Secular Liberal Minority Report News from London: Rally to Defend Freedom of Expression London, Saturday 11 February 2012 - campus news and a couple of great secular short films

Goroyesque - a short film, a great work of political-philosophical art, but personal, too
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=toQn1Dyo7cM

A voice from Tunisia Soutenons la liberte d'expression - On Monday, January 23 there will be a trial against a Tunisian TV channel ... Reason? Airing the film Persepolis.
Some try to address to freedom of expression and this message is just a message of support to this cause http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRDCZMPSrD0 -

And some more news from University of London campus:

Michael Thor, UCL Atheist, Secularist & Humanist Society President calls all University of London students to speak up for freedom of speech:
As a consequence of recent events at Queen Mary, LSE and UCL, we are co-hosting a rally to defend freedom of speech on Saturday, February 11th at 2 pm. People from the affected societies will be present to give them their side of the story, as well as other notable people including Maryam Namazie, Rhys Morgan. We have also been endorsed by Dawkins, Rushdie and Malik to name a few.

Please, spread the word:

http://www.facebook.com/events/212823392145531/



Rally to defend free expression
‎11 February at 14:00! Central London, location to be announced soon!



In other campus news:



The London School of Economics, who had sponsored a dodgy degree to dictator Ghaddafi's son in return for money, what lead to departure of one of the heads of the LSE, has unsurprisingly a Student Union reportedly calling LSE SU Atheist, Secularist and Humanist Society to an "informal meeting" announced publicly (!) something along the lines of Khomeini's informal death sentence to Salman Rushdie?




UCL Atheist, Secularist and Humanist Society Facebook member quoting the LSE SU:
"On Monday 16th January it was brought to our attention via an official complaint by two students that the LSE SU Atheist, Secularist and Humanist Society posted cartoons, published by the UCLU Atheist, Secularist and Humanist Society, depicting the Prophet Mohammed and Jesus "sitting in a pub having a pint" on their society Facebook page. Upon hearing this, the sabbaticals officers of the LSESU ensured all evidence was collected and an emergency meeting with a member of the Students' Union staff was called to discuss how to deal with the issue. During this time, we received 40 separate official complaints from the student body, in addition to further information regarding more posts on the society Facebook page.

It was decided that the President and other committee member...s of the LSE SU Atheist, Secularist and Humanist Society would be called for an informal meeting to explain the situation, the complaints that had been made, and how the action of posting these cartoons was in breach of Students' Union policy on inclusion and the society's constitution. This meeting took place on Friday 20th January at 10.30am. The society agreed to certain actions coming out of the meeting and these were discussed amongst the sabbatical team. In this discussion it was felt that though these actions were positive they would not fully address the concerns of those who had submitted complaints. Therefore the SU will now be telling the society that they cannot continue these activities under the brand of the SU.

The LSE Students’ Union would like to reiterate that we strongly condemn and stand against any form of racism and discrimination on campus. The offensive nature of the content on the Facebook page is not in accordance with our values of tolerance, diversity, and respect for all students regardless of race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality or religious affiliation. There is a special need in a Students' Union to balance freedom of speech and to ensure access to all aspects of the LSE SU for all the ethnic and religious minority communities that make up the student body at the LSE."