Over twenty-five authors, intellectuals and celebrities have called on the Government to implement a new law ensuring universities protect free speech.
In an open letter to Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson, prominent cultural figures including actor Stephen Fry, novelist Antonia Fraser and historian Tom Holland urged her to save the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act (HEFOSA).
The signatories wrote in support of more than 650 professors and lecturers from across Britain who previously told Phillipson that abandoning the Act risked silencing legitimate views on campus.
‘Liberal values’
Co-ordinated by the Committee for Academic Freedom (CAF) and other free-speech groups, the letter stated: “Free speech in universities is a bedrock of freedom in literature and all the arts, yet it is being eroded.”
It continued: “The Act offers our best hope of restoring a more tolerant climate, by giving lecturers and students ready access to justice when their free-speech rights are infringed.”
The letter concluded: “We hope that the government does not thwart this important measure for the preservation of humane and liberal values.”
Other signatories to the letter included intellectual Steven Pinker, philosopher AC Grayling and former Olympian Sharron Davies MBE.
Academic freedom
In a leading article, The Times said that the recent opposition from academics and cultural figures to the Government’s “ill-motivated junking of the bill” should be of serious concern to Phillipson.
The newspaper continued: “It is a reminder that support for basic principles of academic freedom cuts across partisan political divides. In complacently abandoning the Higher Education Act, the government risks alienating natural allies.”
The editorial urged the Secretary of State to “find a robust legislative solution to upholding liberal norms in higher education” so as to ensure that universities “remain places where inquiry remains free and unfettered”.
In response to the open letter, a Department for Education spokesman said the Government “will confirm, as soon as possible, plans for the Act and long-term plans for continuing to secure freedom of speech in higher education”.
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