The ban placed on me by Screen
Australia approaches its 4th anniversary.
My December 15 letter to the
Ombudsman (to which I have received no response) speaks for itself.
Screen Australia expects (hopes)
that I will give up requesting that I be provided with evidence in support of
the proposition that I intimidated and placed at risk members of Screen Australia’s
staff.
Commonwealth
Ombudsman
GPO Box
442
Canberra
ACT 2601
7th
Dec. 2015
Dear
Ombudsman
Further
to my previous correspondence.
Whilst
the Screen Australia computer continues to accept my applications, Chief
Executive, Graeme Mason, Senior
Development Executive Nerida Moore and the the SA board will not.
I will, yet
again, make a formal complaint to you, though experience suggests that your
office will ignore it; as has been the case this past 44 months.
You must ignore
my complaint if your office is to retain credibility in this matter. To take it
seriously would necessitate asking of Screen Australia the one question that
has never been asked:
“Please provide evidence that Mr Ricketson intimidated or
placed anyone at risk within Screen Australia with his correspondence.”
Your
staff will not ask this question, as has been the case with various Minister
for the Arts, because they know full well that no such evidence exists. To ask
the question now, to insist on an answer, would of necessity lead to the
following conclusion:
“There is no evidence that Mr Ricketson intimidated or
placed anyone at risk members of Screen Australia staff with his
correspondence.”
This
would both raise a Pandora’s Box of questions not only about the board and
senior management at Screen Screen Australia but about the competence of those
within your own office who, from the outset, failed to ask this most obvious of
all questions.
The ban
has been enormously damaging to my career. I can no longer make films in
Australia. This was Ruth Harley’s original intention, rubber stamped by the SA
board. It continues to be the intention of Nerida Moore, Graeme Mason and the
current Screen Australia board. Collectively they continue to refuse to provide
me with any evidence in support of the ban placed on me. I now stand as an
example of the fate in store for other filmmakers who are vocal critics of
Screen Australia or who do not accept that senior management can play fast and
loose with the truth in order to cover their own errors in judgment.
The more
important issue now, in my view, has to do with the erosion of free speech.
Whilst I am not in any way a whistle-blower, I have been treated as one. The
message to the film and TV community is clear: If you do not wish to be a
member of the Screen Australia cheer squad it would be in your best interests
to keep your dissenting opinions to yourself.
This silencing
of critics has ramifications that extend far beyond the film and TV industries
or the fate of one particular filmmaker. Filmmakers and the organizations
dependent on Screen Australia (or any other government body) become inclined,
if they do not wish to suffer bureaucratic retribution, to practice
self-censorship. This is not healthy. Freedom of speech must extend to critics
of government policy and those whose job it is to put such polices into
practice. Filmmakers can be (and often are) subjected to bad reviews of their
work in a public forum. Why should it be any different for film bureaucrats?
If the
office of the Ombudsman should experience a last minute Road to Damascus
moment, the question could still be asked of Screen Australia:
“Please provide evidence that Mr Ricketson intimidated or
placed anyone at risk within Screen Australia with his correspondence.”
If
Screen Australia can produce one example of my having done as alleged I will
accept the fatwa that has been placed on me with no further complaint. This has
been my position since may 2012. If Screen Australia cannot, surely the lack of
transparency and accountability within a funding body that expends millions of
Australian tax-payer dollars each year must be of concern to your office?
best
wishes
James
Ricketson
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