Safe spaces are not the only threat to free speech | Timothy Garton Ash

Be it Prevent or no-platforming, attacks on academic freedom from the left and right must be resisted

Universities should be safe spaces – safe spaces for free speech. When I started working on freedom of expression some years ago, I never imagined that threats to it in the university itself would become such a hot topic. But today, a great debate about this is echoing across the English-speaking world.

The dean of students at the University of Chicago recently wrote to inform all new students that: “We do not support so-called trigger warnings, we do not cancel invited speakers because their topics might prove controversial, and we do not condone the creation of intellectual safe spaces where individuals can retreat from ideas and perspectives at odds with their own.” And a mighty row erupted when the University of Cape Town rescinded (quite wrongly, in my view) a lecture invitation to Flemming Rose, the journalist who commissioned the Danish cartoons of Muhammad.

Related: Theresa May criticises university 'safe spaces' for shutting down debate

Related: I want my university to debate ideas, not gag free speech | Jackie Ashley

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