A UK university has revised its policy on harassment under legal pressure from the Free Speech Union, spotlighting the organisation’s influence and the prospect of its mounting bigger legal actions against institutions if England’s free speech bill becomes law.
The University of Essex made what it described as two “minor revisions” to its “zero tolerance” policy after receiving pre-action letters – billed as preludes to potential judicial review – from the FSU, whose founder and director is the right-wing commentator Toby Young.
The Westminster government’s Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Bill, recently carried over into the new session of Parliament, includes a “statutory tort” that would enable individuals to sue universities and students’ unions for compensation over breaches of free speech duties.
