{"id":651242,"date":"2025-12-23T22:28:17","date_gmt":"2025-12-23T22:28:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/651242\/"},"modified":"2025-12-23T22:28:17","modified_gmt":"2025-12-23T22:28:17","slug":"academic-claims-university-failed-to-uphold-free-speech-and-threatens-legal-action","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/651242\/","title":{"rendered":"Academic claims University failed to uphold free speech and threatens legal action"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0<\/strong>\u00a0By Lenny Osler<\/strong>, News Reporter<\/p>\n

Protesters gathered outside the building where Professor Alice Sullivan delivered a seminar entitled \u2018The Gender Wars and Academic Freedom.\u2019 The protest emerged in opposition to Sullivan\u2019s gender critical views.<\/p>\n

In May 2020, Sullivan published an article arguing that data collection was undermined by conflating sex, gender and gender identity.<\/p>\n

In the article, Sullivan claimed census authorities stopped collecting data of sex due to influence from \u2018genderist organisations.\u2019 She also described the ideas that non-binary individuals were neither male nor female, or that there are more than two sexes, as \u2018postmodern fallacies.\u2019<\/p>\n

The study commonly known as the Sullivan Review was published in March this year, commissioned by Michelle Donelan MP, former Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology.<\/p>\n

\"\"Epigram \/\u00a0Sophie Maclaren<\/p>\n

The review recommended that the government and other data-owners \u2018should collect data on both sex and transgender identities.\u2019 The transgender advocacy group TransActual argued that implementing the review\u2019s recommendations would breach transgender people\u2019s right to privacy.\u00a0<\/p>\n

TransActual described the review as biased, given Sullivan\u2019s position on the advisory group of Sex Matters, an anti-trans lobby organisation.<\/p>\n

Sullivan\u2019s lawyers have written a letter to the University, claiming her freedom of speech was unfairly restricted by them during her talk in October. As examples, they cite the limited attendance of 60 staff, postgraduates and members of the public, closing the event to undergraduates, limiting advertising, and failing to prevent disruption by protesters.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Mountain search resumes for University of Bristol student missing in Transylvania<\/p>\n

18-year-old George Smyth has been missing for 10 days in Romania, last heard of near Bran Castle, the fictional home of Count Dracula.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The letter also blamed the University for locating the talk in an area vulnerable to disruption from protesters. Speaking to the Office for Students (OfS), Sullivan claimed that \u2018gender ideology\u2019 had influenced the University\u2019s \u2018actions to frustrate and disrupt\u2019 the talk.<\/p>\n

Sullivan, speaking to the BBC, described the protest as a \u2018zombie apocalypse\u2019, with cries of \u2018shame on you\u2019 directed towards her as she left. The University has since condemned the behaviour of protesters as \u2018intimidating\u2019 and \u2018unacceptable.\u2019<\/p>\n

In August of this year, a law came into force strengthening universities\u2019 obligations to protect freedom of speech. The OfS published guidelines, among which was the expectation for universities to support academics who express views that could trigger protest from students.<\/p>\n

\"\"Epigram\u00a0\/ Sophie Maclaren<\/p>\n

Sullivan\u2019s threat of legal action is based on the allegation that the University failed to uphold these standards for freedom of speech, something which the University refutes.<\/p>\n

This dispute follows a fine of \u00a3585,000 issued by the OfS to the University of Sussex, which came after the resignation of Prof. Kathleen Stock after students protested her gender-critical stances. The OfS claimed, \u2018Sussex\u2019s Trans and Non-Binary Equality Policy Statement failed to uphold the freedom of speech and academic freedom\u2019 laid out in the OfS regulatory framework.<\/p>\n

After this, the University of Bristol rolled back a similar policy obliging staff to remove transphobic and anti-trans material from campus.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Two motions passed, but Associate Membership still dominates at Student Council<\/p>\n

An \u2018Expression of Dissatisfaction\u2019 was passed over the Board of Trustee\u2019s unprecedented move to overturn a motion regarding Associate Membership at the last Student Council.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Speaking to Epigram, a University of Bristol spokesperson said that:<\/p>\n

\u2018Professor Sullivan\u2019s seminar went ahead safely, in line with our strong commitment to upholding free speech. Although protestors caused unacceptable disruption, appropriate measures were in place to enable the event to continue and to protect the speaker and attendees.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u2018Professor Sullivan expressed her gratitude to our security team for their support and subsequently met with our Vice-Chancellor to discuss what happened. We refute claims that we failed to protect her freedom of speech; every action we took was in support of this and the restrictions she outlines were all necessary for public safety.<\/p>\n

\u2018Our stance is clear – free speech must be lawful. There is no protection within the law for abusive speech that incites violence, harassment or discrimination. Clearly the intimidating behaviour of protestors was not peaceful and we have condemned their unacceptable behaviour. We will take disciplinary action if anyone from the university community is identified as being involved.\u2019<\/p>\n

Featured image: Epigram\/Dan Hutton<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u00a0\u00a0By Lenny Osler, News Reporter Protesters gathered outside the building where Professor Alice Sullivan delivered a seminar entitled…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":651243,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8818],"tags":[381,748,393,4884,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-651242","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-bristol","8":"tag-bristol","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-great-britain","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115771248184996330","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/651242","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=651242"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/651242\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/651243"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=651242"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=651242"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=651242"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}