{"id":37779,"date":"2026-03-05T05:35:26","date_gmt":"2026-03-04T18:35:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/?p=37779"},"modified":"2026-03-05T05:35:26","modified_gmt":"2026-03-04T18:35:26","slug":"adelaide-university-needs-to-explain-event-cancellation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/2026\/03\/05\/adelaide-university-needs-to-explain-event-cancellation\/","title":{"rendered":"Adelaide University needs to explain event cancellation"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><em>Greens Senator for South Australia, Sarah Hanson-Young:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cReports that Adelaide University has pulled their venue from the Constellations event&nbsp; featuring United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Francesca Albanese is concerning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cAdelaide University really needs to explain why they have cancelled the booking for an event featuring one of the world\u2019s leading legal experts in international law and human rights in the Middle East.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe whole Writer\u2019s Week debacle shows that there is a culture of fear infecting our institutions. A fear of having difficult conversations and hearing views and facts that are uncomfortable and challenging.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cYou cannot cancel curiosity, you cannot cancel compassion, and you cannot silence a city that believes in the exchange of ideas and freedom of expression.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cSouth Australians expect better from our cultural institutions. Universities should not simply capitulate to external political pressure or media intimidation<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cSeeking to silence a distinguished international human rights expert undermines academic freedom, weakens intellectual integrity, and contradicts the very principles universities are meant to uphold.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m concerned that this decision continues the dangerous precedent set by Premier Malinauskas\u2019 political interference in Writer\u2019s Week.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe live in a time of division and uncertainty but we cannot overcome that if we run from these difficult conversations. It\u2019s up to all of us to defend free speech, not retreat from it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThankfully the event will go ahead and a new venue with a sold out crowd in attendance showing that South Australian audiences aren\u2019t as fearful as these institutions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Greens Senator for South Australia, Sarah Hanson-Young: \u201cReports that Adelaide University has pulled their venue from the Constellations event&nbsp; featuring United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Francesca Albanese is concerning. \u201cAdelaide University really needs to explain why they have cancelled the booking for an event featuring one of the world\u2019s leading legal &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/2026\/03\/05\/adelaide-university-needs-to-explain-event-cancellation\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Adelaide University needs to explain event cancellation&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37779","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aussie"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37779","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37779"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37779\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37780,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37779\/revisions\/37780"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37779"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37779"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37779"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}