Universities: Is free speech under threat?

[PHDNM]

Universities: Is free speech under threat?

Free speech is being threatened at British universities by a culture of offence among certain students, according to critics.

A Parliamentary inquiry has reported, regulator the Office for Students has threatened to fine universities that fail to uphold free speech and the Equality and Human Rights Commission is drawing up guidelines for universities.

A small number of incidents have been held up time and again and debated fiercely. But what evidence is there that challenges to free speech are widespread?

At the end of last year, the then Universities Minister, Jo Johnson, claimed that books were being removed from libraries, "undermining the principle of free speech".

BBC Reality Check asked for evidence of this under the Freedom of Information law. The Department for Education shared letters referring to books by Holocaust denier David Irving being moved from history to another section of two university libraries. Nobody provided evidence of books being banned.

https://www.bbc.com/news/education-45447938

[The Lawspeaker]

I'd say that it's probably the same as in Mainland Europe: it's dead.