Gillham v MSO: Trial begins 1st December 2025
After the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra recently failed in its attempt to block my case, the proceeding has now been listed for trial commencing 1st December, on an estimate of five days.
I’d like to thank everyone who has donated to my legal fund on Chuffed. We have now surpassed $100,000!
This is an amazing achievement in itself, and it is thanks to each one of you that I am able to continue to pursue this case, which is so important for artists’ rights and for our wider freedoms.
Although their main intent is to silence speech on Palestine, by continuing with their defence the MSO is effectively asking the court to deny all anti-discrimination protection to freelance artists and other independent contractors.
This has come at great cost to the institution, with the Financial Review reporting that the MSO spent $689,000 on ‘case management and response costs’ in 2024 alone.
All of this is an unnecessary waste of funds, as my dispute could have been simply and easily resolved.
Meanwhile the genocide continues and Israel continues to target Palestinian journalists.
In the early hours of Monday morning (7 July), one of the most renowned journalists in all of Palestine, Dr Nasser Laham, was abducted by Israeli forces from his home near Bethlehem in the West Bank, during a raid in which the Israeli army ransacked his home and stole his devices.
He has been transferred to the notorious Ofer Military Prison near Ramallah, where Dr Adnan Al-Bursh, head of Orthopaedics at Gaza’s Al-Shifa hospital, was taken and tortured to death last year.
This is a striking example of Israel’s systematic targeting of journalists, as well as a reminder that no part of Palestine remains untouched by Israel’s brutality.
After witnessing 21 months of live-streamed genocide, Zionism has lost its stranglehold on public opinion in this country. A recent poll showed that 74% of Australians held a negative view of Israel.
And lately we have had some significant wins in the legal and artistic sphere.
Antoinette Lattouf has won against the ABC, Khaled Sabsabi has been reinstated as Australia’s representative at the Venice Biennale, and we also had a Federal Court judgment which ruled that Anti‑Zionism is not Antisemitism, which could help to clear the air of repression around support for Palestine.
And so, at this time we are looking ahead to 1st December when the trial will commence in the Federal Court.
Please continue to share this crowdfund widely and encourage others to donate: https://chuffed.org/project/justice-for-jayson
This case could have wide reaching implications for artists and independent workers so I’d like to think of this as a communal investment in improving our faltering democracy and our struggling arts sector in Australia.
Thank you again for your support.