News

The Otago Daily Times reported that seven fires were lit in the student area on Saturday 23 March. The 25 March article “Students blame authorities” also claimed that 300 people had gathered on the street by 11pm, and that revellers had to be dispersed by “more than a dozen police officers, including a dog handler and two paddy wagon crews.”

However, OUSA have slammed the claims as “exaggerations.” President Francisco Hernandez described the incident as “complete media hype. The only thing [the police] did was take away a bale of hay … from what I’ve been told, it was a complete media beat-up.”

OUSA has told Critic that Campus Cop Max Holt can corroborate their claims as to the lack of disturbance. They pointed out that no students were arrested that night – a fact that would have been highly unusual had the ODT’s reporting accurately reflected the mood on the night.

Holt could not be contacted for comment before this article went to print. If he supports OUSA’s claims, Critic intends to seek a retraction from the ODT, and will pursue a Press Council complaint should this retraction not be made.

While Critic understands that some fires were lit, most had been extinguished by midnight when the police arrived. The ODT’s photographer also failed to capture any of the “disturbance,” instead taking a picture of some miscellaneous char on the road. Police officers and a couple of students were visible in the in the background, but appeared to be interacting entirely peaceably with each other.

The fires were lit after a Castle Street flat party was shut down by noise control at around 10pm. Students were forced onto the streets and took their discontent out on furniture. This resulted in a fire services callout at around 11pm, who in turn contacted police. By the time police arrived the crowd had already largely dispersed and all fires had been extinguished.

The ODT claimed to have interviewed 20 residents of Castle Street the following day. However, none of these sources’ quotes directly corroborated the paper’s version of events.

A fourth-year student who was a witness to the fires told Critic, “it’s a tradition I don’t want to see gone, back in my second year it was just what you did. Now it’s becoming an act of rebellion.”

When asked whether he thought that lighting fires in public places was unsafe, he replied “Nah, not really, it’s just fire. God gave us fire for a reason. If you are quick enough with the execution, it’s all good.”