Skip to content

Audio: In Defence of Free Speech

book ban,James Flynn

Magic.co.nz

They want to turn what should be a battle of ideas into a battle of force.

Jim Flynn

In this audio Sean Plunket interviews University of Otago emeritus professor Jim Flynn about his book, ‘In Defense of Free Speech: The University as Censor’. Ironically the professor’s book had a UK publishing house pull out of their agreement with him to publish it in part because of legal concerns around what they considered to be inflammatory views.

[…]Flynn describes to Sean how his book was accepted for publication “in all but name” by UK publisher Emerald Press. He tells Sean, “the book defends free speech in the sense that it points out that virtually every person who has a powerful position is tempted to suppress free speech.
They want to turn what should be a battle of ideas into a battle of force.

He continues, “If there is anything that is a bad road to truth it is that might makes right.” Flynn then details to Sean the process he went through in getting the book published having gone through all the procedures “all that remained was to search it for typographical errors.”
He then receives a letter saying it would not go to publication, despite being listed in their September catalogue.
The reason was, although it was not my intent; some malicious person might extract portions of my book and use them to incite racial hatred.

Flynn tells Sean that the book has subsequently been picked for publication by an American publisher and should be available at the end of the year.[…]

Magic

Latest