Holly Walker, who served as a Green Party List MP from 2011-2014, but failed to retain her seat in the New Zealand parliamentary election held on 20 September 2014, studied at the University of Otago from 2001, graduating with a BA (Hons) in English and Politics.

In 2005 she was the editor of the Otago University student magazine Critic Te Arohi, the year’s winner of the Aotearoa Student Press Association’s award for Best Student Publication. In September 2005 Critic’s annual “Offensive Issue” included a fictionalised diary of a man who used drugs to stupefy and rape women. The Office of Film and Literature Classification (OFLC), headed by then Chief Censor Bill Hastings, banned the issue in early 2006, soon after Walker’s tenure as editor had ended. At the time of the ban she said the article was “defendable in that it highlights a very important issue“, but when Critic interviewed her in 2012 she called it “a mistake to publish that particular article the way that we did“.

The Society for Promotion of Community Standards Inc. applied to the Chief Censor Bill Hastings in 2005, to be granted leave” to have the magazine classified by his Office. He did not grant SPCS “leave” but instead acted on on an application from the NZ Police to have the magazine classified. Nevertheless, the Society, as an “interested party” was invited by Hastings to make a written submission to the OFLC, which it did, arguing that the Critic publication should be ruled “objectionable” (and as a consequence banned). SPCS was successful in having it banned.

To read the SPCS submission which destroys Holly Walker’s ‘defence’ of the indefensible “objectionable” date-rape publication, go to:

Submission to OFLC on Critic [Read more…]