A hero staffer at Hutt City
In February last year, @HuttCityCouncil made an appalling decision to censor newspapers from their libraries because they disagreed with the content of a paid advertisement.
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It was blatant censorship, and we’re not the only ones who think so. OIAed material has shown that Joann… pic.twitter.com/THBic9375zFree Speech Union
(@NZFreeSpeech) February 15, 2025
Bravo to Joann Ransom, the Head of Libraries at Hutt Council. As you can see above 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 its 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 FSU to continue with their court case.