Robot Assist presented his first guest lecture at UTS earlier this year demonstrating to students the developing field of robotics. Tawar Razaghi reports.

An inquiry into the Australian print media is being set up and views differ on how to support diversity. Nathan Coates reports.

There are calls for more media diversity in Australia. Image: Wayan Vota

Stephen Mayne, journalist and founder of online newspaper, Crikey, said: “The ACCC should have the ability to require News Ltd to sell down mastheads of its own choosing to reduce its Australian newspaper market share to below 50%.”

A move in this direction would be controversial. News Limited papers in Australia are not under investigation and are not accused of wrong-doing on par with the phone hacking scandal that led to the closure of British tabloid, News of the World.

Eric Beecher, Chair of Private Media Pty Ltd who publish Crikey, said: “There is no democratic or economic rationale to support suggestions that News Limited should be forced to divest any of its Australian newspapers.”

Forcing News Limited to sell any of its newspapers would be completely impractical and fraught with legal problems according to Mr Beecher.

Mr Beecher suggests News Limited’s 70 percent of the Australian press is best counterbalanced by Government support for new print media – particularly the online channel.

Having a significant stake in Australia’s online news does cloud Mr Beecher’s comments with a conflict of interest – a conflict Mr Beecher is open about and says “people can take that the way they want to.”

Mr Beecher wants action and says Senator Bob Brown and the Greens should stop “posturing about the theory of media diversity and do something about its practice.”

NewsStand – a new online organising vehicle set up in response to the current conversation about the media – say News Corporation (the US parent company of News Limited) is “awash with allegations” in countries such as Italy, the UK and the US.

NewsStand board member, Wendy Bacon, also notes the influence News Corporation and News Limited have in Australia across a range of mediums including print, pay TV, and radio.

NewsStand do not rule out News Ltd having to sell newspapers. Ms Bacon said: “It is a very heavy thing to move toward any sort of disinvestment. First of all you have to put on the table the possibility of supporting other media”.

Interview with Senator Bob Brown

[Audio clip: view full post to listen]

Interview with Eric Beecher

[Audio clip: view full post to listen]

A decade on since 9/11 and interfaith groups continue to work towards a multi-faith Australia. Nathan Coates reports.

Imam Amin Hady, leader of Zetland mosque, says he faces misconceptions about his faith and feels obliged to apologise on behalf of Islam after 9/11 despite a diverse congregation of ethnicities during Ramadan celebrations.

According to Mr Hady an estimated 500 to 600 people attend Friday prayer and the congregation at Zetland mosque includes “people from all walks of life and country of origin…The Middle East, Asia, Africa…also from Europe…and there are so many Australian converts.”

A recently published 12-year study, which surveyed over 12,000 Australians as part of the Anti-Racism Project at University of Western Sydney showed that although the majority of Australians are “secure with cultural difference….there are still pockets of the country that hold on to ‘old-fashioned’ racist views.”

Over 40% of respondents agreed that ethnic diversity weakened Australia. And over 40% agreed that some cultural groups didn’t fit into Australian society.

Trying to create an Australian brand of Islam that is multicultural may not occur in every mosque but Mr Hady says “it is the essence of the teaching of Islam.”

Jeremy Jones from the Australia/Israel and Jewish Affairs Council said: “immediately after those events [911 attacks]…we had a big interfaith gathering at Martin Place and Amin Hady was the key Muslim religious person.”

Mr Hady claims that an “imam is a title for a religious cleric who is in charge of religious matters for the community and usually he will be based at a certain mosque.”

Mr Hady, has been the imam at Zetland mosque since 1998 and has promoted a pluralistic and moderate approach by engaging the local community on issues including the role of women.

Reverend Tara Curlewis, from the National Council of Churches has been visiting Zetland mosque for three years.

Ms Curlewis said: “the faith community is trying to recognise that we are not only a multicultural society but we are also a multi-faith society.”

It was the incident that divided a nation and led to the Howard Government’s Pacific Island Solution. The Refugee Action Coalition organised a forum marking the tenth anniversary of the Tampa boat crisis and it’s political remnants. Rashida Yosufzai reports.

Tampa Crisis: 10 years on.

Refugee advocacy groups welcomed the High Court’s permanent injunction on the Gillard Government’s Malaysian asylum seeker swap deal on Wednesday.

