Student: “My human rights have been breached”

A student has accused Warwick Accommodation of breaching his human rights after inspectors removed an anti-cuts poster from his window.

Jack Copley, studying a one-year Master’s in International Political Economy, displayed a poster reading ‘We cannot afford any more cuts’ in the window of his Coventry home.

Warwick Accommodation, who own the property, emailed Mr Copley asking him to remove the “political poster”, citing a complaint from a neighbour.

The email read: “Although I can understand that you may have strong views, we cannot allow this type of poster to be displayed in full public.”

When Mr Copley failed to remove the poster, Warwick Accommodation removed it during a routine inspection on May 8, two weeks after he was originally contacted.

Mr Copley felt this breached his human rights. He told the Boar: “I put the poster up because Coventry, like many other areas around the country, is being decimated by cuts to its public services. This is on top of the terrible effects on the city from the current recession and four decades of deindustrialisation.

“I was really surprised and outraged when I got the email from the University. I never for the life of me thought that they would ask me to take down such a mildly-worded poster.”

Mr Copley went on to explain that he is unsure exactly why the poster was removed.

He said: “I would guess that they told me to take the poster down in order to avoid any kind of conflict with whoever complained about it. However, considering that many universities, including Warwick, are being run more and more like cut-throat businesses, I wouldn’t be surprised if they were also motivated by a dislike of the political message expressed in the poster.”

The contract between students and Warwick Accommodation stipulates that posters should not be displayed from windows “except when events of sufficient importance are taking place”. The contract does not mention posters being removed due to their political nature.

A spokesperson said Warwick University would not comment on the specific incident but insisted they do not restrict freedom of speech.

Kelly Parkes-Harrison told the Boar: “We are not restricting students’ freedom of speech, they can display posters in their rooms. The contract clearly states that students cannot put posters in the windows of their accommodation.

“There are some exceptions to this, for example when there are student elections or events such as the World Cup. The reason we have this clause is for the aesthetic appearance of the campus. ‘This type of poster’ refers to any poster that does not qualify as an exception to the rule, as per the contract.”

Ben Sundell, welfare officer at Warwick Students’ Union, also commented on the incident. He said: “‘If there were any purely political motivations for this being taken down, then we would obviously condemn that – as our students should have a right to freedom of expression, so long as it is not defamatory.

“However, if a contract has been agreed between a student and the University where no posters are to be affixed at all regardless of what they say, then the University does have the right to have them removed.”

Mr Copley has since put up a similar but even larger poster in his window.

He added: “Coventry is facing an unprecedented and unnecessary economic disaster. Where I live, Tile Hill, is already one of the most deprived parts of the country. The signs of hardship are already here and it will just get worse.

“Expressing my opposition to this through the poster is just a small thing, but I consider it a moral issue and I was never going to take it down.”