Honi Soit

''Honi Soit'' is the student newspaper of the University of Sydney. First published in 1929, the newspaper is produced by an elected editorial team and a select group of reporters sourced from the university's populace. The name is an abbreviation of the Anglo-Norman " Honi soit qui mal y pense" ("Shame upon him who thinks evil of it").

Layout

Format and organisation

Published as part of the activities of the Students' Representative Council (SRC), ''Honi Soit'' is a tabloid-style publication incorporating a mixture of humorous and serious opinion articles.

Issues are published weekly during university semesters, typically containing a topical feature article and interview, letters to the editor, campus news, pop culture articles and news satire. Special editions are published yearly, including ''Election Honi'', devoted towards covering the annual Students' Representative Council elections, ''Women's Honi'' dedicated to feminism and women's issues, and ''Queer Honi'', dedicated to covering LGBT issues. The final edition each year is typically presented as a spoof or parody of an existing newspaper. These editions were traditionally sold on the streets of Sydney to raise money for charity as part of the university's Commemoration Day festivities, though this practice has been discontinued since the 1970s.

''Honi Soit'' is the only student newspaper in Australia that remains a weekly publication.

Comedy

''Honi'' has a strong history of irreverence, often printing humorous and satiric stories alongside traditional journalistic pieces. This has in turn inspired breakaway satiric publications '' Oz'' magazine and ''The Chaser''.

It has become tradition for the final pages of the paper to be presented as a satirical newspaper, most frequently going by the name of ''The Garter Press'', a play on the Order of the Garter from which ''Honi Soit'' derives its name.

Editors

The office of editor is highly sought after, and was originally filled by single honorary appointment for outstanding merit in the field of writing. Since the 1980s editors have been annually elected by fellow students as a "ticket" of up to 10 editors during SRC elections, with two or more groups campaigning for the role. Guest editors will normally be nominated for the annual ''Women's'' and ''Queer'' editions by the relevant interest groups on campus.

For a time editors of the paper were given a yearly scholarship of £100 (roughly equivalent to $2,700 in 2014) (until 1966) by media tycoon Rupert Murdoch, and the SRC began to pay editors a small allowance instead from this point on.

Notable past editors include Lex Banning, Bob Ellis, Verity Firth, Laurie Oakes, Kip Williams, Craig Reucassel, and Keith Windschuttle.

History

Founding

''Honi Soit'' was created in 1929 to counterbalance ongoing criticism of Sydney University's students in the Australian media, which came to a head when students were alleged to have dressed a soldier's statue in women's underwear during a graduation festival. '' The Sydney Morning Herald'' referred to the incident as a "vulgar desecration", and students were described as "educated louts" for their actions.

An early edition of ''Honi'' sought to address the ongoing outrage with the stinging retort:

:"We expected gross exaggeration, and even invention, from certain Sydney journals. What we did not expect was that the journals which can generally be relied upon for sane, safe news would also exaggerate and distort in such a manner as to utterly mislead the general public... Even our apology was sneered at."

The new paper sought to paint the undergraduate varsity in a more favorable light, giving voice to the student's successes and their progressive opinions, a role which it has continued to pursue to the present.

Cultural developments

With the onset of the Great Depression, the rise of the Labour movement, and the growth of the civil rights revolution ''Honis left-wing and often radical voice helped the publication grow from its roots as a small university publication, with the paper and its alumni eventually playing a pivotal role in the culture of both Australia and Britain.

An important line of demarcation for ''Honi'' came in the 1960s with editors Richard Walsh and Peter Grose's premature resignation to found '' Oz'' magazine, a humorous publication in Australia and (later) Britain which came into conflict with legal authorities in both countries. However, ''Oz'' did play a strong role in defining the comedic and radical sensibilities of future generations of ''Honi''.

''Honi'' became intricately associated with the Sydney Push during the 1960s, turning its focus from arts to politics for the first time, and a number of radical editors followed Walsh's tenure.

In 1967 ''Honi'' was implicated in the development of the Anti-Vietnam movement in Australia, being blamed for road blockades that led to the infamous "run the bastards over" affair during a visit by American President Lyndon B. Johnson. The paper was described as "filthy and scurrilous" in the Legislative Council of NSW for their stance against the war, and former editor Richard Walsh was denied entry to the United States in 1966 for his outspokenness on the issue. Despite this, the tide of public opinion eventually turned in ''Honis favour as the Vietnam War progressed, largely vindicating their editorial position (see Opposition to the Vietnam War, Public opinion).

Being a left-wing student publication also put ''Honi'' at the forefront of the civil rights movement in Australia, with editorial content often directed towards defending the rights of Women, people of colour, LGBT people, and adherents of communism, at times when such views were still widely controversial.

The radicalism of ''Honi'' during the 1960s was not without its consequences. By 1967 the paper found itself without willing advertisers to fund its publication, and faced calls for its disestablishment from members of the University Senate. However the SRC declared the paper had become far too important to let it perish, and provided temporary funding on the condition that the publication be restructured back towards a more traditional newspaper, instating conservative editor Keith Windschuttle to placate critics.

Modern day

''Honi'' retains its position in the Australian media landscape as a hub of counter-cultural journalism and left-wing activism, though its long list of preeminent alumni and position as a leading student publication have somewhat softened its public image, being described by '' The Sydney Morning Herald'' as a "venerable institution" in 2013. Current incarnations are comparable to the American publication ''Vice'' for their blend of arts, news and cultural reporting.

Alumni

Since its inception ''Honi'' has been an important training ground for many Australian journalists, politicians, satirist, writers, and entertainers. Former contributors include art critic Robert Hughes, poet Les Murray, film-maker Bruce Beresford, ''OZ'' magazine co-founder Richard Walsh, media personality Clive James

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