91

Skip to main content

Freedom of Speech

This statement sets out 91’s commitment to freedom of thought and expression, outlines the various legislative frameworks under which such freedoms must be upheld and may be circumscribed, and summarises the procedures used by the College to manage these issues.

91 is fully committed to the principle, and to the promotion, of freedom of speech and expression. The College’s core values are ‘freedom of thought and expression’ and ‘freedom from discrimination, and thus it fosters an environment in which all of its Fellows, staff and students can participate fully in College life, and feel able to question and test received wisdom, and to express new ideas and controversial or unpopular opinions within the law, without fear of intolerance or discrimination. In exercising their right to freedom of expression, the College expects its Fellows, staff, students and visitors to be tolerant of the differing opinions of others, in line with the College’s core value of freedom of expression.  The College also expects its Fellows, staff, students and visitors to be tolerant of the diverse identities of others, in line with the College’s core value of freedom from discrimination. While debate and discussion may be robust and challenging, all speakers have a right to be heard when exercising their right to free speech within the law. 

The College will ensure that Fellows and staff are able to exercise freedom of thought and expression within the law without placing themselves at risk of losing their job or any College privileges and benefits they have. The College expects all Fellows, staff and students to engage with intellectual and ideological challenges in a constructive, questioning and peaceable way, even if they find the viewpoints expressed to be disagreeable, unwelcome or distasteful.  The right of Fellows, staff and students to freedom of assembly, and to protest against certain viewpoints, should not obstruct the ability of others to exercise their lawful freedom of expression. 

These commitments are reinforced by the Human Rights Act 1998, which brings the European Convention on Human Rights into direct effect in national law. Article 10 of the Convention articulates freedom of expression as a human right and sets out the limited circumstances in which that right might be circumscribed (such as to protect public safety, for the prevention of disorder or crime, or for the protection of the reputation or rights of others). These commitments also exist within other UK legislation. Universities in England and Wales, notably, have a statutory duty under section 43 of the Education (No. 2) Act 1986 to take such steps as are reasonably practicable to ensure that lawful freedom of speech and expression is secured for all Fellows, staff and students and for visiting speakers.  As part of this statutory duty the College is also required to issue and keep up to date a code of practice to be followed by all members, students, and employees of the College for the organisation of meetings and other events whether indoors or outdoors on College premises. The Code also sets out the conduct required of all individuals involved in such meetings and events. 

In addition, section 26 of the Counterterrorism and Security Act 2015 places a duty on certain bodies, including Higher Education Institutions, in the exercise of their functions to have ‘due regard to the need to prevent people from being drawn into terrorism’. This necessitates the establishment of protocols and procedures by which to assess the risks associated with meetings or events that are College hosted, affiliated, funded, or branded.  This Act also requires Higher Education Institutions to have particular regard to other statutory duties with regard to academic freedom and freedom of expression.  Debate, discussion, and critical enquiry are, in themselves, powerful tools in preventing people from being drawn into terrorism. 

An active speaker programme is fundamental to the academic and other activities of the College and Fellows, staff and students are encouraged to invite a wide range of speakers and to engage critically but courteously with them. This Statement and the Code provide the only mechanism by which the College can cancel or impose conditions on meetings or events where this action is deemed necessary as a result of the event’s subject matter and/or speaker(s). This is to ensure that the use of College premises is not inappropriately denied to any individual or body of persons on any ground connected with their beliefs or views or the policy or objectives of a body (with the exception of proscribed groups or organisations) of which they are a member. 

The College’s policy, in line with its duty under section 43 of the Education (No. 2) Act 1986, is that any speaker who has been invited to speak at a meeting or other event, on College premises must not be stopped from doing so unless: they are likely to express unlawful speech, or their attendance would lead the host organisation to breach other legal obligations, and no reasonably practicable steps can be taken to reduce these risks. However, all speakers should anticipate that their views might be subject to robust debate, critique and challenge. 

External speakers who are known to be members of proscribed groups or organisations, or who are likely to encourage support for proscribed groups or organisations under UK law, should not be invited to speak at College events. 

The College will not unreasonably either refuse to allow events to be held on its premises or impose special or unreasonable or onerous conditions upon the running of those events. The lawful expression of controversial or unpopular views will not in itself constitute reasonable grounds for withholding permission for a meeting or event. 