The ruling found the Malaysian aslyum seeker swap deal invalid on the grounds that it did not abide by the Migration Act.

Ian Rintoul from the Refugee Action Coalition (RAC) said the decision is a damning blow to the government’s refugee policy.

“It’s disgraceful that [Immigration Minister Chris] Bowen has insisted that he was proud of the Malaysia deal. This was an arrangement that outsourced our human rights violations to one of South-East Asia’s worst human rights abusers,” Rintoul said in a statement on Wednesday.

In a forum three days before the ruling, Rintoul and fellow refugee advocates came together to call for an end to the government’s Malaysia solution.

As Reportage’s video coverage of the event shows, some in the refugee movement were pessimistic about the outcome of Wednesday’s ruling.

“We welcome that the high court temporarily delayed the Malaysia solution, but I have to be honest, I’m not overly optimistic that the High Court is going to find on the asylum seekers’ lawyers side,” said Mark Goudkamp, an activist from the RAC, addressing the forum.

“…not unlike what John Howard did with the Tampa, [the government] is in militaristic mode, ready to get people on planes if the High Court decides [against the lawyers].”

The forum was convened to mark the tenth anniversary of the Tampa affair.

Peter, a former public housing tenant in Werrington in Sydney’s west, talks to Paul Farrell about the campaign of harassment, victimization and death threats he endured from his fellow tenants.

A proposal by university professor Dr John Hadley to grant endangered animals property rights has caused a number of farmers groups and ecologists to react. Jamesina McLeod reports.

On May 18th 2009, upon the sands of a tropical paradise, one of the world’s longest running civil wars drew to a bloody end. Myuran Elango and Silvina Molkenthin explore the experience and fears of a Sri Lankan refugee.

The Sri Lankan government’s demolition of the once formidable Tamil Tigers was hailed as a new beginning for a country torn by ethnic divide.

2 years on however, serious questions are finally being asked as to how far the Government went to secure its victory, after the United Nations accused the military of committing war crimes against thousands of civilians.

With no independent observers during the last stages of battle, it is the harrowing stories of Tamils, who escaped the war and fled to countries like Australia, that has helped paint a picture of the death and destruction throughout the final weeks, days and hours.

Now, as those survivors attempt to rebuild their lives and heal from the scars of war, Australia’s tough stance on asylum seekers has many of them fearing the possibility of being sent back into a hell they risked everything to escape.

Australia is known as a secular country, however the rise of varied spiritual practices highlight the undying quest for answers and meaning. How do these newly adopted beliefs fit in a consumerist society where instant returns are expected for any of our investments, including our spirituality where social trends seem to guide our faith.

Mariana Soares, Orion Mitchell and Nick Vela go shopping in a marketplace of religions.

Mystical Seeking from Orion Mitchell on Vimeo.

Credits: Dr Cristina Rocha; Father Tim Mansfield; Rowan Element and Dan, and everyone we talked to in Canberra; Ben Cullen; Vince Cakic; Rak Razam; and the producers of the Mind Body Spirit Festival and everyone there who gave us their time.

Other footage used:

Sydney Skies, Circular Quay
Traffic Time Lapse Downtown LA, DC
Sydney City life
Sydney City CBD and Opera House
Dharma Part 3 Pema Chodron
How To Practice Buddhist Loving-Kindness Meditation
Pope Benedict celebrates Mass at Westminster
John Of God film on Oprah
John Of God – Trailer
The Spirit Molecule Movie Clip – Ayahuasca
Paintings by Alex Gray
Food for thought metaphysical bookstore
The Healing – Trailer deutsch
Rak Razam and the Vibrational Docking Port
Madonna – Material Girl Remix (vs. Tamperer)
Robyn – With Every Heartbeat
David Guetta ft Kelly Rowland – When Love Takes Over

While they may not have made a certain royal figure’s honours list that day, attendees of the Sydney SlutWalk protest rallied on the Queen’s birthday holiday last Monday to demand honour and respect for a woman’s right to dress how she pleases. Rashida Yosufzai writes.

