RAG mag accused of "harassment and bullying"

Yesterday the union told RAG its magazine of adverts and satire was “beyond the acceptable bounds of satire or mockery”. RAG were also warned that the individuals involved in writing it could be faced with serious consequences from the college if they continued to distribute the magazine as this would be considered “elevated harassment”.

Not banning it as such, the union strongly advised RAG to surrender all leftover copies as well as issue an apology to all those affected, understood by FELIX to be the Union President.

FELIX has seen the 16 page handout, which is mainly adverts for RAG week events, including the bungee jump, tunnel tours and the Valentine’s Ball. There are three or four pages of ‘satire’ of the union-hack variety, which (obviously) we are unable to print here. The offending piece was a mock diary entry, reminiscent of FELIX Hangman’s ‘Diary of a Fresher’ written from the perspective of the Union President.

Its writer told FELIX they were “appalled” at the union’s decision to “censor” the piece.

“I hope that the Union's attempts to withdraw all copies of the uncensored version will not be successful, and that the students who do get to see the Mag as-is will realise how absurd the response of the Union has been”.

500 copies of the 2000 magazines RAG printed have already been given out around campus. This cost RAG around £400.

Alice Gast, the president of Imperial, who wrote a short introduction for the magazine, said today: "This year’s RAG Magazine is a discredit to RAG’s legacy and to the College".

"I find the mean spirited approach to targeting of individuals within the magazine disgusting and am sorry that I agreed to provide a note for inclusion in it".

"I’m pleased to see the Union’s strong response and its willingness to work with the RAG committee to make sure this year’s RAG Week is a success.” The union has told the Raising and Giving society that they can distribute a revised version of the magazine only if the offending page is replaced with an advert for the union’s own upcoming elections. The union has also offered to reprint it, which would allow the new magazine to be distributed by Monday. RAG are likely to take them up on this offer, having already lost several days of promotion for next week’s events.

RAG told FELIX: “Every year RAG issues it’s RAG Mag, which is designed to be a funny but controversial magazine which promotes our great RAG Events”.

“In the past it’s made fun of natural disasters and human tragedies, this year the call was made to print a satirical piece about Lucinda, as such the union feels that this overstepped the mark, and as such the union made the call to stop distribution of RAG Mags across campus”.

“This is disappointing as it’s one of our key methods of publicity. The union have since replied that they are willing to pay the cost to reprint the magazines, under the condition that the offending article is replaced by a leadership election ad.”

On Saturday, RAG announced on their Facebook page that they would be releasing an edited version of the magazine digitally.

RAG mags have a history of causing controversy, with several in Imperial’s history being banned for bad taste, racism and to avoid damaging the reputation of the college. In 1987, the president of CGCU said that year’s RAG mag ban was necessary to prevent Imperial becoming “more renowned for it’s obscenities than its excellence”.

This year RAG are raising money for Great Ormond Street Hospital, the British Refugee Council and Porridge and Rice, a charity providing food and educational resources for children in a slum in Nairobi.