Articles for tag: Academic Freedom, Right to Science

Evidenzbasierte Politik ist ein Menschenrecht

Die Akademie der Wissenschaften Schweiz hat diesen Monat eine umfassende Studie zur Rolle der Wissenschaft bei der politischen Reaktion der Schweiz auf die COVID-19-Pandemie publiziert. Danach gibt es für die wissenschaftliche Politikberatung keine rechtliche Grundlage in der schweizerischen Gesetzgebung. Unbeachtet blieb allerdings, dass die einzelnen Mitglieder von wissenschaftlichen Beratungsgremien in der Kommunikation ihrer Erkenntnisse von der Wissenschaftsfreiheit geschützt sind und die Bevölkerung ein Recht auf evidenzbasierte Politik hat.

23. November 2021

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Platform research access in Article 31 of the Digital Services Act

Over the past year, dominant platforms such as Facebook have repeatedly interfered with independent research projects, prompting calls for reform. Platforms are shaping up as gatekeepers not only of online content and commerce, but of research into these phenomena. As self-regulation flounders, researchers are hopeful for Article 31 of the proposed Digital Services Act, on “Data Access and Scrutiny” - a highly ambitious tool to compel access to certain data, but researchers also need a shield to protect them against interference with their independent projects.

7. September 2021

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Academic Freedom Under Attack in Brazil

Can the chief of a constitutional organization akin to an ombudsman prosecute a law professor who criticized him in a newspaper article? Apparently, because Brazilian Prosecutor General just filed a complaint against Constitutional Law Professor Conrado Hübner Mendes. This attack follows a wave of democratic erosion that includes attacks on universities, intellectualism, and the diversity of ideas.

19. Mai 2021

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Defending Plurality

Academic freedom is under attack, both in authoritarian democracies, such as Hungary and Turkey, and in liberal Western democracies, such as the United States, the UK, France and Germany. However, dominant discourses about academic freedom and free speech in the global north, lately especially in France and Germany, focus on an alleged threat to academic freedom through "political correctness" and "cancel culture", that, under scrutiny, often turn out to be exactly the opposite, namely defences of plurality and critical voices.

19. April 2021

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From Captured State to Captive Mind

Finding two history professors guilty of allegedly defaming the good name of an individual by researching his alleged role in the Holocaust must not be treated as yet another run-of-the-mill litigation instigated by a relative concerned about a tarnished good name. Rather, Poland seems to be entering an unchartered territory of settling the score by way of the long arm of the law. The sacred dignity of the Polish nation hidden under the convenient argument from protecting the “good name” of individuals takes center stage and overshadows the need to have a robust historical discourse.

3. April 2021

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Historians on Trial

On 9 February 2021, the District Court in Warsaw ruled that two prominent Holocaust researchers must publicly apologize for statements published in a book about the extermination of Jews in Nazi Germany-occupied Poland during the Second World War. The lawsuit is an example of strategic litigation aimed at intimidating researchers and exercising a chilling effect on the debate in Poland due to the involvement of an organization close to the government and framing of the case in pro-government public and private media. In March, courts in Poland handed judgments in two other important strategic lawsuits brought on criminal charges.

11. März 2021

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A Witch Hunt In French Universities

At a time when French universities are struggling to deal with the epidemic, when students’ poverty should be a prime concern for the authorities, the French Minister of Higher Education, Research and Innovation, Frédérique Vidal, announced on a TV channel that she intends to set up an inquiry into “islamo-leftism” and postcolonialism in French universities. This reminds the attacks in the 1930s against the “judeo-masonic” lobby, attacks which ended up in the cleansing of universities when the Vichy Régime was established in 1940.

24. Februar 2021

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›Police-Governed‹ Universities

On 11 February, the Greek Parliament passed legislation that provides for the creation of a new police corps, permanently stationed on campuses. Ostensibly designed to maintain order at universities, the new law violates both academic freedom and the ‘self-governing’ legal status of the universities, as enshrined in the Greek Constitution. Particularly in light of allegations of increasing police violence and abuse of police power in the country, this new law and the nature and duties of the university police raise serious concerns.

15. Februar 2021

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