Words: Rashida Yosufzai
Pictures: Joel Carrett
Sound slide: Jessica Black & Ella Rubeli

The worldwide movement started with a controversial remark by a Canadian police officer. Said to a group of only 20 people earlier this year, he remarked: “Women should avoid dressing like sluts in order not to be victimised.” The protest movement has since spread like wildfire in major capital cities around the world and reached Sydney shores on June 13.

An estimated 200 people turned up on the wet and cold day, despite crowd expectations running in the thousands, based on those registered on social media sites. Individuals and community members stood side by side with sex workers, activists, comedians, and members of political parties such as the Socialist Alliance, the Greens and the Australian Sex Party.

Some wore fishnets, black angel wings, nuns’ garbs, wedding dresses and even burqas – clothes worn by a variety of people to challenge conceptions and stereotypes around the word slut.

[nggallery id=SlutWalk-Sydney]

They held provocative banners and signs such as “don’t tell me what to wear, tell men not to rape,” “proud and happy slut,” and “blame rapists not boobs”.

One woman was dressed in a full burqa – the Islamic dress of modesty, with a sign taped across her veiled mouth that read “under cover slut”. She said she wanted to challenge the view that, “in the eyes of the male gaze, if you have sexual agency then you’re a slut.”

Australian writer and feminist Eva Cox, addressing a small crowd, rallied support for “a new revolution” to reignite the women’s movement of the 1970’s.

“Women … are still seen as objects, we are not seen as people that have the initiative to make up our own mind and to have a mind,” she said.

“We’re damned if we do and damned if we don’t — because we really need to look at why women get blamed for wearing too many clothes in the same way that women get blamed when they wear to little,” she said, making a reference to recent political pressures to ban the burqa.

They’ve been called inflammatory, provocative, and controversial. Rashida Yosufzai investigates the religious billboards sparking debate between Muslims and Christians.

Billboard backchat. Image: Rashida Yosufzai

In late May, signs were placed on billboards in major Sydney roads, specifically chosen for maximum exposure. Organised and privately funded by an Islamic group called “MyPeace” the billboards advertise Muslim beliefs, including a claim that has upset the Christian community – that Jesus, like Mohamed, was a prophet of Islam. Representatives of Sydney’s Christian community have said the campaign messages were inflammatory and provocative.

But the person behind MyPeace, 29-year-old Diaa Mohamed, says the aim of the campaign was to educate the public about Islam, not to offend anyone.

“The whole purpose was to educate Australia about what Islam is, so if I’ve made a few people think about [that] and … change their views of Islam, then all for the better,” he says.

But offend it did. Only a day after it was raised, the hotline on the Rozelle billboard was torn, and a few days after, a light box on this Rosehill billboard was shattered.

Within a week of the billboards, a mimic website appropriating the MyPeace campaign signs was launched. Registered to a group called the Seek and Save Ministry, its purpose is to provide a biblical response to the pro-Islamic messages on the MyPeace site.

The Anglican Bishop of South Sydney, Robert Forsyth, says it’s understandable for people to feel offended by the signs but he supports and will defend the right to free speech.

“Some people will be troubled to see one of their deeply held beliefs criticised or denied on a billboard and that is, I guess, confronting. But that’s the nature of the world we live in and if we Christians are confronted we need to get over it and get on living in a multi-faith society.”

Dr Christina Ho, Senior Lecturer in social and political change at UTS, says this case is about broader political issues, and it may be just be the medium that is affecting the message.

“In the initial debates it seems like this has been seen as a provocative move, and there have been some very predictable responses, but perhaps a billboard is a bit of a blunt instrument to make a point – you’ve only got a few words to make a point.

“These billboards are part of a very big debate that’s not under the control of Australian Muslims or anyone here, because they’re part of these global debates that are presenting a ‘clash of civilisations’ [arguement]. It was always going to be difficult for one sort of initiative to try and go against that, and with billboards, you’re not going to have the space to say anything complex or subtle.”

But as a new billboard shows, MyPeace’s call for debate has already been heeded. On June 10, a new billboard on the M4, funded by individuals in the Christian community, was erected. The Aussie Christians group says the billboard will have a fresh slogan every week, mindful of keeping a friendly tone.

Ian Powell is an evangelist from the City Bible Forum who helped organise the funding for the billboard. He says the opportunity for a religious debate was too good to refuse.

