Rising concerns over free speech prompts summit for clearer guidance

Universities minister Sam Gyimah hosted a “free speech summit” on Thursday 3 May to resolve free speech and censorship issues recently arising in UK universities regarding controversial speakers and topics.

During the meeting, which was attended by organisations such as Universities UK, Charity Commission, and Prevent, Mr. Gyimah said: “There is a risk that overzealous interpretation of a dizzying variety of rules is acting as a brake on legal free speech on campus.

“A society in which people feel they have a legitimate right to stop someone expressing their views on campus simply because they are unfashionable or unpopular is rather chilling,” he continued.

“That is why I am bringing together leaders from across the higher education sector to clarify the rules and regulations around speakers and events to prevent bureaucrats or wreckers on campus from exploiting gaps for their own ends.”

Gyimah further warned that universities must stamp out their “institutional hostility”, and suggested that the Department for Education should create a new, single set of guidelines for free speech to “provide clarity”. It would be the first intervention by the government on campus free speech since the duty was introduced in the Education Act of 1986.

Parliament’s Joint Committee on Human Rights (JCHR) also investigated and reported on concerns regarding free speech in March: “Any inhibition on lawful free speech is serious…but we did not find the wholesale censorship of debate in universities which media coverage has suggested.”

Instead, they discovered bigger problems of red tape, and confusion over what is permissible. Cases involved “divisive issues” such as right-wing left-wing conflicts and “pro-life or anti-abortion views”.

The chairman of the committee, Harriet Harman, concluded that it was “university bureaucracy” and fear of controversy that was inhibiting free speech and that Mr. Gyimah “is right to recognise the confusing array of guidance on free speech”. She also called for an end to the “confusion of the duties arising from Prevent, charity law, and the Education Act”.

In addition, the Office for Students, introduced last month, is required to protect free speech, and can fine or de-register universities that violate the freedom of speech. Sir Michael Barber, the office chairman, stated that “free speech should always be promoted and fostered”, even if views are “challenging or unpopular”.