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In the Media

Articles That Mention the Free Speech Union

Free speech needs a law: Face the problem as it is — the modern academy is running on different train-tracks to liberal humanist thinking

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The Free Speech Union, of which I’m the Chief Legal Counsel, assists many young university students who are punished for having opinions not to the taste of those with power and the unscrupulousness to abuse it. To be fair, some university administrators are well-meaning but misguided. It is certain too that many administrators are simply terrified witless — disregard a claim that someone, somewhere is offended, and who knows what denunciation may follow?

Bryn Harris, The Critic, 25th April 2021.

Terror law will be used for woke agenda and stop freedom of speech, says report

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The Free Speech Union (FSU) founded by journalist Toby Young has warned that the government’s Digital Harms Bill is “a serious threat” to journalists, online debate and discussions. It also hands sweeping new powers to the watchdog Ofcom which has already raised alarms this year by significantly expanding its definition of hate speech to include offence to transgender groups and other controversial areas where people may be offended.

David Maddox, The Daily Express, 24th April 2021.

Children are warned old tweets could ruin their lives: Backlash as it is revealed police are recording thousands of historic social media posts as non-crime “hate incidents”

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Toby Young, General Secretary of the FSU, said: “Non-Crime Hate Incidents are an invention of the College of Policing, an unelected body. They have never been approved by Parliament, there is no legal threshold or independent evidentiary test applied to them and members of the public have no right of appeal against them. Indeed, a member of the public can have a Non-Crime Hate Incident recorded against their name without ever being informed of the fact. Mr Young concluded: “It is time we did away with this Orwellian practice that has little or no basis in law and is used in a highly subjective fashion as we saw in the Harry Miller case. The recording of these non-crimes on people’s police records has a chilling effect on free speech.”

James Robinson, MailOnline, 6th April 2021.

Britons FURIOUS as BBC investigates Some Mothers Do ’Ave ’Em- “Wasting licence fee money!”

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Toby Young, General Secretary of the Free Speech Union, previously criticised the BBC for giving classic programmes a “moral health warning”. He said: “The BBC has been taken over by the ‘woke’ cult. Its managers are like 17th Century Witchfinder Generals, constantly on the lookout for heretics. Any programmes that depart from their narrow ideological dogma are immediately slapped with a moral health warning. Someone needs to remind them that Britain is the birthplace of Parliamentary democracy and the licence-payers who pay their wages believe in free speech.”

Rachel Russell, The Daily Express, 6th April 2021.

“Muhammad cartoon row” teacher’s own union gave £3,000 to Islamic charity that named him online and “endangered” his life

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The Free Speech Union said they were concerned that the actions of the local charity had exposed the teacher to “serious disrepute and physical harm”, in a letter to the Charity Commission. In their letter they said: “It should have been clear to the trustee who signed the letter – and indeed to any reasonable person – that merely naming the teacher could endanger his personal safety. Naming him as a sadistic abuser of Islam, in the wake of the murder of Samuel Paty in Paris, was unforgivably reckless.”

Bhvishya Patel, MailOnline, 1st April 2021.

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