The news media are pissed off with OUSA over a form they were forced to sign before they could film inside Orientation gigs. The gag, in the form of a contract, demands that media who are filming any O-Week event refrain from recording any material showing students drinking excess amounts of alcohol, engaging in promiscuous activity, vomiting, fighting, or acting like a Scarfie.
The contract also gives OUSA final approval before any footage is broadcast.
OUSA President Harriet Geoghegen said that they were concerned about biased media reporting that paints students in a bad light and relies on out-of-context footage to supplement stories that almost exclusively relay the negative aspects of Dunedin’s student drinking culture. Geoghegan also expressed concern that people were being filmed, and the footage used, without their consent.
The contract was drafted in 2007 as a response to the C4 Studentville show, which Geoghegen described as “a montage of people vomiting.” She said the contract is not an attempt to impinge on the ability of the press to report, but to protect OUSA’s members from an “unfair” media witch-hunt.
TVNZ refused to sign the contract, along with 3 News, whose Dunedin-based reporter Dave Goosselink likened OUSA to the Fijian regime.
Geoghegan and others in the Association have expressed bemusement at the uproar the contract has caused in the media, and have raised questions about the media’s motives.
It was pointed out to Critic by Geoghegan, and others independently of this story, that athletes at the Masters Games, which were held on campus in early February, behaved in a raucous manner. This was completely ignored by the national media – including by Close Up’s Mark Sainsbury, who was here filming stories.
Witnesses have said they saw participants of the Games drinking heavily, being sick, causing damage, and fornicating and urinating on campus grounds. Critic understands that used condoms have been found in the bushes around the Union Lawn. Geoghegan, whose office overlooks the area where the Athletes Village was located, said it was “worse than an average scarfie party.”
When asked about the behaviour of Masters Games participants, a representative of the organising body said only that they “had received no complaints,” and that what “people did on their own time was up to them.”
Geoghegen feels that this highlights the biased focus of the media on the behaviour of Dunedin students, and she pitches the media contract as an attempt to rectify this. OUSA are still unsure about any legal action they can take regarding a breach of this contract, but have said anyone with a media pass filming an Orientation Event who has not signed the contract will be asked to leave.
Geoghegen, however, concedes that some of the contract’s wording may be seen as over-zealous and she is looking to rectify this in the future.
Bainimarama would never let Dane Rumble play at his party
