditions. This has resulted in a prolonged review period, with the full details of the final report not shared with the Tharunka editorial team.
Earlier this year, Arc HR required Tharunka to pause content production. The pause was in response to concerns about the welfare and working conditions of the Editorial team. The editorial team was not able to work for this period, which they had suggested could have the opposite of the intended impact. The editorial team had instead suggested a staggered model that would maintain Tharunka’s journalistic output. When Managing Editor Alex Neale raised these concerns, Arc said that they would respond as soon as possible after the Easter Break. This did not occur. The pause ultimately was ended a month early.
Chair of the Arc Board Arthy Mukunthan told Honi that “In addition to helping student editors and journalists deliver on Tharunka’s role in the fourth estate, as the paper’s publisher, Arc has a range of obligations it takes very seriously.” Mukunthan explained that these obligations include caring for the health and wellbeing of staff, maintaining high ethical and editorial standards, and managing legal risk.
“In line with these obligations, Arc has had to intervene in the editorial content and management of Tharunka in recent months, including a publishing pause to allow both editorial staff and Arc staff to restore balance between Tharunka and their other commitments.”
As Arc is the publisher of Tharunka, they are able to control the approval requirements for their content. The Charter includes multiple provisions that allow Arc to prevent Tharunka from publishing on contentious issues relating to Arc or the University more broadly. For comparison, Honi Soit is published by the USyd SRC, which allows us to question and critique the University, the USU, and even the SRC. To put it in USyd terms, since Arc is effectively an amalgamation of the SRC and the USU (and a bit of the actual university as well), there are many campus events and potential issues that Arc has the power to prevent Tharunka from reporting on.
The Tharunka editorial team were advised that all articles that reference UNSW students, staff or the university more broadly would need approval from the Arc Legal and Marketing teams. This extended to articles that reference organisations associated with the university including colleges and courses.
For articles that referenced Arc, their management, decision or affiliated organisations including clubs and societies, Tharunka would need approval from the Arc Legal and Marketing teams as well as the Arc Board.
Most articles that a student newspaper seeks to publish have the potential to refer to their university and/or the organisations that operate there. Beyond the practicality issues of requiring three rounds of approvals before publication, the repeated requirements for approval from a Marketing team are antithetical to the nature of student journalism (let alone requiring Board approval as well).
Whilst section 2.3(f) of their Charter specifically gives the Tharunka editorial team the right to publish material that is critical of Arc and events that occur at the university, this is subject to listed exclusions. In the exclusions, the Arc Marketing representative has the power to exclude content that Arc deems to be a risk to its reputation, relationships or the organisation as a whole. It’s difficult to imagine an article that could somehow be critical of Arc or the university and also not be able to be deemed a risk to their reputation.
This leaves Tharunka in a similar position to PULP, who is also unable to criticise their publisher the USU due to a publishing policy that requires that their content is in alignment with the USU’s values.
Mukunthan told Honi that “Ideally, Arc’s interventions in the editorial and management of Tharunka would be very rare and through a collaborative approach. Such a collaborative approach would, for instance, balance concerns of defamation and issues of public interest in a nuanced and strategic manner.”
“Regrettably, we have been unable to reach a collaborative approach between senior editorial and publishing staff. Arc has focused on managing risks around the wellbeing of staff, legal issues and ethical standards. In recognising this and at the request of Tharunka, Arc is undergoing a thorough review of the Tharunka Charter to consider a model which is sustainable for Arc, Tharunka and reflective of the ever-changing nature of student experience.”
