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In the Media

Articles That Mention the Free Speech Union

Social media platforms are still stifling debate

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The Free Speech Union reported on June 9th  about the sudden purge of Instagram  accounts belonging to those with sex realist views.
One of these accounts was Sex Matters, who were permanently suspended for breaking the website’s “community guidelines”. Sex Matters is of course the registered charity set up by Maya Forstater in the wake of her 2021 court victory which established that a belief that sex is real and it matters is worthy of respect in a democratic society and protected by the Equality Act.

Sarah Phillimore, The Critic, 18th June 2024.

The football world’s war on free speech

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Earlier this year, for instance, it emerged that Newcastle United Football Club (NUFC) supporter and Free Speech Union member Linzi Smith has been banned from attending home matches during the season just ended and for the next two for expressing legally protected gender critical views online. Her “crime” in the eyes of her hometown club was to criticise the view that men who identify as women should be treated as if they were indistinguishable from biological women, including being able to access women’s changing rooms, compete against women in sports like football and rugby and be housed in women’s jails. The fact that Linzi was prevented from supporting her beloved team in this way is bad enough. But while supporting Linzi, the FSU has also discovered a shadowy investigation unit with an opaque remit embedded within the Premier League that spied on her at NUFC’s behest.

Freddie Attenborough, The Critic, 13th June 2024.

Free speech concern after Ipso rule against open court reporting

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Toby Young, director of the Free Speech Union, said: “Ipso acknowledges that journalists’ right to report on court proceedings is an essential part of open justice and in the public interest. Why then is it seeking to curtail that right? How much detail to include in a newspaper report about proceedings in open court is an editorial judgment and not a matter for the regulator. I worry that if Ipso crosses the line in this area, what’s to stop it interfering in other editorial judgments?”

Hayley Dixon and Robert Mendick, The Telegraph, 6th June 2024.

“Illiberal” and “alarming”: University statute amendments criticised

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Toby Young of the Free Speech Union said: “From the Free Speech Union’s point of view, the most egregious element in the proposed amendments to the disciplinary code is the reference to causing offence. As has already been pointed out to Congregation by our Chairman, Nigel Biggar, and others, the law prevents the University from prohibiting or sanctioning speech solely on the ground that it is offensive.”

Martin Alfonsin Larsen and Gaspard Rouffin, The Oxford Student, 6th June 2024.

Russell Group apologises after suggesting gender-critical beliefs akin to anti-Semitism

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The Free Speech Union, which advocates for freedom of speech and defends those whose right to expression has been violated, said: “Forty per cent of the cases we’ve taken on this year have involved gender-critical feminists getting into trouble for saying something perfectly reasonable that a majority of people would agree with, e.g. male sex offenders shouldn’t be housed in women’s prisons, even if they claim to have ‘transitioned’.”

Neil Johnston, The Telegraph, 24th May 2024.

Whistleblower ‘forced out’ of Whitehall over gender beliefs

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The Free Speech Union (FSU) is launching a crowdfunder to pay for Ms Frances to have legal representation at her tribunal, for which there was a preliminary hearing last month with further hearings expected for later this year.
Jill Levene, legal counsel at the FSU, said: “Impartiality is the cornerstone of a well-functioning civil service. Eleanor’s treatment is a clear example of a civil service that has been captured by radical progressive ideology.”

Camilla Turner, The Telegraph, 18th May 2024.

Fined over facts?

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A member of Germany’s right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) party has had her conviction for incitement to hatred upheld on appeal, after using official statistics to warn that Afghan immigrants are disproportionately liable to commit sexual violence against women and girls.

Frederick Attenborough, The Critic, 9th May 2024.

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