Sit Down And Shut Up Sydney
If you’ve got a bone to pick with the Pope, you gotta run it by the police first.
The controversial measures put in place for the visit from Pope Benedict XVI have escalated today with police announcing that protest organisers will have to have placards, shirts and slogans pre-approved, or risk exorbitant fines and having protest ‘rights’ revoked.
Reports today suggest that authorities ‘quietly introduced’ the laws to prevent any possible ‘annoyance’ that may be posed to the participants of World Youth Day 2008.
The city has already been bombarded with information advertising the visit from the head of the Catholic Church and his followers, with most of the billboards and street signs advising residents to leave town for the five day convergence. The measures announced today seem another example of the NSW State Government’s pandering to an event that is expected to make Sydney, and state, millions of dollars in tourist and pilgrim revenue.
With the billboard tag line ‘Sydney, City Of Celebration’, it seems Sydneysiders won’t be celebrating anything. With road closures throughout the CBD, trees lopped down in Surry Hills, and now the introduction of draconian laws targeting possible protests, it seems the state government, having appointed Kristina Keneally as Minister for World Youth Day, will go to any lengths to see the event run smoothly.
Some protest groups have said they’ll risk the possible $5,500 fine to object to the Pope’s visit and the denomination he represents.
“Part of being a Christian is accepting different points of view. Even the teachings of the Catholic Church uphold human rights, civil liberties and freedom of speech. This approach from the NSW Government is straight from Emperor Nero’s book,” said Kristian Bolwell from the NoToPope Coalition.
“Instead of trying to silence critics of the Pope’s homophobic policies, Premier Iemma should be upholding the rights of the people of Sydney to have their say and to move freely around their own city,” Bolwell said. “And what happens when people like me are offended by the Pope’s visit?”
A report in the Sydney Morning Herald voiced Stephen Kilkeary’s concerns, “That we have had our right to protest effectively snuffed out is a mockery to those of us who have been harmed by the Catholic Church,” adding that his siblings and his late mother suffered “horrendous abuse at the hands of the Catholic clergy”.
A statement from the Catholic Church stated that the new laws were not introduced at its request, and that the church recognised people’s right to protest “peacefully and lawfully”.
Will you be protesting during the Pope’s visit?
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shaynesydney
said on the 6th Jul, 2008