Before Samantha Maiden was the Gold Walkley award-winning political editor of news.com.au she was editor of the student newspaper On Dit at Adelaide University.

So, in the spirit of collegiality, when she was invited in March to speak at the Student Journalism Conference to be held by Honi Soit at the University of Sydney in August, she accepted the offer. After all, the hosts were fawning, saying they “would be honoured to hear you speak, and it would really be a highlight of the conference”.

But this week their sentiments changed dramatically. “We have received community concerns about your political coverage and reporting on the Palestinian genocide,” the organisers said in an email to Maiden.

“As a left-wing newspaper, Honi Soit recognises that Israel is committing an ongoing genocide in Palestine and we do not feel that our values align, or that we can platform your work as a result.”

Maiden had been de-platformed.

“The truly weird aspect of this bizarre cancelling is I don’t recall writing anything about Palestine recently at all, let alone anything controversial,” Maiden wrote on Thursday.

“I have literally no idea what they are on about, and regardless, even if I had written something or said something controversial that the Honi Soit editors did not agree with, so what?”

Enter David Marr, another distinguished journalist who had agreed to speak at the conference. When the ABC’s new Late Night Live host heard Maiden had been “de-platformed” he told organisers their decision was “not my idea of how a good newspaper – let alone a student paper – should behave”.

“Isn’t the point of Honi Soit and a conference of this kind to examine different – and perhaps uncomfortable views – about the big issues of the day? I’m out. David Marr.”

Honi Soit replied, telling........

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