Have you ever noticed that there is a predictable pattern used by the media to introduce moral panic throughout a nation’s population? Enemies are cast, fear and anger swells and swift retribution against the offending party is demanded. Of course, like any good tale, it begins with a villain. Charles Perrault is widely considered the father of the fairy tale. His most famous works include Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Puss in Boots and Little Red Riding Hood. It is said that fairy tales...

Australian writer, Richard Flanagan, is a celebrated novelist and historian, notably receiving the Booker Prize for one of his works of fiction. As a journalist, he has written for various Australian and international publications, including Le Monde, The Daily Telegraph, The New York Times, and The New Yorker. Yet, in spite of the fact he is clearly a gifted writer, his latest non-fiction work should in fact be filed under the category “nonsense”. From the 20th to the 30th of August,...

As we are all familiar with, most Western societies divide power into three distinct branches: the legislative, the executive and the judicial. Focusing on the judicial branch, the role of our courts is to decide on cases brought before the court by interpreting and applying the law ensuring that, particularly in the area of criminal law, the appropriate penalties are handed down. However, for the court system to function as designed, judges should at all times remain impartial. So far...