Author Karen Wyld's black&write award was revoked after QLD Premier David Crisafulli wrote to the State Library about her social media posts on Gaza.Rosemary Sorensenreports.

THE NEWS first broke on Bluesky: another notch in the vigilantist The Australian newspapers campaign against artists and writers.

A journalist knew thatKaren Wyldsblack&write!award had been pulled even before the writer herself had been informed. And this time, in scenes that must have delighted the posse shouting String her up, itll teach her a lesson, Wyld was literally on her way to the celebratory announcement that she was the recipient of theState Library of Queenslands Award when told shed been shafted.

The following day,The Guardian had the story, including the noxious statement released by SLQ about rescheduling and an independent review a horrible reminder that this was the way the State Library of Victoriarespondedwhen outed on X for their last-minute sacking of anti-genocide writers, early last year.

Karen Wyldrevealedto Guardian journalist Kelly Burke that she had received an email from The Australian as she arrived at the event, asking for comment about losing the fellowship. Then, she found herself 'ushered into a private room'where SLQ chief executive,Vicki McDonald, told her the award contract was cancelled.

According to Wyld, when she tried to explain to McDonald that this would increase public concern about creative freedom (thats a paraphrase):

Who cares about what the public thinks? Its governments, and the lobbyists in media and business who must be appeased (couched intermssuch as those used by Queensland PremierCrisafullithat taxpayers didnt want their money funding such artists).

Humiliating the writer, cancelling with no notice, infuriating and horrifying all the previous recipients of the black&write! fellowship, alienating those who have spoken out, sometimes with incautious anger, at the Albanese Governments support for Israels continuing offensive yeah, nah. A risk worth taking

On the other hand, standing up and speaking out, doing the right and ethical thing way too risky, apparently. Just issue a mealy-mouthed say-nothing statement about independent reviews to hush up the scandaland itll blow over. Thats the way its done.

If Creative Australia thinks it's reducing the risk of losing public support by cancelling Khaled Sabsasi, surely the question is, who is this public it is worrying about?

Adrian Colletteat Creative Australia weathered the storm over the successfulcampaignto dumpKhaled Sabsasias the Australian artist at theVenice Biennale.Althoughtheannouncementthat chairman Robert Morgan has resignedand Sabsasireinstated, as part of the exhibition just opened at Monash Art Gallery, says the Biennale is still a possibility.

State Library of Victoria CEOPaul Duldigdug in, with a bluntly unconvincing series of responses in the wake of the writers sacking scandal, and it appears that ugly series of revelations and the ensuing review process has been all but forgotten except, youd imagine, by the writers humiliated by the whole sorry saga.

How about the shockingdecisionbyMelbourne Symphony Orchestra(MSO) to cancel a performance by pianistJayson Gillhamin response to his mentioning, in relation to the music he was about to play the killing of journalists in Gaza?A CEO gone, a review announced, then postponed (on hold because the Gillham matter is now a legal case), board changes. And yet, the announcement ofEdgar Myeras MSO chair back in Februaryhardly even gestured towards the fact the organisation is fighting in court to deny Gillhams right to free speech as a performer; and no update on governance matters has appeared since November last year.

Musician and former Arts Minister Peter Garrett has been appointed to conduct a review of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra following internalcontroversies.

If no one asks, no need to mention all that messy stuff. On with the show plenty ofotherperformers, nice ones, approved ones, who wont mention the war, who will step onto the stage, carefully avoiding the bloodstain on the stairs. If only every arts prize, or festival, or organisation were so well-schooled in the patient skill of managerial subservience.

Last week,Michelle de Kretserwon the Stella Prizefor her book,Theory & Practice.Interviews done before the official announcement stuck pretty much to questions about the book,butbecause the Stella award event took place during the Sydney Writers Festival, the Sydney Morning Herald was there to hear the winners speech.

Journalist Kerrie OBrienreportedthe next day that de Kretser had acknowledged her own fear in speaking out, but had decided that the truth needed to be spoken. The kind of censorship seen a few days prior, the punishment-as-warning meted out to Karen Wyld, has, said de Kretser, consequences not just for writers, but for democracy:

OBrien didnt tell us in the article what the audience response was to de Kretsers speech, but when the writer admitted she heard the voice in her head warning her that she would be punished, her conclusion must surely have been welcomed:

Make no mistake: this is precisely why artists of all kinds are being relentlessly pursued by the establishment, a coalition of power-hungry vigilantes hell-bent on squashing to oblivion those whose creative talents threaten to change the world. Finding allies in the racist cults barracking for genocide, these people and groups are picking off their perceived enemies, one by one.

AsJo Caust,associate professor in culture and communication at the University of Melbourne, writes inThe Conversation, there are any number of self-appointed culture-defenders ready to say the most shockingly unliberal things, in that self-appointed bastion of punitive conservatism, The Australian. Visual arts editor at The Australian,Christopher Allen, made the extraordinary comment, Caust writes, that 'anyone with any judgement would have avoided choosing an artist connected with the nations involved in the conflict',referring, as she notes, toSabsasis Lebanese nationality.

Then, not content with that call for blatant bias, another willing participant in this disgusting return to elitist control of culture, Australian journalistSteve Watersontook the inevitable next step backwards toask, 'why people whose talent (if it exists at all) is insufficient to support them should expect to have their fantasies indulged by the taxpayer'.

Caust, like de Kretser, warned that these attacks on both freedom of speech and diversity are undemocratic, reducing the number of people who can participate to those sanctioned by criteria overseen by those with the money and therefore power to influence everything, including culture.

Karen Wyld was understandably bewildered by being punished for a tweet that had nothing to do with her book on the Stolen Generations. Jayson Gillham saw immediately what was at stake, beyond the damage to him personally, when he was punished for explaining the motivation behind a piece of music. Khaled Sabsasi speaks for all artists when he refuses to be misrepresented and punished on account of his ethnicity.

And Michelle de Kretser, thanking the women who saw the need for a prize specifically for women writers and thinking of the women slaughtered in Gaza, said she was ready for the backlash but firm in her resolve tostate the truth:

And yet the Queensland Government this week waded deep into the ideological mire when the Premier, Crisafulli, and the Arts Minister, John-Paul Langbroek, reportedly wrote to the State Library voicing concerns about social media comments made by Indigenous author Karen Wyld.

Rosemary Sorensenis an IA columnist, journalist and founder of the Bendigo Writers Festival.

Genocide is occurring in Gaza and Israel is currently a rogue state but lets be sure not to offend anyone by reporting the facts, writes managing editor Michelle Pini.

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