Murdoch Overreach (Advocate 26 03)

In 1997, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) published its Recommendation Concerning the Status of Higher-Education Teaching Personnel which included the following statement:
“ … all higher-education teaching personnel should enjoy freedom of thought, conscience, religion, expression, assembly and association as well as the right to liberty and security of the person and liberty of movement. They should not be hindered or impeded in exercising their civil rights as citizens, including the right to contribute to social change through freely expressing their opinion of state policies and of policies affecting higher education. They should not suffer any penalties simply because of the exercise of such rights.”
But more and more frequently, Australian universities are seemingly thumbing their noses at the notion that university workers are, by right, free to consider and develop controversial ideas in the search for truth. More...