The FSU team are at the Freshers Festival in London today, speaking to students who have just started university about freedom of speech. The team are also promoting the lan Mactaggart Programme, an FSU-administered grant programme that supports students in promoting free speech and open debate on campus. We are also advertising our limited-time offer, which allows students to purchase a year-long FSU membership for just £14.99. If you are a student in London, come and say hello at our stall!

“Without the FSU, I wouldn’t be where I am now. The FSU have been absolutely fantastic. They’ve backed me all the way.” Stephen Gray was a police officer who gave 27 years of service to his force. Never did he imagine that one day the police would knock on his own door over a joke he had reposted on Facebook. The post featured an image of a man in a turban alongside a rasher of bacon, with the caption: “Fun facts about bacon! People who eat bacon have a lower chance of marrying a 9-year-old!” It was a reference to the Prophet Muhammad’s marriage to Aisha, who was six when they married and nine when the marriage was consummated. It was a joke, but one that sought to highlight the serious issue of child marriage. In April, Stephen was found guilty of sending a “grossly offensive” communication — a criminal offence under Section 127 of the Communications Act 2003. He was ordered to pay around £1,100 in fines and costs and now has a criminal record. This is absolutely crazy. How can this happen in a country that abolished its blasphemy laws in 2008? We cannot allow the Government, the judiciary and law enforcement to revive Britain’s blasphemy laws for Islam alone via the back door. This is truly one of the most shocking cases we have seen at the FSU. The Free Speech Union is helping Stephen appeal his conviction and has instructed top criminal silk John Beggs KC to act for him. With your support, @SpeechUnion hope to pay for Stephen’s legal defence in the Crown Court and meet the costs of any further appeals. Please donate to Stephen’s fundraiser via the link in the comments. Watch Stephen tell his story below 👇

A university has warned an academic for opposing assisted suicide on social media. Dr Kevin Yuill, emeritus professor of history at the University of Sunderland, accused the institution of a “Kafkaesque” attack on free speech after he was sent a warning letter by one of its executives. The academic was told to “reflect carefully” in June after the university received a complaint about the the “tone and nature” of his social media presence, which he uses to campaign against assisted suicide🔗

This has made my week! 🙌 Thankfully, the two arrestees were @SpeechUnion members. We joined forces, all recognising the seriousness of blasphemy arrests 🤝 Big Brother Watch is also supporting the legal defence of a pro-Palestine protestor arrested on the same day. 💪

🚨🚨 FREE SPEECH UNION AND BIG BROTHER WATCH VICTORY! The FSU has joined forces with @BigBrotherWatch (BBW) to back two people arrested for holding signs that read “f*** Islam” at the Unite the Kingdom march in May. The pair were being investigated for potential breaches of the Public Order Act, with possible religious aggravation. We received news today that the case against one of the individuals has been dropped following representations made by the FSU and BBW. In a joint legal letter to the Crown Prosecution Service and the Metropolitan Police, we urged them to drop the case — pointing out that Britain does not have blasphemy laws and that it is not an offence to express hostility towards any religion. We also cited the case of Hamit Coskun, who was accused of threatening public order after he burnt a copy of the Quran outside the Turkish consulate in London in peaceful protest against what he called the Islamification of his home country, Turkey. The judgment made it very clear that the law distinguishes between the right to express hostility towards a religion and hatred towards people because of their religion. As Mr Justice Bennathan said: “The right to freedom of expression, if it is a right worth having, must include the right to express views that offend, shock or disturb.” The UK is in the midst of a free speech crisis. We cannot allow the Government and the police to revive our censorious blasphemy laws — for Islam alone. The misuse of public order legislation must stop. It is having a chilling effect on our right to free speech, our right to protest and our right to criticise ANY religion.

It just keeps going up and up. Today, a staggering 150 out of 532 Crown courtrooms across England and Wales are sitting empty. Despite there being no credible evidence to support his claim, when David Lammy was Justice Secretary, he tried to curb our ancient right to a trial by jury. He claimed it was the only way to bring down the backlog of 80,000 cases. Well, he was wrong. Judges, lawyers, MPs and victims of crime all warned that his reforms would undermine public trust in the criminal justice system and put judges at greater risk of physical abuse. The Institute for Government has shown that Lammy’s reforms would save just 2 per cent of Crown Court time — not the 20 per cent ministers claimed. During the Makerfield by-election, our now Prime Minister, Andy Burnham, called jury trials a “lynchpin of a fair society” and urged Keir Starmer to “pause” the planned reforms. Well, he’s the boss now. Burnham must put his money where his mouth is: get the courts sitting and axe this authoritarian plan.

