Film festival wins reprieve to screen Irving film

VICTORIA'S Jewish community has failed in its attempt to stop the screening of a film by Holocaust revisionist David Irving but may appeal the decision in the Supreme Court.

David Irving comments: YES, I was awakened in a muggy, overcast Key West by this email coming round the globe this morning from an understandably jubilant festival chief, Richard Wolstencroft: We just won our case. The screening and live phone hook up will go ahead.    We didn't turn up on Friday as we needed the weekend to prepare our case as the opposing lobby tried to railroad this through on Thurs - the day our fest opened (we received notice the day before that the case was even happening). Peter Clarke was our barrister and did a sterling job.    We 'went over the top' as you might say and we we achieved Victory. I WONDER what went wrong. It is not usual for the Traditional Enemies of Free Speech to start a battle where they are not already sure of the outcome. I expect there are urgent investigations going on in Melbourne at this very moment, and some people are being asked to repay, the, ahem, considerations that had been advanced to them.    It is incidentally nearly ten years to the day since I made the film, in a drawing room in George, South Africa. It is less well engineered than the German film I made a year later, Ich komme wieder, which I will post on the Internet next week. Search for Truth is filmed in one slice, with the camera rolling: I was standing next to a grand piano in a wealthy American supporter's Dutch-style ranch, orating into the camera.    I do not recall having said anything offensive about the Jews -- although as a court-designated "anti-Semite" there is no reason why I should not. Maybe it is the title these ludicrous people found outrageous: The Search for Truth in History.    The very idea of it.

An application for an interim injunction preventing the screening of The Search for the Truth in History at the Melbourne Underground film Festival (MUFF) on Thursday night was today dismissed by the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT).

Festival director Richard Wolstencroft said the decision was a victory for the freedom to express unpopular beliefs.

"We don't support David Irving's ideas but we do support his right to freedom of speech," he told reporters.

"Australians do have the right to hear his perspective."

The Jewish Community Council of Victoria (JCCV) claims that the film and a planned live phone link from United States with the historian, promoted his assertion that the Holocaust is a 50-year myth perpetrated by Jews.

The council's president, Michael Lipshutz, said he would fight "anti-Semitism wherever it is found" and would decide tomorrow morning whether to appeal.

"It's incomprehensible that anyone can say that the denial of the Holocaust and the fact six million died isn't offensive and doesn't vilify Jews," Mr Lipshutz said outside the tribunal.

An application before the Equal Opportunity Commission alleging the film - made in response to the refusal to allow the British historian entry to Australia in 1993 - breached the Racial and Religious Tolerance Act remains.

Judge Michael Higgins said while some parts of the film were offensive to Jewish people, he did not find any grounds that would justify a breach of the Act.

The film is generally available for sale or hire but Mr Lipshutz said the issue concerned was its public display.

Counsel for the festival, Peter Clarke, told the tribunal there was "no evidence MUFF was a stalking horse for David Irving" and had printed in its program that it did not support his views.

He said the festival attracted film aficionados "who were tertiary-educated and keen to be challenged" and urged the Jewish community to attend the link-up and put forth their side.

Mr Lipshutz said such a suggestion was offensive.

"The issue of the Holocaust is not for debate, one can't say it never happened," he told reporters.

- AAP

Jews want holocaust film banned from festival

Australia's Jews protest plans to screen a film made by Irving

Feb 1993: "The Search for Truth in History", videotaped speech to Australians, after Labour Government refused David Irving permission for a third tour

Sam Lipski reviews Irving video in The Australian, May 21, 1993

May 30, 1993: Australian newspapers report: "Israeli secret agents linked with bugging" device found in Irving Video Censorship Bureau

Jeremy Jones, Oct 27, 1994: Film Scheduled, Dropped by Adelaide Television

How Jews tried to ban Irving speech video: An inside glimpse