On Monday night Staff from New Zealand’s oldest university have seizes and destroys 500 copies of the student magazine fearing that an illustration of a person menstruating on the cover would be “objectionable to many people.”
The cover of this week’s publication the “Menstruation Issue” – depicted a cartoon of a naked person menstruating.
A University of Otago spokeswoman confirmed on Tuesday night the magazines were taken by proctor Dave Scott after complaints were received from Dunedin Hospital and the Dunedin Public Library.
The Campus Watch team on duty on Monday night removed the rest of the magazines from stands around the university, she said.
“This was an assumption, rightly or wrongly, that this action needed to be taken, as the university was also a public place where non-students regularly pass through.”
The tertiary institution and student magazine Critic made national and international headlines after copies of this week’s issue, which featured a cartoon of a person menstruating on the cover, vanished from campus.
The university claims the removal of hundreds of copies of the magazine was a staff member’s mistake, not censorship.
Critic Te Arohi editor Joel MacManus told Stuff he had received an unreserved apology from Proctor Dave Scott.
Campus Watch staff who spoke to Critic editor Joel MacManus today about the missing magazines were initially unaware fellow staff had removed them.
Mr MacManus said on Tuesday night he considered the removal to be censorship, something he believed went against everything a university should stand for.
“We stand by the content of the magazine, and believe it touched on a number of very important issues about period poverty and trans issues, as well as breaking taboos about a bodily function that half the population experience.”
The paper earlier put out an appeal to students on social media asking for information on the missing magazines.
Twelve years ago, an issue of Critic was banned for objectionable material.
“I don’t think anything in this issue would meet those standards,” Mr MacManus said.
>Juthy Saha
