Defend Free Speech or Descend into a Political Abyss, Says Freedom of Speech Tsar | BBC News

Oct 13, 2025 | Arif Ahmed has been dubbed the “Free Speech Tsar” and is responsible for enforcing new rules to protect free speech on university and college campuses in England.

In an interview with Nick Robinson for BBC Radio 4’s Political Thinking podcast, he warned of falling into an “abyss” of political violence if we didn’t settle our differences through speech.

As Director of Freedom of Speech and Academic Freedom at the Office for Students, Ahmed threatened universities with fines and cutting off public funding if they fail to protect students and academics from intimidation.

You can watch the interview on BBC iPlayer or listen to an extended version on BBC Sounds.

Democracy Now! Deportation of Reporter Mario Guevara Is an "Attack on Free Speech and Journalism"

October 3, 2025

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"We Have to Move Fast": Jane Fonda Relaunches Father's Free Speech Group to Counter Trump Censorship

Oct 3, 2025 | The Oscar-winning actress and activist Jane Fonda is relaunching her father Henry Fonda's free speech organization, the Committee for the First Amendment. First established in 1947 to combat the rise of McCarthyism, the organization brings together members of the film and television industry to push back against and refuse government censorship. Fonda's announcement comes after the television network ABC brought back late-night host Jimmy Kimmel's show following widespread protest. Kimmel's show had been pulled from the air after he made comments criticizing the Trump administration's response to the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. "This regime is held up by pillars: military, media, professions and so forth. If each pillar organizes to remove support, we can do it," says Fonda about why she's decided to relaunch the organization now. "We have to do it."

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Judge Destroys Trump’s Free Speech Crackdown in Landmark Ruling

Oct 1, 2025 | A federal court just delivered a historic ruling: the Trump administration’s campaign to detain and deport pro-Palestinian students and scholars was unconstitutional. Judge William Young, an 85-year-old Reagan appointee, slammed ICE for “squalid and dishonorable” tactics and declared that Trump’s policy violated the First Amendment.

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We Are Seeing the Non-stop Abuse of Power and Abuse of the American People

Steve Schmidt explains.

IHIP News: Trump's ATTACK on Free Speech Backfires; MAGA Men Crash Grindr Again

Sep 23, 2025 | Jimmy Kimmel has been returned to air after Trump's attacks on free speech, and the men of MAGA crash Grindr in Arizona during the Charlie Kirk memorial.

Jameel Jaffer on Trump's "Authoritarian" Free Speech Crackdown

Sep 22, 2025 | We look at how the assassination of Charlie Kirk has emerged as a tool for the Trump administration to crack down on dissent and free speech, as tens of thousands gathered Sunday in Arizona for a memorial for the conservative activist, including his wife Erika Kirk. While she called for forgiveness, President Trump and other top speakers, including Vice President JD Vance and White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, reiterated calls for revenge on political opponents. "It is not just rhetoric," says Jameel Jaffer, director of the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University. "The president really is using every lever at his disposal to silence, suppress and even imprison his political enemies." Trump has also suggested that it should be illegal for journalists to cover his presidency in a negative light.

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I have news for you, Mr President! This side of the Atlantic, I have never heard anyone say a good word about you! Most people I have heard speaking about you seem to despise you. At best, I have heard people laugh about you! Put that in your pipe and smoke it! Perhaps it is high time that you took a long, hard look at yourself in the mirror, Mr President!

Tip: The answer to this problem is not to clamp down on people’s right to freedom of speech; but to change your yourself and your behaviour enough for people to start liking you. — © Mark Alexander

In Assault on Free Speech, Trump Targets Speech He Hates

THE NEW YORK TIMES: The president’s complaints about negative coverage undermine the rationales offered by his own officials.

As President Trump threatens a wide-ranging crackdown on mainstream media institutions and political opponents, his aides and allies have cast the administration’s moves as critical to stanching misinformation and hate speech that could lead to political violence.

