20 days ago I sent the following
letter to the Screen Australia Board. I have received no reply:
Members
of the Screen Australia Board
Level
7, 45 Jones St
Ultimo
2007
10th
March 2015
Dear
Deanne Weir,
Rosemary Blight
Al Clarke
Ross Entwistle
Claudia Karvan
Richard Keddie
Matthew Leibmann
Joan Peters
It
is now close to 3 years since I was banned by the Screen Australia board, at
Ruth Harley’s request. I have yet to be
provided with evidence that I intimidated or placed at risk members of Screen
Australia’s staff – the ostensible reason for the ban.
When,
in late 2012, after months of asking, my requests for evidence were ignored,
I
arrived at the foyer of Screen Australia and sat quietly waiting to be provided
with such evidence. Fiona Cameron called the police in the middle of the
afternoon and had me arrested for trespassing!
Undeterred
I arrived at Screen Australia’s foyer a second time some weeks later and,
again, sat quietly in the foyer waiting to be provided with evidence of my
crimes. Again Fiona Cameron called the police and had me arrested. I spent the
weekend in jail for the crime of insisting that I be provided with evidence that
I had intimidated and placed at risk members of Screen Australia’s staff.
I
was subsequently found guilty in court of trespassing! For sitting quietly in
the Screen Australia foyer during business hours!
In
May 2014 the board of which you are members banned me for a further two years. The reason given was expressed in the following way:
“That your deliberate,
repeated and inappropriate personal attacks on Screen Australia staff through
letters and internet publications appear intended to humiliate and damage the
reputation of Screen Australia staff in a way that is unacceptable to Screen
Australia.”
My many requests that I be provided with
examples of when I had engaged in “inappropriate personal attacks…intended to
humiliate and damage the reputation of Screen Australia staff” have been
ignored.
As was the case with the first set of
allegations (intimidation, placing at risk) it was not possible for me to respond
to these new allegations without knowing which of my comments were deemed to
have been ‘inappropriate personal attacks.’
Natural justice demands that any person accused
of a crime be provided with evidence that’s/he has committed a crime so that he
or she can mount a defense. I have been denied this right for close to three
years now.
In the absence of any evidence I have to presume
that what my ‘inappropriate personal attacks’ boil down to two things. One is
that right from Screen Australia’s inception I was a vocal and public critic of
Ruth Harley’s management style. The second is my insistence that Screen
Australia be both accountable and transparent in its decision-making; that
Fiona Cameron should not be allowed to place on file demonstrably untrue
statements.
It was my continued insistence that Fiona
Cameron correct the misinformation she had placed on file that led, ultimately,
to my being banned. Instead of addressing the problem, Ruth Harley decided it
was best to ban the filmmaker! And the board went along with her decision!
The
ban that you collectively continue to endorse has effectively ended my career
as an Australian filmmaker.
Yet
again, I request that the board provide me with evidence that I intimidated and
placed at risk members of Screen Australia’s staff and of my “inappropriate
personal attacks…intended to humiliate and damage the reputation of Screen
Australia staff.”
best wishes
James Ricketson
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