Students get green light to protest against campus speakers

Australia’s oldest university has given its students the green light to protest against controversial speakers on campus despite government concerns that freedom of speech is under threat from activist students, writes Michael Koziol for The Sydney Morning Herald.

The University of Sydney hired external investigators to examine a protest targeting an event last year featuring journalist and author Bettina Arndt, which sparked a Morrison government inquiry into free speech at Australian universities. The nine-month investigation resulted in disciplinary action against one student, protest organiser Madeline Ward, but otherwise cleared students of misconduct or breaching the university's guidelines on freedom of expression.

The incident prompted an outcry in conservative media outlets about a lack of free speech at Australian universities, and was a major factor in federal Education Minister Dan Tehan's decision to order a review by former High Court chief justice Robert French. But in a letter detailing the outcome of its internal investigation, the University of Sydney's acting registrar, Peter McCallum, described the event and the counter-protest as “legitimate” expressions of free speech.
Full report on The Sydney Morning Herald site