November
Neo-Nazi rally attendee may be kicked out of Australia
About 60 men carried anti-Jewish banners outside the NSW Parliament and police came under fire for allowing the National Socialist Network rally to go ahead.
October
Learn from Spain on gas pricing
Readers’ letters on gas pricing distortions, renewable and nuclear energy, Abbott’s lack of vision, Ley’s T-shirt tantrum and the need for a letter writers’ cabinet.
The next hack target isn’t your phone, it’s your mind
Neurotechnology poses a question that sounds like science fiction: how do we protect human rights when technology can decode our thoughts?
Heard the one about anti-woke comedians going to a festival in Riyadh?
Watching standups who rail against censorship try to justify taking this gig in Saudi Arabia – and the hefty fee – is the only funny thing about this situation.
September
Tearful but defiant Jimmy Kimmel addresses Kirk scandal on air
The late-night US show host returned to TV and said he never meant to make light of Charlie Kirk’s murder, while also passionately defending free speech.
America’s slide into autocracy is accelerating
The idea that disaffected voters will clip Donald Trump’s wings in the midterms is quixotic. What might he do in the next 14 months?
Jimmy Kimmel’s show returns to air as suspension ends
Disney said the late-night program will return this week, days after the company pulled it indefinitely over the host’s remarks about Charlie Kirk’s shooting.
The government has a tough climate policy task
Readers’ letters on the need for social licence for climate policy, energy security, Trump’s paracetamol claims, Albanese in New York and Nvidia’s AI deals.
Tears, forgiveness and fury: Kirk remembered as martyr for free speech
Allies of Charlie Kirk have vowed to carry on his mission to defeat leftist ideology at a packed service that at times looked more like a campaign rally.
Jimmy Kimmel’s downfall exposes double standard on free speech
Why is there so little tolerance for conservative voices, yet so much dismay over the loss of a progressive late-night comic?
‘Morals and ethics’: Kirk supporters back limits to free speech
As thousands descend on Phoenix for Charlie Kirk’s memorial, some backers of the activist say the campaign against leftists who mock his death can be justified.
Trump warns of more to come after Jimmy Kimmel axing
The US president said networks should have their broadcast rights revoked if they are too scathing of him, and again applauded the cancelling of Kimmel’s show.
Jimmy Kimmel’s demise exposes how power fears ridicule
Comedy is not a sideshow. It is part of the main act. When comedy vanishes, rulers mistake themselves for the nation.
Inside Disney’s decision to pull Jimmy Kimmel
The abrupt programming decision quickly morphed into a flashpoint for free speech in America under the Trump administration.
Kirk’s death highlights the fragility of free speech everywhere
The term “hate speech” should not be so broadly defined that it can be used as an instrument to suppress discourse regarded as offensive.
The left celebrate Kirk’s death because they couldn’t cancel him
According to his critics, Charlie Kirk was not assassinated when he was shot in front of 3000 people at Utah Valley University – he committed suicide.
Kirk killing is a reckoning for cancel culture at the barrel of a gun
The normalisation of political violence is a tragic reflection of the perilous state of American democracy, which has been fractured by intense polarisation.
How did Britain go from Magna Carta to the North Korea of the North Sea?
The root of the UK’s free speech problem is that the “stirring up hatred” offence, first introduced in 1965 by the Race Relations Act, is no longer fit for purpose.
August
Unis urged to adopt ‘institutional silence’ on controversial issues
This will help avoid undermining the fundamental purpose of encouraging debate to flourish, says University of Melbourne professor.
How Chris Minns’ hate speech laws import old-world hatred to Australia’s heart
A community of migrants such as ours can’t live in relative peace if centuries-old ethnic and religious enmities are allowed to fester.