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In the Media

Articles That Mention the Free Speech Union

Furious Tory MSP threatens to sue police over ‘hate incident’ tweet row

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Murdo Fraser was reported to the force following the post on X in November comparing non-binary people to those who identify as cats. The tweet was deemed not to have amounted to a crime but was classed as a “hate incident”. The Mid Scotland and Fife MSP, supported by the Free Speech Union, is now threatening legal action to have the record deleted and for the force to change its hate crime policy.

Kate Harris, The Express, 26th March 2024.

Policing of free speech must end

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Mr [Murdo] Fraser called in the Free Speech Union to back a legal challenge on the basis that Police Scotland has ‘adopted a cavalier and disrespectful attitude towards me and my rights to freedom of expression and privacy, and the right to be informed of false and damaging information held on police records’.

Michael Blackley, Mail Online, 25th March 2024.

Murdo Fraser accuses police of ‘unlawful’ behaviour after tweet recorded as ‘hate incident’

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Mr Fraser is now threatening legal action against Police Scotland to have the incident deleted and its hate crime policy updated, with the support of the Free Speech Union (FSU). He said: “Police Scotland has behaved not just outrageously, but unlawfully according to the legal advice obtained by the Free Speech Union. This is Police Scotland attacking free speech – but it is more sinister than that. My tweet wasn’t pointing a finger at an individual – it was critical of a Scottish Government policy.”

David Bol, The Scotsman, 25th March 2024.

Trans ideology is far from defeated

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Meanwhile, under proposed new legislation, Scottish parents could face prosecution if they do not accept that their child requires medical intervention to change gender. The SNP wants to push through a ban on what it misleadingly calls ‘conversion therapy’. This would make it illegal to ‘change or suppress another individual’s gender identity’. As the Free Speech Union explains, these new laws would, if passed, make it illegal to impose ‘restrictions or limitations’ on a child in order to ‘repress or prevent the development of their… gender identity’. Parents will essentially be forbidden, by law, from protecting their children from gender ideology.

Joanna Williams, Spiked, 21st March 2024.

The Chinese students policing Britain’s universities Self-censoring academics live in terror

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“Surreal.” This was how Professor Michelle Shipworth described her ordeal at University College London, after a Chinese student complained about an innocuous presentation slide on slavery in China. Instead of leaping to her defence, UCL accused her of being anti-Chinese and endangering its lucrative income from Chinese students. After she was banned from teaching her “provocative” energy and social sciences course, her case was taken up by the Free Speech Union, which presented documentary evidence of what they called “undue deference to the sensitivity of some Chinese students that is utterly incompatible with academic freedom”

Sam Dunning, Unherd, 20th March 2024.

British universities have a China problem

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Sir Iain [Duncan Smith] was reacting to news that University College London (UCL) has banned Michelle Shipworth, an associate professor at its Bartlett School of Environment, Energy and Resources — and a member of the Free Speech Union (FSU) — from teaching a “provocative” seminar on China in order to protect its commercial interests.

Freddie Attenborough, The Critic, 19th March 2024.

Ministers vow to ‘name and shame’ extremists banned from government funding as Michael Gove unveils new definition – despite fears that feminists and Christians could be ‘cancelled’

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Writing in the Spectator magazine, Toby Young, of the Free Speech Union, said: “Is there a risk this new definition, which includes phrases like ‘aims to… negate or destroy the fundamental rights and freedoms of others’, will also be applied to gender critical feminists, anti-abortion activists and other betes noires of metropolitan radicals?”

James Tapsfield and David Barrett, Daily Mail, 14th March 2024.

Simon Fawthrop and Bryn Harris: Why Bromley has become a free speech council

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Bromley Council has passed a landmark policy to enshrine free speech in its policies, procedures, code of conduct and constitution. This decision didn’t come about by accident. Many months of work alongside the Free Speech Union have gone into getting this policy right, and this is only the beginning – the many years of local authorities getting free speech wrong need to be put right.

Simon Fawthrop and Bryn Harris, Conservative Home, 12th March 2024.

UCL bans lecturer from China course to protect its ‘commercial interests’

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Ms Shipworth’s case has been taken up by the Free Speech Union, which has written to UCL’s provost to demand that all restrictions be lifted. A Free Speech Union spokesman said: “The documents we have seen reveal an undue deference to the sensitivity of some Chinese students that is utterly incompatible with academic freedom. Academics and students have every right to discuss and even criticise China, even if it is inconvenient for institutions increasingly in hock to Chinese student fees, and we will defend that right.”

Robert Mendick, The Telegraph, 8th March 2024.

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