The Free Speech Union

In this episode of The Free Speech Union podcast, Connie Shaw speaks with Reverend Dr Bernard Randall, who underwent a seven-year battle after delivering a sermon encouraging pupils at Trent College in Nottinghamshire to think critically and respect diverse viewpoints on sex and gender.

Trent College was a Christian school and had employed Bernard as its chaplain. But the school had adopted a woke agenda. After Bernard's sermon, he was banned from preaching in the school chapel. He was also secretly reported to the government's counter extermism programme, Prevent. Bernard describes years of tribunal proceedings and Church of England safeguarding investigations. And the importance of standing up for freedom of conscience. 

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#freespeech #censorshipdebate #religiousfreedom

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Stephen Gray, a retired police officer and foster parent, tells Connie Shaw how a reposted Facebook joke led to police at his door, the seizure of his shotgun certificate, a prosecution under the Communications Act and a criminal conviction.

He explains why he believes the joke made a political point about child marriage in Islam, why he is appealing the conviction with the Free Speech Union’s support, and what his case says about policing, the CPS and the shrinking space for lawful but offensive speech.

Please help the Free Speech Union fund Stephen's appeal against conviction: https://freespeechunion.org/fundraisers/blasphemy-fundraiser

#freespeech #censorshipdebate #blasphemylaw

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The death of Jason Arday has triggered calls for press regulation and censorship, including an “Arday’s Law” to limit the number of articles written about one person.

Graeme Wood is a free speech absolutist and a staff writer at The Atlantic. He joins the Free Speech Union’s Director of Research and Policy, David Rose, to discuss the Jason Arday plagiarism scandal, the backlash against journalists, and why calls for state regulation of the press should alarm anyone who values free speech.

#freespeech #censorshipdebate #pressfreedom

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Read Graeme Wood's article in The Atlantic: "Jason Arday’s Final Self-Delusion Elevating a fraud is shameful. Exposing one isn’t." https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/08/jason-arday-death-lies-delusion/688311/

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Collin May had a successful academic and professional career, culiminating in his appointment in 2022 as chair of the Human Rights Commission for the Canadian province of Alberta.

But May's 2009 review of an academic book about Islam was about to destroy his career.

The National Council of Canadian Muslims, a lobby group with links to the Muslim Brotherhood, claimed that passages in May's review were offensive and Islamophobic. May was sacked after defending his review and refusing to resign.

In this powerful interview, May explains how this resulted him losing his home and his reputation. But the experience also inspired his book about cancel culture's evolution into something even more dangerous: “incarceration culture”.

Collin May is now the reserach director of the Free Speech Union Canada.

#freespeech #censorshipdebate #cancelculture

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Collin May is the author of "From Cancel Culture to Incarceration Culture: Prosecutorial Democracy and the Future of Cancellation" https://www.amazon.com/Cancel-Culture-Incarceration-Prosecutorial-Cancellation/dp/1680533703/ref=sr_1_1?crid=27W0VIQHAC3K5&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.J8DAk3dQCAmI833r5a1NghwsrksvmTNq7LFkf1yDkmgqYNibkEuMqMHiIspFCvRvclei4HNbZI-Ghqf6UPPnuw.-ckc1S7E8I1Iv10ZwAa51gzhWiIAOK1Gq0azkaovpbo&dib_tag=se&keywords=from+cancel+culture+to+incarceration+culture&qid=1786989661&sprefix=from+cancel+culture+to+incarcaration+cultu%2Caps%2C214&sr=8-1

The Charlie Hebdo attack divided Prof Matei Candea's friends. It also prompted him to embark on an anthropological study of free speech.

The result is "Reason, Carnival and Honour: An Anthropology of Free Speech", a book which explores the hidden assumptions behind free speech debates.

Professor Candea discusses his book with Dr Jan MacVarish, the Free Speech Union's director of national engagement.

#freespeech #censorshipdebate

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Buy Professor Matei Candea’s book, Reason, Carnival and Honour, published by Pelican: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0241711258?tag=prhmarketing2552-21

Professor Matei Candea’s website: https://www.candea.org/