The new Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge University has said that free speech is “critical” as she sets out to create events to help it flourish on campus. ‘Critical issues’The forums or “dialogues” will provide opportunities for people from different positions to exchange views on “critical issues”. The psychology professor said: “The message is simple: free speech is absolutely core to everything that we do, critical to our community and is really inviolable.”She added: “I want to create environments in which free speech can flourish.”Free speech tsarLast month, the Government’s newly appointed free speech tsar pledged to use his role to “defend free speech within the law for all views and approaches”. Arif Ahmed became the first Director for Freedom of Speech and Academic Freedom at the Office for Students. The Cambridge Professor of Philosophy said he will use “all means necessary” to address the “urgent threats to free speech” on campuses.

Source: The Times July 13, 2023 19:13 UTC