The BBC is wrong: university censorship is definitely not a myth

Campus censorship is a myth. That’s the new line being spun by student union officials and university leaders in response to the campaigners, commentators and politicians raising concerns about the increasingly censorious culture on British campuses. The extent of No Platforming, Safe Space censorship and newspaper bans, they say, is being exaggerated by right-wing hacks desperate for something to fulminate about.

Up to now, it’s an argument that’s been easy enough to dismiss given the very people making it are usually the ones responsible for the campus censorship we read about. But a BBC ‘Fact Check’, purporting to back-up their claims, has, irritatingly, given them a bit of a boost.

The BBC sent freedom of information requests to universities across Britain to ask if they had made any changes to courses, removed any books from libraries or cancelled any speakers as a result of complaints from offended students. Of 120 responses, they found that, since 2010, there have only been four instances of course content being removed, six occasions of universities cancelling speakers and zero instances of books being removed or banned.