Event: Who is Free Speech for? What does free speech Protect?
Written by Ceejay Hayes
There are few subjects that so wholly encapsulate the polarized state of British society as well as free speech and expression. On university campuses and in society at-large, free speech advocacy is mobilised across the political spectrum to defend the expression of political or ideological views. Such advocacy is often mobilised when the political or ideological views of one group challenge that of their opposition, or when the opposition attempts to silence a thought-leader from expressing their views for an audience.
There is some evidence to suggest that there is a crisis of free expression in the U.K. The Index on Censorship places the U.K. in the third tier – labelled “Partially Open” – of countries ranked for the freedom of expression, placing them below much of its European Counterparts and among countries like South Africa, Guyana, and the United States.
The U.K. recently appointed a Free Speech Tsar, a new role within the Office of Students, to protect and promote free speech on campuses – a decision that itself has sparked much controversy.
With all this discontent around free speech in the U.K., perhaps now is the time to interrogate the subject. There is no denying that residents of the U.K. have the right to free speech? But what about free speech advocacy? What can we learn from the way free speech advocacy is mobilised? What are the true motivations behind free speech advocacy? And how do we hold free speech and expression alongside different political and ideological views?
On Wednesday 26 July at 7:30 p.m., the Cambridge Overcoming Polarisation Initiative, in partnership with the Cambridge Disinformation Summit, will be hosting a debate on free speech and its advocacy.
Dr Dennis Hayes (Co-Director of Academics for Academic Freedom) will be debating Dr Gavan Titley (author of Is Free Speech Racist) to interrogate the following statement:
In the UK, unrestricted free speech is less concerned with defending truths and more interested in promoting a narrow selection of political views.
Join us at the Cambridge Union for this lively and thought-provoking debate. Tickets can be found here. The debate is 60 minutes, with an additional 15 minutes for audience Q&A. The event will be followed by a drinks reception.
We look forward to seeing you there.