There is a free speech crisis in Britain, and, at long last, people on both the Right and Left can see it. The law should be there to target criminals using disguises to commit offences, not to criminalise innocent people wearing eccentric costumes. Silkie Carlo explores two recent cases that highlight growing authoritarianism ⤵️

Prince Harry’s lawsuit against the press was an outrage against democracy. A dejected prince and his uber-wealthy friends tried to shut down a newspaper that dared to criticise them. What century did he think this is?, asks Luke Gittos

If you need any more evidence that an Islamic blasphemy law has taken root in Britain, look no further than the case of Stephen Gray. It is truly one of the most extraordinary cases the FSU has ever come across. A former police officer who gave 30 years of public service had a knock at the door from the police after his neighbour reported him for reposting something on Facebook. In April, Stephen was convicted of being “grossly offensive” — an offence under the Communications Act 2003 — for reposting a joke about Islam. The post featured an image of a rasher of bacon and a man in a turban, accompanied by the text: “Fun facts about bacon! People who eat bacon have a lower chance of marrying a 9 year old!” While giving evidence, Stephen explained that the post was a reference to the marriage between the Prophet Mohammed and Aisha, which occurred when she was six and was consummated when she was nine. It was a satirical post, but also sought to make a serious point about child marriage. But the district judge wasn’t having any of it. Stephen was ordered to pay £1,100 in fines, plus legal costs, and now has a criminal conviction. The Free Speech Union is supporting Stephen in appealing his conviction. If you are still in any doubt that Britain’s blasphemy laws have returned, 18 years after Parliament voted to abolish them — for Islam alone — take a look at Stephen’s case. Watch FSU External Affairs Officer @_ConnieShaw explain and donate to the fundraiser 👇

The @FT is planning to run a story about the fact that we prepared a briefing for JD Vance ahead of Sir Keir Starmer's visit to the White House in February of last year. The Free Speech Union is a campaigning organisation that routinely sends briefings to politicians, particularly those in a position to lobby the UK Government, so we're not sure what the story is here. But we've published that briefing on our website so our members and supporters -- and anyone else who's interested -- can read it for themselves. As far as we're concerned, we were just doing our job.

🚨🚨 THE FSU IS HIRING! We’re looking for someone who is intelligent, hard-working and has a good sense of humour to join our case team. The case team is at the very heart of the FSU. When someone finds themselves a victim of cancellation or silencing, one of our brilliant case officers will be the first person they speak to. Since the FSU was founded in 2020, we have fought more than 6,500 cases on behalf of our members, who now number over 47,000. You’ll receive lots of training and support and work as part of a highly collaborative team. If you want to make a difference and help us defend free speech, please apply below👇

This is truly one of the most insane cases the FSU has seen in our six-year history. A retired police officer who gave 30 years of public service to his community had a knock at the door after his neighbour complained about some posts he had reposted on Facebook. In April, Stephen was found guilty by a district judge over one of these posts — unsurprisingly, the one about Islam — of sending a “grossly offensive” communication, an offence under Section 127 of the Communications Act 2003. The Facebook post featured an image of a rasher of bacon and a man in a turban, accompanied by the text: “Fun facts about bacon! People who eat bacon have a lower chance of marrying a 9 year old!” While giving evidence, Stephen explained that the post was a reference to the marriage between the Prophet Mohammed and Aisha, which was consummated, according to traditional Islamic sources, when she was nine years old, after he married her when she was six. But the district judge wasn’t having any of it. Stephen was ordered to pay £1,100 in fines, plus legal costs and now has a criminal conviction. The Free Speech Union is supporting Stephen in appealing his conviction. If you are still in any doubt that Britain’s blasphemy laws have returned, 18 years after Parliament voted to abolish them — for Islam alone — take a look at Stephen’s case. Watch Stephen Gray on @TalkTV with @JuliaHB1 👇

Free speech in Britain is under attack — by the Government, by activists and by those who wish to silence you because of your views. Since the FSU was founded in February 2020, we have fought more than 6,300 cases defending our members’ right to free speech. Since the last general election in 2024, our membership has grown from 14,000 to more than 46,000. We have lobbied and petitioned successive governments to change laws and amend guidance to ensure our fundamental free speech rights are protected. The threat to free speech has never been more acute — whether at university, at work or, increasingly, online. We can no longer afford to take this fundamental right for granted. Take a look at some of our work below and join the FSU 👇

