Free To Speak

Free Speech Union member Daphna Whitmore and council member Dane Giraud discuss the Curia poll featured in a Herald recent piece from Left-wing commentator Bryce Edwards that found lower-socio-economic communities stood against the government's Hate Speech laws. Why is this? Weren't such laws supposedly sought by vulnerable, multicultural communities? Dane and Daphna (both South Auckland...

Free Speech Union member Daphna Whitmore speaks with Dr. Forough Amin about what’s happening in Iran after two months of growing protests across the country.  Forough is a women's rights activist and the founder of the Iranian Women in NZ Charitable Trust.  Forough discusses the dire state of civil rights in Iran, the rigid power of the regime, the important role women and youth are playing i...

In an unexpected (but welcomed!) development, Minister of Justice Kiri Allan announced this morning that proposed hate speech laws will be all but dropped. Gone is the threat of 3-year prison terms. In fact, the sole change will be the addition of religious beliefs under a new amendment to the Human Rights Act.  Free Speech Union board members Jonathan Ayling and Stephen Franks are joined by Left-...

Free Speech Union member Daphna Whitmore talks with Daniel Ben-Ami, an author, and journalist based in London. His website "The Radicalism of  Fools"  https://www.radicalismoffools.com/   aims to develop a better understanding of anti-Semitism and its root causes.  Daniel talks about different forms of anti-Semitism from the right and the left. He explains why definitions of anti-Semitis...

Following the shock announcement this morning (Sunday 30th) by Justice Minister Kiri Allen that hate speech laws are back and may be in place before next year's election, Jonathan Ayling sits down with Free Speech Union Council members Dr. Roderick Mulgan and Ani O’Brien, along with ACT Party Leader David Seymour to unpack what this means for the fight for free speech. Given the negative reac...

In today's episode of our LOL series, Free Speech Union spokespeople Dane Giraud and Dr. David Cumin discuss the Young Greens of UoA (University Of Auckland) decision to boycott the "Baby Back Benches" debate until a set of specific demands are met. Dane and David pull apart the 7 demands that - while reading like self-parody - cloak a sinister attitude towards both freedom of expre...

Jonathan Ayling, Ani O'Brien, and Dane Giraud are our first panel in the reboot of our LOL (Life Out Loud) podcast series. The team pull-apart local body elections and ask whether a low voter turnout can be put down to the multiple campaigns seeking to limit acceptable debate - we get a preview of the upcoming Free Speech Union AGM  featuring Danish free speech superstar Jacob MChangama (whic...

Free Speech Union member Daphna Whitmore talks with Mark White from the US Left-wing free speech organisation Plebity ( https://www.plebity.org/ ). Mark and Daphna discuss how the Left of the past was at the forefront of defending free speech, why that is no longer the case and why the Left shouldn't bet their money on tech billionaires like Elon Musk to be their free speech savior.  Support...

In something of a ‘student takeover’ of the Free Speech Union Podcast, university students Adam, Tommy, and Robbie talk about free speech from the student perspective. Tomas shares his experience of the recent Free Speech Union event at Otago University and the discussion gets philosophical as the three discuss the seemingly partisan nature of the modern free speech context, alongside why it is so...

Free Speech Union spokesperson Ani O'Brien reads Auckland Mayoral Candidate Craig Lord the council's rap sheet and asks what he would do differently should he win the coveted top job www.fsu.nz/join  https://www.fsu.nz/council_candidates_report Support the show https://www.fsu.nz/ https://x.com/NZFreeSpeech https://www.instagram.com/freespeechnz/ https://www.tiktok.com/@freespeechunionnz

In this week's podcast episode Free Speech Union spokesperson Dane Giraud speaks to David Gregory, co-owner of Severin Films, an American film production and distribution company known for restoring and releasing cult films on DVD and Blu-ray. A Brit by birth David deep dives into the history of the Video Nasties (the explosion of low-budget horror or exploitation films at the birth of the ho...

Welcome to the first of a short series on speech rights in different countries.  This week's podcast looks at free speech and civil rights in India, the world’s most populous democracy. In July the Man Booker Prize-winning novelist Arundhati Roy wrote that India’s flawed fragile democracy is a "criminal, Hindu-fascist enterprise that has imprisoned many of her friends" after they sp...

