UEA Bans The Sun As Students Protest Against Topless Page 3

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The Sun Banned At UEA As Students Protest Against Topless Page 3
PA

Students have voted to ban The Sun from being sold in their union shop, in the latest demonstration of anger towards the tabloid's Page 3.

Despite being victorious, the vote by University of East Anglia students was close, and the decision is already proving controversial.

Those for boycotting The Sun numbered 57%, with their opponents totally 38% of the votes, according to student paper The Norwich Tab.

Elliot Folan, a union council member at UEA, told The Huffington Post UK he supported the motion as the campus "needs to be a safe space for everyone, whether that’s women, LGBT+ people, people from ethnic minorities or people with mental and physical disabilities".

"The Sun denigrates women every day with Page 3, and consistently promotes vicious opinions with headlines such as those that imply mentally disabled people are killers.

"People can read, write for or buy the Sun if they want, but our student union doesn’t need to give a prominent platform to a newspaper that goes against our values as a union.”

But some students disagree:

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The original proposal, made by women's officer Rachel Knott, accused the paper of violating union policies.

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According to Knott, by stocking it on campus, the union "continues to publicly declare support for this ‘national institution’ that presents and elevates such a narrow and degrading view of women to society".

Earlier this year, York University students campaigned to have The Sun removed from their union following a "particularly shocking" front page. The tabloid featured Oscar Pistorius' dead girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp - in a bikini - which students claimed "trivialised" her death.