Very much appreciate top brass at Swedish universities holding the line on freedom of speech, in light of recent campaigns of targeted harassment of faculty and staff. /1

The Chancellor of @UmeaUniversity, Hans Adolfsson, struck the right notes last year, when he noted that a University is not in the business of approving or disapproving of faculty speech – but of defending the constitutional right to free inquiry. /2

https://www.umu.se/nyheter/viktigt-att-forskare-deltar-i-samhallsdebatten_9031686/

Adolfsson added – helpfully, I think – that the constitutional right to free speech and free inquiry comes with a moral duty to use that freedom "responsibly and judiciously." Free speech is not only compatible with such a duty, but arguably presupposes it. /3

The President of @karolinskainst, Ole Petter Ottersen, just yesterday called for a forceful denunciation of every effort to silence researchers, e.g., by means of targeted harassment, frivolous threats, and false accusations. /4

Ottersen is particularly alarmed by reports to the effect that some of the harassers are themselves university faculty and staff. He writes: "Open debate, criticism, and discussion belong to the core of a healthy academic tradition. Personal attacks do not." /5

The distinction between (a) spirited debate, which is an exercise of one's freedom of speech, and (b) targeted harassment, which is an assault on another's freedom of speech, should not be that hard to appreciate, but here we are. /6

Ofc blurring that distinction is a big part of the harassers' playbook. It allows them to frame their target as the guilty party and themselves as merely responding in kind; and moreover to accuse their critics of hypocrisy for failing to denounce the target of harassment. /7

Another big part of the playbook is blurring the distinction between the right to free speech and the duty to use it judiciously. Doing so allows harassers to complain that their freedom of speech is suppressed whenever they're accused of failing to live up to the duty. /8