Islamophobia definition could have chilling effect, says peer
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It is also facing a potential legal challenge from the Free Speech Union if the definition is deemed too wide.
Geraldine Scott, The Times, 27th June 2025.
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It is also facing a potential legal challenge from the Free Speech Union if the definition is deemed too wide.
Geraldine Scott, The Times, 27th June 2025.
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The Free Speech Union (FSU) said the process would rubber-stamp a controversial definition of Islamophobia, which Labour would then adopt. The definition, which treats Islamophobia as a type of racism, has been criticised for being too widely drawn.
The FSU has written to the Deputy Prime Minister expressing concern the new definition is being drawn up behind closed doors.
Charles Hymas, The Telegraph, 26th June 2025.
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The Free Speech Union estimates that roughly 65 people every day are recorded as having committed a NCHI. Around 30 people are thought to be arrested daily for what they say online. It has become frighteningly commonplace for people to receive a knock at the door over memes or even private messages, being questioned by the police or having their details put into databases that could damage the rest of their lives
Lauren Smith, The European Conservative, 25th June 2025.
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At its core is a principle that the Free Speech Union pressed for during the OfS’s consultation on the draft guidance: that speech is presumptively lawful unless specifically prohibited by statute or common law. The guidance confirms that internal policies, institutional values, or codes of conduct — including equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) frameworks — do not have the force of law and cannot justify restrictions on otherwise lawful expression.
Freddie Attenborough, The Critic, 24th June 2025.
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Yet there is reason for optimism. More and more artists, institutions and organisations are beginning to speak up. There is an increasing recognition of the need to protect the freedoms that make the arts what they are. FITA’s work, alongside the efforts of the Free Speech Union and others, is helping to create a growing movement that is committed to defending artistic freedom.
Rosie Kay, Spiked, 24th June 2025.
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Twelve groups, including the Free Speech Union, Academics for Academic Freedom, Alumni for Free Speech and Christian Concern, have written to the regulator asking it to investigate Bristol.
Fiona Hamilton, The Times, 23rd June 2025.
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Lord Toby Young, founder of the Free Speech Union, said: “The OfS’s new guidance is reassuringly robust, but it’s a great shame that the new free speech duties won’t apply to student unions. We know from the Free Speech Union’s case files that student unions are among the worst offenders when it comes to silencing dissenting voices on campus.”
Craig Simpson, The Telegraph, 19th June 2025.
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Toby Young, director of the Free Speech Union, said: ‘Warning fans of musical theatre that they may hear loud music and sudden noises is beyond parody. Just how stupid do theatre owners think their customers are?’
Brooke Ivey Johnson, Metro, 19th June 2025.
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By 2023, at least 52 local authorities in England — approximately one in six — had adopted the APPG definition. In several of these areas, including those directly affected by grooming gang scandals, councillors and council staff are subject to internal disciplinary codes that incorporate its terms. The Free Speech Union, which has defended individuals in such cases, has documented multiple instances of councillors being investigated for speech that, while perfectly lawful, was alleged to fall foul of the APPG standard.
Freddie Attenborough, The Critic, 18th June 2025.
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The claim inevitably drew outrage from rightwing commentators. Toby Young, founder of the Free Speech Union (FSU), wrote to the home secretary, Yvette Cooper, pointing out that Prevent’s definitions of “extremism” and “terrorist ideologies” expand “the scope of suspicion to include individuals whose views are entirely lawful but politically controversial”, and that “right-of-centre beliefs risk being treated as ideologically suspect”.
Prevent, the FSU’s Freddie Attenborough wrote in The Critic magazine, “has shifted from focusing on conduct (acquiring weapons, making threats, inciting violence) to treating political ideologies as indicators of risk – the problem being that ‘risky’ ideologies are both vaguely defined and culturally loaded”.
Kenan Malik, The Observer, 15th June 2025.
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