But Mr. Trump himself has repeatedly made clear in recent days that he has a different goal. For him, it’s not about hate speech, but about speech that he hates — namely, speech that is critical of him and his administration.

He has suggested that a clutch of protesters who yelled at him in a restaurant be prosecuted under laws targeting mobsters. He demanded that multiple late-night comics who mocked him be taken off air. He threatened to shutter television broadcasters that he deemed unfair to him. He sued The New York Times for allegedly damaging his reputation. And that was just last week.

When threatening government action against those who anger him, Mr. Trump can be strikingly transparent about what is driving him. He talks regularly about how journalists, commentators and political actors should not be “allowed” to be so harsh toward him. Having installed a partisan ally to run the F.B.I., he muses openly about which political critics he would like to see investigated. » | Peter Baker | Peter Baker, the chief White House correspondent, is covering his sixth presidency. He reported from Washington. | Sunday, September 21, 2025

Trump’s ‘Free Speech Crackdown’ Is Turning America into Putin’s Russia | Tina Brown

Sep 21, 2025 | “It is such an outright naked free speech crackdown.”

Donald Trump’s pressure on US media resembles the early tactics of Vladimir Putin, says former Vanity Fair and New Yorker editor Tina Brown.

‘Bitcoin Is the Free Speech of Money’: Fears Grow over Far Right’s Embrace of Crypto

THE OBSERVER: Hard-to trace digital transactions could lead to hostile states or criminal organisations secretly making political donations and threatening democracy

When Elon Musk appeared on huge screens dotted along Whitehall last weekend calling for thousands of attendees at far-right campaigner Tommy Robinson’s Unite the Kingdom rally to “fight back… or die”, the tech billionaire’s image was accompanied by the logos of the event’s sponsors. All but one were cryptocurrencies.

It highlighted the arrival in Britain of a global pattern: the embrace by extreme rightwing movements of decentralised digital currencies.

Athena Bitcoin Global, one of the main sponsors of the event, which saw up to 150,000 people gather in central London, has been accused of profiting from cybercrime in the US.

This month, the attorney general for the District of Columbia (DC) accused the company, which makes bitcoin ATMs that exchange the cryptocurrency for cash and vice versa, of knowingly profiting from scams targeting elderly victims for “life-altering” sums of cash.

In a lawsuit filed against Athena, DC attorney general Brian Schwalb alleged that 93% of the deposits in that district in its first five months were “the product of outright fraud”. » | Catherine Neilan, Whitehall editor; John Simpson, Home affairs editor | Sunday, September 21, 2025

Charlie Kirk, Kash Patel and Trump’s War on Freedom of Speech | The Listening Post

Sep 20, 2025 | It’s been just more than a week since the assassination of Charlie Kirk, and in death, as in life, the far-right podcaster is proving divisive. While his supporters mourn, many critics have seized the moment to call out his polarising legacy - a legacy now being weaponised by far-right leaders from DC to Tel Aviv.

Truth To Power: Britain's Democracy at Risk: Trump’s War on Free Speech

Sep 20, 2025 | Free speech in Britain is under threat, but not from protesters, students or comedians. It’s under threat from Donald Trump, his MAGA disciples, and the British leaders too weak to stand up to them. From the arrests of Led By Donkeys, to Palestine Action’s proscription, while Tommy Robinson marches freely, we’re seeing US-style hypocrisy exported into UK politics. This video exposes the lies, the double standards, and why real free speech means speaking truth to power.

IHIP News: Who Is Bending over for Dictator Trump's Attack on FREE SPEECH?!

Sep 19, 2025 | Corporations and commentators are letting Trump steamroll over the 1st Amendment.

Very strong language alert!

How Americans could have voted for this know-nothing, felon and sex offender twice is truly beyond my comprehension. And it should be beyond yours, too! Americans have brought all this sh** on themselves. Now, they have to figure out how they can extricate themselves from it. — © Mark Alexander

Trump: Critical TV Networks Could Lose Licenses | DW News

Sep 19, 2025 | US broadcaster ABC has taken the talk show "Jimmy Kimmel Live" off-air, following the comedian's comments about the killing of right-wing political activist Charlie Kirk, and the Trump administration's response. Jimmy Kimmel suggested that the suspect in the slaying was actually a pro-Trump Republican, and he accused the administration of exploiting the killing for politics. Kimmel is one of President Trump's long-time critics.

