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Truth in Media's GLOBAL WATCH Bulletin 99/2-3 11-Feb-99
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Topic: AUSTRALIAN AFFAIRS
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Death of Freedom of Speech in Australia Now a Matter of Fact
Chairman of an Australian National Book Store Chain Kills a Fast-Selling Book
WESTERN AUSTRALIA, Feb. 11 - Writers who told the truth under the oppressive Soviet regime were called dissidents. The West cherished them and toasted them as heroes. Writers who tell the truth nowadays under the oppressive New World Order regimes around the world face the fate worse than death for a writer - silence!
Except for the Internet and the PC - two powerful weapons for truth and freedom fighters. Which is how we are able to report to you today about a new breed of dissidents, the ostracized western writers who tell the truth. They are not being sent off to the Gulags (yet). But their freedom of speech is being abridged, and their books are being banned, just as was the case in the communist USSR.
Only a few weeks ago, for example, we told you about a new book being released in Australia whose title is "Murder by Media;" sub-title - "Death of Democracy in Australia;" by Scott Balson, with your TiM editor contributing the "American Chapter" to it . Ever since, the book has enjoyed brisk sales around Australia through, Dymocks, a national book store chain. Until this Tuesday, that is…
A Sydney-based friend of a Western Australian friend had recommended the book for her to read. But when the WA friend tried to order it from Dymocks, she discovered that the book had been pulled off their shelves. "Dymocks bookstores withdrew the book from their bookshelves around Australia on Tuesday (Feb. 9) on the direct instruction of Chairman, John Forsyth," said the author Scott Balson, in a Feb. 11 press release. "The book had been sold by Dymocks for nearly three weeks before this surprising decision."
Indeed, enthusiasm for this unusual eruption of the truth about the media was building in Australia on the eve of Dymocks chairman's attempt to murder a book, kill the truth, and suppress the freedom of thought. Here's, for example, an excerpt from one enthusiastic reader, just before the book was banned by Dymocks' self-imposed censorship:
"So far, I have alerted at least half a dozen people to buy the book. Dymocks at Subiaco, Karrinyup and Claremont (Perth suburbs) are sold out completely over the weekend... I rang (a friend), too, and she is going to buy it. She owns (a Perth hotel), is a lawyer, and was a high flyer in the Liberal Party (i.e., Republican, in the U.S. context), along with MB. They both defected last year to join One Nation (a populist party). I am having lunch today with several women... Mostly they share our opinions... I am taking my copy of the book along to activate some interest. Etc."
Fascinating. That's how unapproved books and free thought used to circulate in the days of the Soviet Union. Which is why it is frightening to see that similar methods of spreading the truth are becoming necessary today, in the supposedly free western democracies, like Australia.
Meanwhile, if you try to buy the book from the Dymocks Web site - you'll get the message: "This title may be out of stock, we will confirm availability." What a crock of dung beetle food!
If you feel like protesting this ban on food for thought, let Dymock's general manager, Paul Clark, know who you feel about it.
And, just in case you are tempted to dismiss the above as some peculiar Australian quirk, don't! For, if there were the truth in media (in the U.S.), there would be no need for the Truth in Media. The very first publication which TiM put, out back in 1992 (now out of print, so please don't ask us to send you copies), was a booklet "The Truth Rejected." It contained a series of articles rejected by the American establishment media, which echoed Scott Balson's experience with the Australian media magnates.
Meanwhile, there is nothing like controversy to help sell a book, especially one which, now that it has been "banned" by Dymocks, is likely to become a "collectors' item." So here's how you can get your copy of it:
The book may be ordered by sending a payment of A$27 or US$25 (which includes airmail postage) to Scott Balson, P.O. Box 11, Mt. Crosby News 4306, Queensland, Australia (E-mail: gwb@gwb.com.au). If you identify yourself as a TiM reader when ordering the book, you will be entitled to a SPECIAL TRUTH IN MEDIA DISCOUNT OF US$5, for a net price of US$20 per book. International inquiries may be directed to Scott Balson by e-mail.