14 April 2023.
Alastair Thompson,
Editor,
Scoop.
Dear Mr Thompson,
I wish to lodge a complaint against the opinion article written by Gordon Campbell and published on 27th March 2023, on the subject of Kellie Jay Keen- Minshull.
My complaint is that it breached the Media Council, Principle 1. Accuracy, Fairness and Balance.
I am aware that opinion articles are not subject to the requirement to maintain balance, however are required to uphold accuracy.
In my view the issue is a human rights issue. The New Zealand Bill of Rights 1990 upholds the right of free speech. Article 14 states "Everyone has the right to freedom of expression, including the right to seek, receive, and impart information and opinions of any kind in any form".
I believe that everyone includes Kellie Jay Keen- Minshull. In my opinion it was inappropriate for the article to express approval for the organised violent protest which its organisers had publicly requested with the intention of ensuring that Kelli Jay and other women would be prevented from speaking and exercising their right of free speech. Many of the women who were there supporting the “Let women speak” event were intimidated, abused and spat upon by a violent hateful number of protestors and were fearful for their lives. In a separate incident, a 70-year-old woman attending the event suffered a fractured eye socket after she was repeatedly headbutted and punched in the face by a violent transgender rights activist.
The principle two groups who organised the “Let Women Speak” event at Albert Park were the Māori women's group Mana Wāhine Kōrero (Sovereign Women Speak) and a lesbian group called LOUT, an abbreviation for 'Get the L Out'. This refers to getting the L out of LGBTQIA+++, as many lesbians (and gays) don't want to be associated with that alphabet of identities. In my view it was a violation of human rights that Kelli Jay and these Maori women and lesbians were prevented from speaking.
In my view it was appalling that women should be subject to this violence. There were women who wanted to speak out and be heard about the violence that they had been subject to from men. It is intolerable that they were prevented from speaking by intolerant and violent men.
It is untrue that Kellie Jay, “has made a career out of inciting public hostility against the trans community", Kelli Jay is not opposed to men exercising their free will and choosing to identify as women. She supports the request of the vast majority of women who ask only that biological men respect the privacy of biological women and not invade their space in toilets, changing rooms and women’s sports.
The article inaccurately claims that Kellie Jay is anti- Islamic. Kelli Jay is not anti- Islamic but has spoken out in support of Islamic girls not being forced to wear the hijab in the United Kingdom.
The article claims that she has a neo-Nazi support base. Neo Nazis are not invited to her meetings, she wants nothing to do with them or their philosophy.
The article made reference to Kellie Jay’s "hateful message". What was the hateful message, is it that women requested that biological men respect the privacy of women and young girls by not invading the spaces of women, in toilets, changing rooms and women’s sports? A perusal of the website of “Standing for Women” set up by Kellie Jay and other women reveals no evidence of a “hateful message.”
The following statement appears on the web site:-
“We are a global constituency of women. We focus specifically on the word "woman", and other female language that clearly defines us, and our rights. The purpose of our campaign is to raise funds in order to promote the fight back against this global assault of women.
Throughout the legal framework of women's sex based rights and protections we use the word "woman". It is essential that this word is retained to mean "adult human female" only. Without this word all of our rights and protections are lost. Our rights were never created for our "gender" but our sex.
Our sex is female. The sex that bears children. The sex that requires maternity rights, privacy rights, equality with the male sex in the work place, specific health care issues, reproductive rights, and so on. If our rights become dependent upon "gender" then they are no longer women's rights, they are "feminine" rights.”
The 25th March was a sad day for freedom of speech and for the right of Maori and other women to be heard in defence of their human rights.
Does Scoop support the right of women, including Maori and lesbian women to be heard?
The action of the government and the silence of the media has given a clear message to women that in future women should be silent and the transgender movement will define what rights women will be permitted to exercise.
Yours sincerely,
Ken Orr
Secretary,
Right to Life New Zealand Inc.