There are few issues in higher education as controversial as free speech.
In this report, Corey Stoughton, the Advocacy Director of the human rights organisation Liberty, looks at the issue through history, international experience and recent legal changes.
She notes that asking disempowered people to accept a total right to free speech is expecting them to put down a tool of resistance. She also claims the biggest threat to free speech on campus actually comes from the Government’s Prevent programme.
The paper ends with a clarion call in favour of free speech. Compromising the principles of free speech on campus is a mistake because it often makes the relevant message stronger and tends to prove counterproductive to the cause of equality.