In a reminder of the horrors of Hong Kong's censorship crisis, two bookshop owners have been arrested and accused of "displaying seditious items", including material said to incite hatred against the Hong Kong SAR government, its judiciary, and law enforcement agencies. The charge of displaying seditious items carries a maximum sentence of fourteen years in prison. It falls under the Hong Kong Safeguarding National Security Ordinance—commonly known as Article 23—which goes even further than the Beijing-imposed National Security Law introduced in 2020.
A former High Court judge has warned that Labour's plans to curtail the right to trial by jury pose a direct threat to freedom of speech and protest. Sir Stephen Mitchell argues that jury trials are a critical safeguard against politically motivated prosecutions—particularly in Public Order cases where free expression is at stake—and that removing them would hand the Government a mechanism to bypass that protection in "sensitive" cases.
As the Prime Minister resigns, the Free Speech Union braces itself for what free speech battles we face under Andy Burnham.
Two parallel private members' bills targeting SLAPPs — strategic lawsuits used by wealthy litigants to silence journalists, campaigners, and whistleblowers — have been introduced in both Houses of Parliament this week. Baroness Stowell of Beeston and Sir John Whittingdale MP are behind the respective bills, which would give judges the power to dismiss such cases at the earliest possible stage. The FSU welcomes the move.
In a positive move for free speech, the Education has finally commenced the section in the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act that establishes a statutory complaints scheme.
The Conservative peer Lord Ranger is suing the Prime Minister after the Forfeiture Committee — a shadowy Whitehall body — stripped him of his CBE following a House of Lords standards ruling that he had harassed journalist Poonam Joshi on X. His lawyers argue the removal was disproportionate and will chill free speech. The FSU, which has supported others who have lost honours through the same opaque process, warns that the Government's Removal of the Peerages Bill threatens to extend that chilling effect to the Lords itself.
Oxford professor and expert on equality law Dr Michael Foran has been forced to cancel his lecture series after sustained abuse from trans activists.
South Wales Police have shelved their controversial "anti-Muslim hostility" definition after the Free Speech Union threatened them with a judicial review.
Senior figures at Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service have cautioned firefighters who support Reform UK and urged staff to report colleagues over their political views — prompting the Free Speech Union to write to Mayor Andy Burnham warning of a chilling effect on lawful political expression.
The Chairman of Bradford's policing scrutiny panel was sacked by West Yorkshire Police after complaining that officers were ignoring the elephant in the room of Islamist extremism after last year's synagogue attack.
Meta is silencing Sarah Wynn-Williams, a former Director of Global Public Policy at Facebook, who published a memoir — Careless People — containing damning claims about the company's internal culture and its appeasement of the Chinese government. Bound by a legal order that exposes her to a $50,000 fine for every breach, Wynn-Williams sat in silence on stage at the Hay Festival while Professor Tim Wu answered questions on her behalf.
FSU member James Cooper has been unanimously acquitted of violent disorder at Manchester Crown Court, after the Free Speech Union funded his defence over his attendance at a 2024 protest outside a Manchester asylum hotel.
