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In the Media

Articles That Mention the Free Speech Union

Report: “British police in free speech crisis”

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The Free Speech Union (FSU) said there is a “free speech crisis” in British policing and that forces were spending little or no time on the right to freedom of expression.
The FSU’s report states that the concept of “gender identity” is not the consensus position and it is “concerning to find police EDI training endorsing one side of this ongoing debate”.
The report claims that officers, primed by “partisan EDI training to see any criticism of gender identity as intrinsically ‘hateful’”, have been arresting “gender critical speakers without a second thought”.

The Christian Institute, 25th March 2023.

Christian theology lecturer sacked by Bible college over tweet on human sexuality

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Toby Young, General Secretary of the Free Speech Union, said: “Expressing orthodox Christian beliefs should not be grounds for dismissal from a purportedly Christian organisation. I look forward to Alastair Campbell defending Aaron Edwards’ right to free speech, just as he did Gary Lineker’s.”
“Defending free speech means defending the right of people to express views you do not agree with, not just those you agree with.”

Christian Today, 20th March 2023.

Enid Blyton books hidden ‘under the counter’ as libraries fret about offensive language

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Dr Byrn Harris, legal counsel for the Free Speech Union, said: “The Free Speech Union deals with a lot of curious decisions regarding free speech – however even we are bemused by the decision to treat the author of Noddy as dangerous and subversive samizdat.”
“Public libraries obviously cannot stock everything, but by law they must provide a ‘comprehensive and efficient’ service.”
“Deliberately holding back certain works and making them less accessible might fall short of that standard, especially if the reasons for doing so are of dubious relevance – for instance, because the librarian finds those works subjectively offensive.”
“If public libraries insist on having a censorship policy then users, especially children and their parents or guardians, must be clearly informed that the library’s holdings may not be comprehensive as a result of the policy.”

Craig Simpson, The Telegraph, 18th March 2023.

Suella’s crackdown on “woke police” welcome return to common sense, says TOBY YOUNG

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As the General Secretary of the Free Speech Union, I’ve been campaigning against the recording of “non-crime hate incidents” by the police for three years so I’m delighted the Home Secretary has produced this draft guidance. She hasn’t done away with the practice altogether, but if the police follow her advice to use their common sense and have due regard to the right to freedom of expression before recording an NCHI this is a huge win.

Toby Young, Daily Express, 13th March 2023.

Police should delete any data held on on autistic 14-year-old boy who “faces death threats” after a Quran was dropped “accidentally”, say campaigners who slam officers for recording it as “hate incident”

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This decision was criticised today by the Free Speech Union, which warned that if the boys’ names were recorded in the incident reports they could show up years later on enhanced criminal records checks.
Toby Young, its general secretary, noted that new rules from the College of Policing require there to be a motivation of prejudice or hate before police record an event as a “non-crime hate incident”.

Rory Tingle, Elizabeth Haigh and Chris Brooke, Daily Mail, 2nd March 2023.

“Pupils who damaged Quran should have records wiped”

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The Free Speech Union also questioned why West Yorkshire police had recorded the episode as a “non-crime hate incident”, which it said contradicted national guidance because it appeared to be a trivial matter.
Toby Young, general secretary of the union, sought an assurance that no data had been recorded about the four boys involved or, if it had, to request its immediate deletion. As the school said there had been no “malicious intent”, the recording was inconsistent with rules set by the College of Policing, the national standards body, Young wrote.
Young wrote: “We are hard pressed to imagine a sequence of events more likely to chill public debate and freedom of expression than recording this episode as a ‘hate incident’ and attaching that data to the children’s records, in spite of the absence of any malicious intent.”

Fiona Hamilton and Ben Ellery, The Times, 1st March 2023.

New harassment laws will “turn business owners into banter police”

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Toby Young, general secretary of the Free Speech Union, has written to Kemi Badenoch, the equalities minister, to urge her to change course.
He said: “The Equality Act has poisoned the atmosphere in workplaces up and down the country. Why on earth is a Conservative Government extending the scope of the Equality Act, so when we’re in pubs, bars, restaurants, nightclubs and sports grounds we’ll have to constantly be looking over our shoulders to make sure we’re not being overheard by the banter police? This is the opposite of the ‘war on woke’. It’s extending the writ of the woke thought police to every nook and cranny of British society.”

Camilla Turner, The Telegraph, 26th February 2023.

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