Considering two recent cases of offensive tweets regarding Captain Sir Tom Moore, Nick Buckley , who has personal experience of twitter amplified intolerance, argues that offensive comments should not be criminalised and offenders shouldn’t lose their jobs. Freedom of speech must be a universal value, otherwise it becomes an elite privilege: Jarel […]
Cambridge Dons Win Free Speech Row, Defeat New ‘Authoritarian’ Rules
Camilla Turner at The Telegraph interviewed Dr Arif Ahmed, a philosophy lecturer who spearheaded a campaign at Cambridge University to amend a proposed free speech policy. The policy would have prioritised respect for different groups and opinions over a commitment to tolerance of free speech. Had the proposal passed unamended, it could have fostered division, […]
On Freedom Of Speech and The Culture Of Offence
Like others before him, in France and elsewhere, Samuel Paty was murdered because he offended. Nico Macdonald at medium.com argues we need to be free to offend and that well-intentioned attempts to protect certain ethnic or religious groups from the feeling of being offended, results in an infantilisation that can be profoundly destructive for everyone: […]
On The Importance Of The Right To Offend
Kenan Malik at the New Humanist argues that the right to offend is necessary for social progress and that those lacking power need freedom of speech more than the powerful themselves. Written in 2014, in the wake of last week’s murder of teacher, Samuel Paty, for having given offence, Malik’s words are more important than […]