Meet the groups leading the free speech fight-back against Britain’s ‘institutionally captured’ universities
James Saunders wrote a long piece for GB News on the free speech fightback in universities. Here, with permission, we publish a short taster. In his article James also discuss at the work of our friends at Alumni For Free Speech (AFFS) and others.
On AFAF
Professor Dennis Hayes is the director of Academics For Academic Freedom (AFAF) – a thousands-strong free speech campaign group representing staff at more than thirty universities across the UK and Ireland.
AFAF runs a “Banned List” of “silenced” academics, groups and public figures stretching back two decades – but Prof Hayes told The People’s Channel it was “only the tip of the iceberg”.
He said his group deals “daily” with grievances and casework on academics who have been “disciplined or threatened” for speaking their minds in “institutionally captured” universities.
“I want as many academics as possible to make a public statement that they’re in favour of free speech. If they did that – made a public statement – a commitment to free academic inquiry – then we would change everything.”
On SAFAF
Jaiden Long, the convenor of Student Academics For Academic Freedom (SAFAF) told GB News: “It’s run by students, for students. It’s a proper student organisation.”
Like AFAF, he stresses that SAFAF is “non-partisan”. “We don’t subscribe to any particular politics, besides the politics of having free speech,” he said.
One of SAFAF’s most “notorious” members is Connie Shaw, the Leeds University student who was “silenced” for her gender-critical views.
One of Long’s fellow students at Queen Mary, Shiven, said: “There are dominating views by certain students who believe there are correct ways of thinking on a given issue.
“I have called out my peers for making generalised and untrue statements like ‘the UK and US are white supremacist countries’, only to find out after seminars that others agreed with me but felt too intimidated to speak up.
“More often than not, it’s students who reject views and want to silence others’ opinions, rather than academic staff.”
This article originally appeared on the GB News website on Saturday 1 March 2025. We thank GB News for permission to publish these extracts. Read the full piece here.
Image Credit: The official logo of GB News (29 January 2021) -used here under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.
