We can’t rely on students’ unions to defend free speech
SUs are trying to rebrand themselves as champions of freedom. Who are they kidding?
Taking the Debate Forward, a new report produced by students’ union leaders, wants to ‘secure and champion freedom of speech and political diversity on campus’, and head off the need for government reforms aimed at ending so-called No Platforming. The report says it is guided by the University of Chicago’s ‘Chicago Principles’ on free expression. These principles affirm an ‘overarching commitment to free, robust and uninhibited debate and deliberation among all members of the university’s community’. This is a sentiment that free-speech advocates would wholeheartedly support. But the report as a whole contradicts these principles, and only serves the status quo, vindicating the government’s initiative, announced this week, to tackle the silencing of views on campus.