New magazine launched
Story and photograph by Norm Dixon
SYDNEY — One hundred people squeezed into the back bar of Sydney's Paragon Hotel for the launch of the monthly Modern Times, the newest addition to Australia's alternative media, on March 4.
The magazine Australian Society, which ceased publication last year, has thrown its resources behind the new venture. The editor of Modern Times, Peter Browne, told the gathering that it was hoped the new magazine would play the role that newspapers like the National Times and Nation Review once did.
Respected investigative reporter Wendy Bacon (pictured) added that the new paper must be "dangerous". In a period when there seems to be a growing tendency towards censorship, illustrated by the federal government's defunding of
SICH and the Fact and Fantasy File, she warned that this would involve taking risks.
Modern Times contributors include former National Times editor Brian Toohey, feminist cartoonist Kaz Cooke and novelist Amanda Lohrey.