I have worked as a journalist and activist for free speech for
20 years so I find it odd that two groups I belong to seem determined to curtail it. I am a lifelong National Union of Journalists member. They are now boycotting Israel. I work at a University, now the lecturers’ union has voted to boycott academic links with Israel. it’s pathetic gesture politics by people with no real power, who have never had to fight for real freedoms, or justify their actions ezcept to their own subsidised, self-regarding cliques. So why worry? The “boycotts” are illogical and impotent. I worry because when academics and journalists campaign against feedom of expression then we really do have a problem.