🚨🚨 BREAKING NEWS: Blasphemy law is back — but it only applies to Muslims. FSU member and retired police officer Stephen Gray was found guilty of being "grossly offensive", a criminal offence under s127 of the Communications Act 2003, for repeating a joke about Mohammed. Stephen reposted a message he saw on Facebook that said: “Fun facts about bacon! People who eat bacon have a lower chance of marrying a 9 year old!” While giving evidence, Stephen explained that the post was a reference to the marriage between the Prophet Mohammed and Aisha — which was consummated when she was just nine years old, after he married her when she was six. Stephen said the post was intended to be satirical but he also hoped it would spark a serious debate: did that marriage, as recorded in the Hadiths, contribute to the acceptability of child marriage in Muslim countries? District Judge Steven Hood found the post to be “grossly offensive” and dismissed Stephen's defence that it was making a serious political point about the acceptability of child marriage. He found that the post was designed to be offensive and could not be making a serious point because it was light-hearted in nature. He concluded that a conviction would not amount to a disproportionate interference with Stephen’s right to freedom of expression. The Free Speech Union is helping Stephen appeal his conviction and has instructed a top criminal silk, John Beggs KC, to act for him. With your support, we hope to be able to pay for Stephen’s legal defence in the Crown Court and meet the costs of any further appeals. Please donate Stephen's crowdfunder in the link below. Earlier this year, the FSU paid for the defence of Hamit Coskun, who burnt a copy of the Quran outside the Turkish consulate in London. He was initially convicted, but we managed to get that conviction overturned on appeal. When the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) then tried to appeal the acquittal, we took them on and won again. More recently, the Free Speech Union threatened South Wales Police with legal action after it adopted a draconian version of the Government’s definition of anti-Muslim hostility, instructing officers to record any comment that went beyond “legitimate” discussion of Islam as a 'non-crime hate incident'. We won, and the force withdrew the guidance. Stephen’s case gives us another opportunity to reaffirm the principle that there is nothing illegal about criticising any religion, including Islam. It should not be a criminal offence to repost jokes about Islam that some Muslims find offensive. Read more below and please donate to our Crowdfunder 👇

This is truly sinister. Kellie-Jay Keen received a call while on holiday from a police officer asking her to attend a voluntary interview in relation to two separate investigations. One complaint relates to a speech she gave at the Unite the Kingdom rally. The other concerns a post on X in which she said, “We have Muslim fatigue,” before going on to talk about gang rapes, hate preaching and Sharia courts. The officer said police were investigating whether her post on X constituted an offence under the Malicious Communications Act and wanted to establish what her intention was when she posted it. He also confirmed that an individual had taken offence at the post and reported it to the police. The same was true of her speech. Kellie was also told that if she refused to attend the voluntary interview, she could face arrest. How is this proportionate? And in what world is this a good use of police time? It is not illegal to offend someone in Britain — yet. The police also appear to have forgotten that Parliament abolished the blasphemy laws 18 years ago. The Starmer Government’s decision to introduce an official definition of Islamophobia — repackaged as “anti-Muslim hostility” — which has had a chilling effect on free speech. Activists have weaponised the definition by making vexatious complaints to the police about anyone who dares to debate, criticise or mock Islam. This is Britain in 2026.

The Free Speech Union is taking an interest in the story of Jason Arday for a number of reasons. First, we want to know who paid for the threatening letter from the law firm Carter-Ruck — effectively a SLAPP — that was sent to Times Higher Education in an attempt to get journalist Jack Grove to stop asking Professor Arday questions about his academic record. Was it Jason Arday himself? The University of Cambridge? Or the Good Law Project? Second, we want to know who reported both the academic and former professor David Harris and Times Higher Education journalist Jack Grove to the police, alleging harassment after they began asking Arday questions about his academic and extracurricular record. In David Harris’s case, the Metropolitan Police referred the complaint to Devon and Cornwall Police, which rightly decided there was nothing to investigate. But in Jack Grove’s case, he was contacted by the police and informed that he had been the subject of a four-month investigation by the Met. While officers said they would be taking no further action, he was told he should refrain from questioning Jason Arday again because it was also affecting Arday’s mental health. The police should never be telling journalists whom they can and cannot question — particularly when there are legitimate questions that need answering. Powerful people should not be able to use the police to silence journalists and academics who are simply asking questions and doing their jobs. The Free Speech Union has written to Sir Mark Rowley, Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, to ask what on earth his officers were playing at. He has yet to reply. If Jason Arday was the person who reported these individuals to the police, that is one thing. But if it was the University of Cambridge, that would be even more serious — and is something FSU General Secretary Lord Young will be raising in Parliament in due course. Watch Lord Young below 👇