No Platform

No Platform is a form of student boycott in the United Kingdom where a person or organisation is denied a platform to speak. The British National Union of Students (NUS) established its No Platform policy in April 1974¹. Like other no-platforming policies, it asserts that no proscribed person or organisation should be given a platform to speak, nor should a union officer share a platform with them. The policy traditionally applies to entities that the NUS considers racist or fascist, most notably the British National Party, although the NUS and its liberation campaigns have policies refusing platforms to other people or organisations. The policy does not extend to students' unions who are part of NUS, although similar policies have also been adopted by its constituent unions.

No Platform is a form of student boycott in the United Kingdom where a person or organisation is denied a platform to speak. The British National Union of Students (NUS) established its No Platform policy in April 1974. Like other no-platforming policies, it asserts that no proscribed person or organisation should be given a platform to speak, nor should a union officer share a platform with them. The policy traditionally applies to entities that the NUS considers racist or fascist, most notably the British National Party, although the NUS and its liberation campaigns have policies refusing platforms to other people or organisations. The policy does not extend to students' unions who are part of NUS, although similar policies have also been adopted by its constituent unions.

Legislative response

Section 43 of the Education (No. 2) Act 1986, enacted in response to the rise of No Platform policies in the mid-1980s, imposes a duty on universities to ensure that groups and individuals are not denied the use of facilities on account of their beliefs or views. In February 2021, the Conservative Education Secretary, Gavin Williamson, announced that the government would bring forward a law to extend this duty to students' unions. The Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Bill was announced in the 2021 Queen's Speech and given its First Reading before Parliament accordingly on 12 May 2021. The bill would allow speakers at universities to seek compensation for no-platforming, impose fines on universities and students' unions with No Platform policies, and establish a new ombudsman charged with monitoring cases of no-platforming and academic dismissals.

References

External links

'NUS No Platform policy' from nusonline.co.uk

Text derived from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1377503767 under CC BY-SA 4.0; modifications have been made.