What does a major Mayoral candidate think of codes of conduct? Is there wide support within councils for limiting who can speak in public venues? Where do councilors draw the line between speech they consider free and beyond the pale? And is their input even warranted? On this week's roundtable discussion between a collection of incredibly diverse candidates - Wellington Mayor candidate and G...

In this week's episode of the Free Speech Union podcast, Ani O'Brien interviews our very own Dane Giraud - a screenwriter and experienced documentary maker - on the NZ On Air funding process that produced the recent controversial documentary on the parliamentary protests made by Stuff Circuit -"Fire And Fury". Is the NZ On Air public journalism fund compromising our media? Or i...

Free Speech Union member Daphna Whitmore speaks with award-winning journalist and current Executive Director of the Maxim Institute Tim Wilson on a recent think-piece Tim wrote on abortion and the seeming prohibition against men expressing views on the topic.  Join us for thoughtful exploration as to whether identity should ever preclude a person from contributing to a topic - a position many in s...

Join us for a recording of the Wednesday 17 August Otago University panel discussion chaired by Peter Williams on how to maintain responsible politics through free speech ft. local list MP Michael Woodhouse, ACT MP Dr. James McDowall, and local Councillor Lee Vandervis www.fsu.nz/join  Support the show https://www.fsu.nz/ https://x.com/NZFreeSpeech https://www.instagram.com/freespeechnz/ https://w...

Censorship often ends up harming those it seeks to protect. This is sadly becoming a near unchallengeable fact when regarding gender treatment, where a contempt for any criticism or position outside of the sanctioned view has resulted in patient harm and the subsequent closure of a high-profile clinic, along with many European countries reversing their policies in this space. In a thought-provokin...

The saga of the Listener 7 academics and their questioning about mātauranga Māori in science continues. In this episode, Free Speech Union Cheif Executive Jonathan Ayling sits down with distinguished Professor Kit Fine, a British philosopher from New York University, who complained to the Royal Society regarding their conduct during the investigation of Professors Robert Nola and Gareth Cooper and...

In this episode of the Free Speech Union podcast, Chief Executive Jonathan Ayling sits down with Grant Guilford  former Vice-Chancellor of Victoria University of Wellington.  Jonathan and Grant discuss the First Annual Survey on Academic Freedom conducted earlier this year which highlighted the lack of freedom many lecturers have in their own universities and Grant offers his own thoughts on where...

Did you receive our annual review? It's been an epic 12 months for the Free Speech Union! Join Jonathan Ayling - who sat down with supporters National MP Simon O'Connor, Unionist Matt McCartern, and Barrister Hanne Janes - to recap our year, discuss the ongoing fight for free speech, and why you - and good 'ole people-power - MADE OUR YEAR and remain the most vital element in the pr...

Free Speech Union spokesperson Dane Giraud sat with Palmerston North City Councilor Orphee Mikalad to discuss the importance of free speech and alternatives to hate speech. Orphee details his family's fleeing civil war in the Congo and what it was like to campaign for a seat on the council as an African refugee. Orphee discusses the racism he has encountered, why education and engagement are...

Family First chief executive Bob McCoskrie sits down with the Free Speech Union's Jonathan Ayling to discuss the recent Supreme Court decision that saw his organisation lose their charity title. Bob and Jonathan dissect and challenge many aspects of the ruling, such as the assertion made by the Supreme Court that Family First's purpose "crossed the line between education and advocac...

Free Speech Union member Daphna Whitmore speaks with Dr. Bryce Edwards about the causes and manifestations of contemporary political polarisation. Edwards, a well-known political scientist, lecturer in Politics at Victoria University, and long-time supporter of free speech, copped a lot of flak for his coverage of the parliamentary protests which highlighted the depth of division today.  How did w...

On this week's episode of the Free Speech Union podcast, spokesperson Dane Giraud has a long-form discussion with social activist and lifetime 'Black Power' member Denis O'Reilly. Denis talks us through what led him to join the 'Black Power' and who the majority of members were in those early years. Denis discusses Prime Minister Rob Muldoon and why Muldoon's con...

Join us for the audio-only version of our fantastic live discussion (recorded on Facebook 21st June) with Free Speech Union Council members Dr. David Cumin, Dr. Melissa Derby, and Ani O'Brien to unpack the concerns related to the recent uproar over Bethlehem College asking parents to acknowledge (but not necessarily agree with) the school's position of marriage being between a man and a...