GETTING THE BALANCE RIGHT: FREE SPEECH AND THE RIGHT TO PROTEST IN THE CURRENT MOMENT.

GETTING THE BALANCE RIGHT: FREE SPEECH AND THE RIGHT TO PROTEST IN THE CURRENT MOMENT

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Since the massacre committed by Hamas in southern Israel on October 7th, public spaces around the United Kingdom have seen an upsurge in pro-Palestinian political protests. While many demonstrators seek to express their sympathy with ordinary Palestinians, a number seem to have greeted Hamas’s atrocities as inspiration for ‘jihad’.

As a result, British Jews have experienced an unprecedented spike in antisemitic abuse and attacks, with many reporting that they fear venturing out in public, sending their children to school or even attending vigils for those still held hostage by Hamas.

While the Home Secretary has been criticised for labelling pro-Palestinian protests ‘hate marches’, the police have been criticised for failing to arrest those endorsing terrorism or expressing anti-Jewish hatred. The Met, in particular, has come under fire for preventing actions by Jews and their allies, such as a prayer walk in north London and the driving of digital billboards showing images of Israeli child-hostages through Parliament Square.

On Thursday 23rd November, the Free Speech Union will host a panel of eminent legal experts to grapple with the question of how the law should balance the right of protestors to express their views with the right of British Jews to go about their daily lives without feeling threatened.

• Are current laws adequate or do we need stronger laws against the expression of support for extremist groups?
• Are the police failing to act ‘without fear or favour’?
• How can we ensure that robust legal protections for free speech survive the current crisis?

Confirmed speakers:

Lord Ken Macdonald KC

Former Director of Public Prosecutions Ken Macdonald is one of the country’s leading criminal, regulatory and international lawyers. In 2007 he was knighted for services to the law and in 2010 appointed to the House of Lords, where he sits as a crossbencher. He was a Visiting Professor of Law at the London School of Economics from 2009-2012 and he has been a member of the University of Oxford Law Faculty since 2012. He is Chair of the Orwell Foundation, President of the Howard League for Penal Reform and was Warden of Wadham College Oxford from 2012 to 2021.

Jonathan Hall KC

Jonathan Hall KC is a barrister and was appointed as the UK’s 4th Independent Reviewer of Terrorism Legislation in 2019. As Independent Reviewer he has so far published four lengthy annual reports on terrorism legislation in the UK, and three standalone reports on managing released terrorism offenders, terrorism in prisons, and the use of Schedule 7 powers against a French publisher in 2023. All his reports, notes, and speeches are publicly available at https://terrorismlegislationreviewer.independent.gov.uk and published via @terrorwatchdog.

Bryn Harris

Bryn Harris has worked as chief legal counsel of the Free Speech Union since 2020, participating in some of the UK’s foremost legal cases and policy debates concerning freedom of speech. He was called to the Bar of England and Wales in 2018, and before that he did a doctorate in classics at the University of Oxford. He has a particular interest in the law and practice surrounding academic freedom of speech.

Chair : Jan Macvarish, Education and Events Director of the Free Speech Union.

The event will be filmed but the audience will not appear on camera.

The Free Speech Union is a non-partisan, mass-membership public interest body that stands up for the speech rights of its members. You can find out more about us here.

The Free Speech Union

www.freespeechunion.org