Rabelais Student Media is the current student newspaper at La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia, named after French Renaissance writer François Rabelais. From its founding in 1967, Rabelais Student Media has been run as a department of the La Trobe University Student Representative Council (subsequently by the former La Trobe Student Union). The paper was funded by a combination of advertising revenue and a student levy. Editors are elected annually and serve for a single year. Rabelais has a notorious history in the Australian legal world. The July 1995 edition of the magazine published an article which allegedly incited readers to shoplift as a means of surviving student poverty. This edition was subsequently banned by the Office of Film and Literature Classification, and the editors of the magazine were charged with publishing, distributing, and depositing an objectionable publication. In this instance, an objectionable publication was defined as one that allegedly incited criminal activity. The editors lodged an appeal, which led to a protracted four-year court case. The appeal was eventually defeated by the full bench of the Federal Court, who refused the editors application to appeal to the High Court of Australia. The criminal charges were dropped in March 1999. On campus, the paper was known for casting a critical eye over the actions of the Union and the University at large. After many different formats and regime changes over the years, Rabelais was published monthly during the school year (March to November) and has a circulation of approx 9,000. In 2011, the publication has adopted a more informal magazine style, while still keeping the format of a newspaper. There is more content about music, movies, books, student life and fashion. During 2021 and 2022 Rabelais discontinued publishing physical magazine copies due to funding cuts to the La Trobe Student Union. However, starting in 2023 physical copies have started being published along with online articles being written and published on the Rabelais website.

Past editors of Rabelais

1967 – Michel Lawrence 1968 – Michel Lawrence 1969 – Rod Bishop and Keith Robertson 1970 – Grant Evans 1975 – Andrew Stein & Bruce Sims 1976 – Jo Williams (Calluy) & Lazlo Harmathy 1977 – Bill Bowman & Neil McCarthy 1979 – Phillip Bain 1993 – Beverley Jefferson, Sarah Lowe & Anita Langford 1994 – Chris Bamford, Warren Williams, & John Hammerschmidt 1995 – Michael Brown, Melita Berndt, Ben Ross & Valentina Srpcanska 1998 – Sonia Popp 1999 – Carol Peterson, Yael Zalchendler, Rebecca Tripp, James Keck 2000 – Jake Wilson 2001 – Leigh Milward, Brendan Meilak, Claire Leveridge & Nic Townsend 2002 – Steven Brown & Megan McIntyre 2003 – Leigh Milward, Samuel Palmer, Abram DeBruyn, Misha 2004 – Lefa Singleton, Tim Norton & Samuel Palmer 2005 – Lefa Singleton, Tim Norton & Brad Lacey 2006 – Paul D'Agostino 2007 – Nerissa Symon 2008 – Robert Kelly & Dylan Mraz 2009 – Leticia Quintana 2010 – Michael Nolan 2011 – Jessica Fichera 2012 – Darryl Ephraums & Elizabeth King 2013 – Finbar James & Anastasha Boado 2014 – Nikita Vanderbyl & Finbar James 2015 – Rachael Roberts & Sally O'Brien 2016 – Emilia Sterjova & Sarah Gard 2017 – Kevin Kapeke & Zach Steenhuis 2018 – Abood Shehada & Lois Vilar 2019 – Christopher Graham & Sean Carroll 2020 – Christopher Graham & Clodie Veyrac 2021 – Leah Holden & Lewis Kimpton Drake 2022 – Callum Burkitt & Lewis Kimpton Drake 2023 – Dylan Vigilante & Piper Horvat

Rebellious

Rebellious is the Women's Edition of Rabelais. It is edited and published by the Women's Collective under the auspices of the Women's officer. Rebellious has been issued once a year since the early 1970s.

Student media at La Trobe

Between 1979 and 1995, the Bendigo Student Association produced a newspaper called Third Degree. At the time of the paper's establishment, the Bendigo campus was a College of Advanced Education, from 1994, it was a campus of La Trobe University. Third Degree was operating in around 2005, but is no longer published. Rabelais, under threat from the actions of the University, may have to issue their final edition in 2021. Following the forced amalgamation of the regional campuses Student Associations, in an attempt to silence student criticism and reduce funding given back to the student body, Rabelais has suffered serious cuts. In order to continue to operate, on a shoestring budget, Rabelais has transitioned fully online and cut down on their events and offerings.