Censorship of News & Notes

The Auroville Council reminded the community that in December 2022, following instructions from the Auroville Foundation Office (AVFO), the Auroville News & Notes (N&N) began censoring the content received from a portion of the Residents’ Assembly. Attempts to convince the N&N managers to continue publishing the announcements of the working groups selected by the RA were ignored, which led the Auroville Council to officially dismiss the managers and replace them with a new team. However, the old managers ignored their dismissal and continued publishing their censored newsletter, receiving funds to do so from the BCC approved by the AVFO. To solve the problem a second Auroville News & Notes called the "RA edition" is now being published, which publishes all announcements that are submitted regardless of the submitter’s position on the current conflict. The Council wrote that this transition to the RA edition “has not been easy with no financial support from the Central Fund and with the need for secrecy so as not to attract unwanted reprisal for the people involved.” Today, the RA News & Notes is sent to more than 3000 people weekly and is also printed and distributed to most public places. The Council, having noticed that many residents continue to send their announcements to the censored newsletter – often without awareness that there are now two versions of News & Notes – has invited residents to send their content to the RA edition of the News & Notes ([email protected]) and not to legitimise the censored newsletter.