The National Union of Greek Australian Students (NUGAS) have released a statement in response to the VCAT decision against the Australian Macedonian Weekly relating to claims that they incited racial hatred in the article Who in the celestial world gave the Greeks the right to take away the Macedonian language?
The response is a rather watered down interpretation of the case in hand, and a diplomatic and soft response by NUGAS. In the release NUGAS stated that responses by the Greek-Australian community are placed in the spotlight and caution must be exercised in addressing sentiments towards the decision. Poppy Christou, media officer, NUGAS says the cautious response was deliberate, and all members of NUGAS were in agreement about the tone and style of the media release.
“We tried not to let our emotions take over, we’ve tried not to lash out at anyone,” explains Christou of the response. “In the article the author has lashed out on [Greeks] and we could’ve come out and lashed out too, but we didn’t.”
“It’s a very diplomatic response and it was something that we all unanimously agreed on.”
In the release, NUGAS also wrote: responses that are borne purely out of emotion run the risk of hindering the influential voice and high regard we have as a community. Likewise in relations to commentary on the validity of VCAT’s decision, as it is something that should be reserved for qualified legal professionals. However, Christou felt, “a lot of the comments … were very defamatory,” in the article even if VCAT’s ruling says otherwise.
Christou told Neos Kosmos that it was important for NUGAS to respond to this issue as it concerns Greek identity and history and it shows that NUGAS are aware of current issues affecting Greek Australians. But she says that although NUGAS did not agree with the article, they wanted to put their reasons why in simple terms.
The claims of racial hatred were initially brought to VCAT by the Australian Macedonian Advisory Council regarding the above mentioned article, which referred to Greeks, amongst other provocations, as “freaks of nature” and “deranged bastardly monsters.”
