THAILAND: Professor charged with insulting King flees

Giles Ji Ungpakorn, a professor of political science at Chulalongkorn University in Thailand, fled to Britain last week after being charged with insulting the King under Thailand's draconian lèse majesté laws. Ungpakorn faced three to 15 years in prison for insulting the King in paragraphs in his book, A Coup for the Rich. Lèse majesté laws are intended to punish "whoever defames, insults or threatens the king, the queen, the heir to the throne or the regent".

Ungpakorn's book provides an academic analysis of the recent political crises in Thailand from a pro-democracy point of view. He criticises the coup of September 2006 in which the military seized political power and argues that the army, along with the rest of the Thai establishment, used the monarchy to legitimise its political interventions. Since the new government took over in February 2008, internet monitoring to prevent insults to the King has been a top priority.

UK: Academic freedom under threat at Cambridge

Cambridge dons have accused their university of trying to change its centuries-old constitution to make it easier to sack and silence them. Several lecturers claim their academic freedom is under threat from reforms proposed by senior managers at the institution, which is celebrating its 800th anniversary this year, The Guardian has said.

The reforms would mean academics facing redundancy or a disciplinary hearing would no longer have the right to have their cases heard by the vice-chancellor, the university tribunal, or its highest appeal court. Instead, they would be on an equal footing with librarians, laboratory technicians and other non-academic staff, who have their cases heard by a tribunal of three people chosen at random by a head of a department at the university. Academics argue the reforms would make it easier for lecturers to be sacked and stripped of the freedom to criticise the university.

ISRAEL-PALESTINE: University suspends contacts with Israeli academics

The only Palestinian university to maintain ties with Israeli colleges, and also to oppose international calls for a boycott of Israeli academics, has suspended contacts with Israeli universities in the wake of the war in Gaza, The Chronicle of Higher Education has said. Al Quds University, with 10,000 students on campuses in the West Bank, had been noted for its ties to Israeli academe despite years of conflict between Palestinians and Israelis. However on 1 February the university froze all projects with Israeli colleges for six months.

Faculty members said they were disappointed their joint projects with Israeli colleagues had failed to produce any tangible results and had caused friction with other Palestinian universities. The President of Al Quds persuaded his colleagues not to break off ties permanently but to suspend cooperation for a limited time. Al Quds academics told The Chronicle that some Arab donors, notably Kuwait, had refused to provide funds because of its policy of dialogue and cooperation with Israel.

US: Professor accused of genocide

Goucher College has suspended a visiting French professor from teaching after the Baltimore institution was presented with charges that he was directly involved in the 1994 genocide in his home country of Rwanda. According to Inside Higher Ed, an NBC news producer reportedly told Goucher president that Leopold Munyakazi was potentially a war criminal, living and working in the US.

A Rwandan prosecutor also asserted that his government had eyewitnesses who believed Munyakazi had participated in the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. Munyakazi vehemently denies the accusations but the college decided to take pre-emptive action against him. Inside Higher Ed reported that while some commentators viewed the charges as credible, other human rights officials were dubious.

VENEZUELA: Armoured vehicles entered university

The National Experimental University of Tachira (UNET) was raided last Monday by National Guard troops, following a student demonstration against a newly proposed constitutional amendment introduced by the government, El Universal news said. The National Guard broke into the campus in armoured vehicles and tear gas was reportedly used.

Carlos Chacon, Vice-chancellor of UNET, complained about the continuing use of violence by the government of President Chavez. But Interior Minister Tareck El Aissami denied that the university had been raided.

* Jonathan Travis is programme officer for the Network for Education and Academic Rights (NEAR): www.nearinternational.org