Fighting back against the censors

Jun 10, 2021 by

by Dan Hitchens, The Critic:

The groups who are taking the battle for free speech forward by speaking truth to power.

Over the last decade, Britain’s free speech advocates have faced a frustrating puzzle. They seem to have the public on their side: a ComRes poll earlier this year found that half the population agrees with the statement “Free speech is under threat”, and less than a quarter disagrees. The government, too, seems sympathetic. “Freedom of speech is at the core of our democracy,” Boris Johnson declared in February as he outlined plans to appoint a “free speech champion” for the higher education sector. And yet, on the ground — in workplaces, in universities, even in how people relate to their neighbours — there’s never been more fear of expressing an honest opinion.

Partly it’s a simple question of power dynamics. When people fall foul of the new speech codes, they often find themselves alone against a much bigger opponent. If your boss receives a complaint that you’ve created a “hostile environment” with your sceptical views about Black Lives Matter, he may find it easier to get rid of you than to launch a long, careful inquiry into what is really happening.

If the police inform you that your tweets about the trans debate have been registered as a “hate incident”, it takes some courage to just carry on regardless. If your students’ union decides that your small pro-life society contravenes their values, they can simply ban you without needing to justify the move.

But there’s a tried-and-tested way to change a power imbalance: get organised. In the last year or so, defenders of free expression have started to band together, often with considerable success. At Cambridge University, a group of academics successfully campaigned for stronger free speech protections. At the High Court, the pressure group Fair Cop won a major victory against police interference with free expression. Most significantly, a new organisation, the Free Speech Union (FSU), formed in February 2020 to give advice and legal support to “anyone who feels their speech rights are under threat.”

Read here

Please right-click links to open in a new window.

Related Posts

Tags

Share This