The College may only restrict speaker events given a reasonable belief that such events are likely to involve speech that violates the law, that falsely defames a specific individual, that constitutes a genuine threat or harassment, that unjustifiably invades substantial privacy or confidentiality interests, or that is otherwise directly incompatible with the functioning of the College. In addition, the College may reasonably regulate speaker events to ensure that they do not disrupt the ordinary activities of the College. 

These narrow exceptions to the general principle of freedom of expression are not intended ever to apply in a way that is inconsistent with the College’s commitment to the completely free and open discussion of ideas. 

This Code should be read alongside the following College Policies: 

  • Management of External Events and External Speakers
  • Code of Practice regarding Elections and Party-Political Activity 

Section 43 of the Education (No2) Act 1986, referring to freedom of speech in universities, polytechnics, and colleges, requires the College to issue and keep up to date a code of practice to be followed by all Fellows, staff and students of the College for the organisation of meetings and other events which are to be held on College premises, and for the conduct required of Fellows, staff and students of the College in connection with such meetings and events. This Code of Practice therefore applies to all Fellows, staff and students of the College, in respect of all College premises, whether indoors or outdoors.  The Code should be read in conjunction with the University Statement on Freedom of Speech. 

Fellows, staff and students at the College are reminded that alleged breaches of the general regulations for discipline or of the rules of behaviour applicable to current registered students or of any relevant conditions of employment may be brought before the relevant disciplinary authority. 

Authority and approval processes for meetings and events on College premises 

Any meeting or event on College premises should have at least one organiser who is responsible for the meeting or event and is a Fellow, member of staff or student at the College.  If a meeting or event is proposed by an external group or individual without such an organiser, it may only proceed on condition that an individual to whom this Code applies is identified or nominated as the organiser responsible for the meeting or event. 

Authority is required for meetings and events to be held on College premises, whether indoors or outdoors.  It is anticipated that, in the vast majority of cases, the authority in question will straightforwardly consider the request as part of normal business.  However, in the exceptional circumstances that the authority in question considers that the holding of the meeting or event might reasonably be refused because of the duty to prevent people from being drawn into terrorism or for some other valid reason as indicated in the College’s Statement on Freedom of Speech, there is a process of escalation to the College Officers. Only the College Officers may refuse permission in this way and on these bases. 

The request should be forwarded to the College Officers with a statement of the concerns. This referral should be made at least seven working days in advance of the proposed meeting or event. Members of the College who are concerned that a particular forthcoming meeting or event should be escalated to the College Officers may do so directly. The College Officers will, in consultation as necessary, determine whether the meeting or event can go ahead as originally planned, or in alternative premises, at a later date, or in a different format. Only in exceptional circumstances, when there are risks which cannot be mitigated or the event organiser refuses to meet any conditions imposed, will permission be withheld.  An organiser who is unhappy with the College Officers’ decision has the right of appeal to Council. 

Any decision by the College Officers (including one upheld on appeal) that a meeting or event should not take place, or may only take place subject to conditions, is binding and takes precedence over any other decision which may have been taken by any other body or officer in the College. 

Organisation and management of meetings and events on College premises 

Once approved, the organisers of meetings and events must comply with any conditions set by the College authority concerned for the organisation of the meeting or event. Such conditions may include the requirement that tickets should be issued, that an adequate number of stewards or security staff should be available, that the Police should be consulted and their advice taken about the arrangements, and that the time and/or place of the meeting should be changed. The cost of meeting the conditions, and the responsibility for fulfilling them, rests with the organisers. 

Other legal considerations 

The attention of organisers of meetings and events is drawn to sections 11 and 14 of the Public Order Act 1986, concerning the conduct of processions and assemblies. Other legal requirements may also affect the conduct of meetings and events. These include incitement to violence, to breach of the peace, or to racial hatred.  Meetings and events, even if directed to lawful purposes, cease to be lawful if they cause serious public disorder or breach of the peace. Attention is also drawn to the provisions of the Licensing Acts. These Acts require the licensee to maintain good order on licensed premises and give the licensee the power to expel persons from the premises if they consider it necessary. 

Context 

  1. Colleges are required to have written procedures to demonstrate their compliance with their new legal duties as set out in the Counterterrorism and Security Act 2015 and the Prevent duty guidance issued by government. In particular, they are required to have written procedures on how they manage the risk assessment and subsequent management of "external events", which in this context relates to scheduled or advertised meetings or activities that include visiting speakers (i.e. speakers who are not members of the University or one of the Colleges) and/or significant numbers of attendees from outside of Collegiate Cambridge.
  2. This applies, for example, to student society events hosting a visiting speaker held in College or elsewhere, and to external bookings made with the College (e.g. graduate seminars, alumni events and conferences). 

