New Government Free-Speech Tsar Warns ‘Democracy Is at Stake’

Arif Ahmed's appointment comes in the wake of student attempts to block a gender critical speaker at Oxford

An undated handout of Professor Afir Ahmed who has been appointed as the UK's new freedom of speech champion. Gonville & Caius College

A new government-backed freedom of speech champion for universities has warned that “democracy is at stake.”

The appointment of Cambridge lecturer Professor Arif Ahmed as the Office for Students (OfS) director for freedom of speech and academic freedom comes in the wake of heated student protests over feminist Kathleen Stock’s talk at Oxford University.