“A few of us who have a particular love and interest for Muslims and [to try] to be of use to them, thought this was too good an opportunity to not engage in a discussion. Because Christians are fairly and understandably a little hurt. I disagree with the idea that MyPeace shouldn’t have put them up – that’s [the brilliance] of this country. But the feeling – to call him a prophet – it’s a bit like someone who says to a devout Muslim, ‘I think Mohammed was a great leader, a great social reformer.’ But when they say he’s just a man, like any other man, and God isn’t involved in any way, I think Muslims wouldn’t be happy.”

Powell says after seeing the billboard reducing the status of Jesus to a prophet, members of the Christian community united to address the issue with a right of reply.

Powell condemns the acts of vandalism.

“I don’t know who did it and they should be ashamed of themselves. I bet they wouldn’t have gone to church, more likely a redneck than someone who’s come from prayers.”

While this may be the first time billboards are being used for religious debates of this kind in Australia, it’s certainly not uncommon overseas.

The idea behind the Islamic billboards was inspired by similar campaigns in the U.S. in 2008, where an Islamic group called GainPeace put up signs on major Chicago highways. Those too were met with a similar reception, with graffiti sprayed across some banners.

And it isn’t just exclusive to believers. Even non-faith groups have plunged into slogan controversy.
In 2008, an atheist campaign endorsed by Richard Dawkins and the British Humanist Association ran bus ads in Britain, in an apparent response to counter evangelical Christian advertising. The campaign attracted worldwide media attention. But an attempt by the Atheist Foundation of Australia to bring the idea home was unsuccessful.

Peter Barnes is a Presbyterian pastor based in Revesby. A keen debater of theology, he says it’s healthy for differences to come out in the open.

“Multiculturalism can be a …smokescreen to actually marginalise religious people, in other words, Christian and Muslims and [other religious groups] have to pretend they’re saying the same thing. And I don’t think that’s healthy. I think it’s far healthier to say, ‘no, we differ and this is why’….and this should not be stirred up,” he says.

Bishop Forsyth agrees.

“There are differences. There are profound differences, and the fact is the Christian and the Islamic faiths have contradictory views on a number of things, and that’s just the way thing are. We’re going to have to find a way to be respectful and peaceful. It’s just like there are political billboards and there are commercial billboards … as long as it doesn’t get overheated [I see no problem in these debates],” Forsyth says.

“We’re all big boys and girls,” says Powell. “We want to talk and we want a dialogue and Australians on the whole are frightened to talk, to pick up a bible. So I say full marks to MyPeace for doing that.”

Despite the public backlash and criticism, Mohammed says the majority of people responding to the hotline have been encouraging. He says he’s even had an apology from the man who vandalised the Rozelle poster.

“The majority of people have been positive, and it was meant to be thought provoking. I didn’t think we’d get this much negativity or any at all, but the vast majority have been positive. The atheist community have been positive and intrigued. Some members of the Christian community have been negative but the majority – from priest to pastors – have been positive.

And while unconventional, billboards can serve as an alternative medium for marginalised groups to talk to the broader community, without media involvement.

“I think the billboards are a creative response to a lot of frustration that’s felt by Australians Muslims, that they don’t really have a voice in public debates. They’re certainly not able to have a lot of airtime in the mainstream media and for every debate that’s framed around the vilification of Muslims I think they feel like they don’t have the space to talk about their issues, except for when it’s just to defend themselves.”

“So I think in a lot of ways this was an act of desperation to find some other avenue to have [their] voice heard, and it’s a creative one, because they’re trying to reach out to people directly, as opposed to mediated accounts,” Ho says.

Scepticism of the media seemingly kept many members of the Islamic community from being involved in this story. Outside a mosque in Auburn, several Muslims declined to comment or to be filmed. When asked about the MyPeace campaign, some said they were unaware of the billboards.

But for most ordinary Australians, conversations around religion are happening on another, more everyday level. Sydney taxi driver Shuja Ismail, who also declined to be filmed, said he often talked to passengers about his Islamic faith.

It’s left to be seen whether billboards – more often used to sell us consumer products – are the appropriate avenue for religious debates.

Powell is keen to take the billboard conversation to the next level – inviting MyPeace and its founder to a public debate.

“[We’d like] to have some public discussions, which we hope all Australians would be interested in,” he says.

Which is exactly what MyPeace had been aiming for.