Washington Post Just Fired a Black Opinion Writer over Charlie Kirk

September 15, 2025

Trump's Police Criminalize Free Speech: When Did Words Become a Crime?

Jun 18, 2025 | The Trump administration just refused to allow an Australian writer entry to America because he’d penned articles critical of the Trump administration’s support for Israel genocidal war against Palestine.

Islamophobia Laws Are Just Censorship. Britain’s Muslims Already Have Solid Protection

THE TELEGRAPH: Another attempt is being made to invent special rights for just one faith group. Let’s hope it fails

The noted theologian Angela Rayner has decided that this Labour Government should come up with a working definition of the term Islamophobia. She has now found a former Conservative, Dominic Grieve, to head the taskforce committed to solving this conundrum. For his part, Grieve has said that he hopes that the commission he is heading “will come up with principles in defining Islamophobia” which will “thus help support positive change in our country”. Allow me to make a prediction. Angela Rayner, Dominic Grieve and all the people involved will fail.

Anybody could tell them that there are already more than enough laws in this country that protect people from abuse. And there are more than enough laws that prevent acts of criminality. For instance, it is already illegal to attack a mosque, like any other building. It is also already illegal to harass or harm someone.

Furthermore, the woeful expansion of the “non-crime hate incident” as a part of the non-laws of this country has already allowed the police to come knocking on the front doors of people perceived to have said something mean online.

But for those pushing for a definition of “Islamophobia” none of this is enough. They do not want more laws to protect Muslims or Islam. They want special laws to protect one particular religion – and this is intolerable. » | Douglas Murray | Monday, March 17, 2025

Professor Tim Wilson: The Online Safety Act Comes into Effect Today

Mar 17, 2025 | Both incompetent and draconian, a vague, woolly act that levels control well beyond the UK.

Does ICE's Arrest of Pro-Palestinian Activist Set a Dangerous Precedent for Free Speech? | DW News

Mar 13, 2025 | The Trump administration is seeking to deport a Palestinian activist who took part in protests at Columbia University last year. Mahmoud Khalil was detained over the weekend by federal immigration agents. His detention has drawn widespread condemnation from civil liberties organizations, given that he has not been charged with a crime. Khalil is US a greencard holder and thus a permanent resident of the United States. A judge has ordered he cannot be deported until his lawyers' legal challenge is considered.

Donald Trump is turning the USA into a police state, an authoritarian state, a dictatorship. Americans had better wake up FAST! – © Mark Alexander

Inside Trump’s Crackdown on Dissent: Obscure Laws, ICE Agents and Fear

THE NEW YORK TIMES: President Trump is clamping down broadly on dissent using the tools of the federal government.

For months now, President Trump has been threatening to deport foreign students who took part in last year’s campus protests over the Israel-Hamas war.

Behind the scenes, his administration got to work.

Investigators from a branch of Immigration and Customs Enforcement that typically focuses on human traffickers and drug smugglers scoured the internet for social media posts and videos that the administration could argue showed sympathy toward Hamas, administration officials said. The investigators handed over reports on multiple protesters to the State Department, which used an obscure legal statute to authorize the arrest over the weekend of a 30-year-old lawful permanent resident: Mahmoud Khalil.

Mr. Trump said this week that Mr. Khalil’s case was the first of “many to come.”

Civil rights groups say the arrest of Mr. Khalil, who is a legal permanent resident and is married to an American citizen, is a clear violation of the First Amendment. But it also illustrates how Mr. Trump is using the tools of the federal government to launch a crackdown not only on those who break the law — but also on dissent more broadly. » | Zolan Kanno-Youngs and Hamed Aleaziz | Reporting from Washington | Wednesday, March 12, 2025