Independence, Satire and Press Freedom

The Chaser’s Julian Morrow delivers his take on press freedom, censorship and media ownership at the annual Andrew Olle lecture.

A particularly memorable instance of this was when we found ourselves in the unique position of having a publishing deadline for a comedy newspaper on September 11, 2001. We watched the planes hitting the World Trade Centre just a few hours before the print deadline for the next edition. It was a strange night, but one that typified the way we’ve taken the old adage “tragedy plus time equals comedy” and turned it into a less universal dictum – “tragedy minus time equals Chaser”. “Centrepoint jumps two in world’s tallest building” still stands out as an all-time favourite headline of mine. But it, like many jokes I’ve been associated with, offended and appalled many.

You can read Julian’s entire speech here or watch the event on iView here (6 Days remaining as of 16/11/2009).