The reviews are in: Medusa disaffiliated after one issue

In what might be a University of Glasgow record, the Medusa Review has been disaffiliated by the SRC and its distribution prohibited on campus after just one issue, paid for by the founding members themselves.

The disaffiliation comes just one day after the magazine’s publication, which featured a graphic short story by an English Literature student at the university detailing a brutal rape and murder. Kate Powell and Pritasha Kariappa, SRC President and VP for Student Activities, respectively, contacted the publication’s editors this afternoon. They stated that the story in question, “directly violates our equality and diversity policy.”

They went on to say: “This article promotes gender based violence. We, the SRC exclusively prohibit this, we are survivor focused and will continue to work with the University to support survivors of gender based violence. The article is vile and undermines everything we stand for and we are appalled and disgusted at this. Therefore, we will prohibit the distribution of this on campus.”

This comes after its distribution in GUU, QMU and SRC buildings had been prohibited by the executive boards of those organisations because they could not guarantee independent proofreading. The Glasgow Guardian also understands that a member of the Medusa Review‘s editorial team personally confronted a member of the GUU’s board over their decision.

The Medusa Review has released a statement on their Facebook page saying: “We maintain [the] story is excellent. We defend our decision to publish it. And we will fight all forthcoming sabotage of our paper with our fullest efforts.” They go on to refute accusations that the story promotes violence against women and claim that the University of Glasgow is not “a healthy environment for art and free expression to flourish.”