Bravo to Joann Ransom, the Head of Neighbourhood Hubs & Library Services for the Hutt City Council. As you can see below [OIAed material provided to FSU], she fought against the decision of the Hutt Council to remove an insert from Hutt News they didn’t like (the insert was a copy of a pamphlet Sir Apirana Ngata wrote on the Treaty).
Ransom said:
The action was an act of censorship
Council should not control what is in the Hutt News
Their role is to provide access to information, so long as it is legal
Libraries should be gateways to information, not gatekeepers
Intellectual freedom is a human right
The actions were unethical
Remarkable straight shooting from the Libraries Manager. We need more people like this willing to speak truth to power.
Remarkably her bosses still refuse to say they did anything wrong, forcing the Free Speech Union to continue with their court case.
David Farrar blogs at Kiwiblog
Comment on this article at https://x.com/BrashHide539