Principles 

  1. The College is strongly committed to the principle of freedom of speech and expression and will have a published statement to that effect: this must be referenced in an appropriate place for those seeking to book College rooms for an external event: students who take the lead in managing College student societies (including but not limited to the JCR and MCR) should have it brought to their attention.
  2. This document outlines key elements of written procedures for:
  • the management of external events at which controversial views may be expressed (whether or not they are held at the College); and
  • the management of visiting speakers at meetings held within the College. 

Approval and risk management of events 

  1. At enquiry, the Events Office will clarify the:
  • Type of booking e.g. -Student/Departmental/Research/Commercial
  • Purpose of booking e.g. –lecture/debate/networking/sales/training
  • Target audience
  1. At provisional booking stage, the Events Office will:
  • Identify information required before confirmation of the event can be given
  • Title of the event
  • Detailed summary of event Topics
  • Follow up for additional information if concern is given over the subject matter
  • Identity of the presenters
  • Breakdown of expected target audience demographic with evidence from previous events
  • Researching details of their event and organisation/s online.
  • Highlighting the Prevent Statutory Duty within the provisional booking letter.
  • Point clients to the section of the T&Cs in the provisional letter, with permanent paragraphs that appear on every letter
  1. At confirmation stage
  • Refer to the Counter Terrorism and Security Act 2015 and Prevent Statutory Duty within our Terms and Conditions and what due diligence consists of.
  • Identify our right to cancel and if we believe event details change without sufficient time to carry out our due diligence.
  • Clients will be pointed to this section of the T&Cs in the confirmation letter, with permanent paragraphs that appear on every letter.
  1. Pre-event day
  • We will monitor all events, as we currently do, for timely payments and consistent and complete information provided on request and at least 10 days before their event start date (as required by our T&Cs).
  • If this information is not provided within the timeframe, the event will be deemed to be cancelled by the client or student and we will communicate this decision.
  1. On the event day, we will advise clients that a member of staff from the College may, at any time, listen to their event as it takes place and read any associated literature on or off-line.
  2. The nominated members of staff (Events team) are confident to ask more questions about the booking, have conversations with the person making the booking and conduct additional research should the information provided at any stage raise any concern.
  3. Events that are planning to discuss controversial views will be subject to risk assessments to ensure that the risks can be fully mitigated whilst allowing for free speech. If the risks cannot be mitigated, the event will not go ahead.
  4. Activities likely to be considered inappropriate to be conducted on College premises include:
  • internal or external speakers giving talks which directly or indirectly promote violence towards members of the College or the general public, or which may advance the radicalisation of College members (as it is defined in the Colleges’ statement on freedom of speech);
  • internal or external speakers whose presence or activity, in the view of the College, carries a reasonable likelihood of risk to the health or safety of its members or of the general public;
  • physical activities where there has not been due regard for the safety of participants and onlookers;
  • activities where the College has been advised by the police that they represent a high risk at the specified time or location proposed.
  1. Risk: We can have written confirmation from the organiser that nothing to contradict the Counter Terrorism and Security Act 2015 will occur, however we would only know that something controversial has occurred if it is reported by someone in attendance at the event. 

The College’s objectives are learning, education and research and maintaining a College for students to study for degrees in the University. Party political campaigning does not support the delivery of these objectives and therefore, in accordance with Charity Commission guidance, the College may not engage in it. As a consequence of this, the public display of party-political posters within public spaces within the College (including College houses) or via electronic media controlled by the College and similar or related party-political activities are not permitted. Students are reminded that MECSU and the MCR are statutory bodies of the College and therefore also represent the College for these purposes. 

However, the College’s policies on freedom of speech do not prevent the holding of events by members on the College’s premises subject to the College’s normal decanal processes for the approval and holding of meetings and “Prevent” duty procedures. Also, College members may display material in their rooms (subject to the terms of room licences generally). 

In relation to handling electoral communications and canvassing: 

  1. Electoral communications received by post will be dealt with in the same way as other post received by the College for its resident members.
  2. Door-to-door delivery of written material is not permitted with the College or College houses.
  3. Written material relating to an election issued by a candidate’s agent may be delivered to the Porter’s Lodge. It will then be made available to resident members by being placed in common rooms, but will not be put into individual pigeonholes.
  4. Door-to-door canvassing is not permitted in Colleges or College houses.