By Travis Johnson
Following the controversy we reported yesterday, Vax: From Cover Up to Catastrophe has been pulled from the program of the Castlemaine Local and International Film Festival.
The festival has claimed that the withdrawal comes after a concerted hate campaign from pro-vaccination partisans, posting the following statement on their Facebook page:
Since announcing the premiere Australian screening of the controversial film ‘VAXXED’, our community-based film festival has suffered a campaign of highly co-ordinated abuse and intimidation. It has come to the point where members of the CLIFF team feel personally and professionally threatened.
This is unacceptable.
It is a sad reflection on the state of Australian democracy that legitimate questions cannot be raised in a public forum without inciting a campaign of ill-informed and dishonest intimidation. It is with the utmost regret therefore that CLIFF is compelled, for clear reasons of personal and public safety, to withdraw the screening from the CLIFF 2016 programme.
What can’t be contained however is people’s desire to see the film, and given this controversy, that will eventually happen in much greater numbers.
For the record, ‘VAXXED’ is not an ‘anti-vaccination’ film. It raises potential questions about one specific vaccine. The film makes this clear repeatedly.
A film festival screening, and the accompanying discussion arguing the merits of both sides, is an important contribution to presenting information about this issue so the public can make an informed judgement.
Unfortunately, at this time, Australians will no longer have the opportunity to make that judgement for themselves.
CLIFF’s aim is to present a wide and engaging variety of perspectives. ‘VAXXED’ was just one of those perspectives.
CLIFF has no further comment to offer at this stage.
Directed by former doctor Andrew Wakefield, Vaxxed purports to expose a cover up at the US’s Centre for Disease Control regarding a link between autism and the MMR vaccine.
