Charlie Hebdo university event in Belfast called off

BBC News 24 April 2015

Queen's University Belfast has said an event on the fallout from the Charlie Hebdo murders in France was cancelled as no risk assessment had been completed, reports BBC News.

The conference, due to be hosted by the Institute for Collaborative Research in the Humanities at Queen's University Belfast, had been scheduled for June. Vice-chancellor Patrick Johnston had said he cancelled it due to the security risk and concerns for the university’s reputation.

Earlier, two academics who had been booked to speak said it was ironic that an event about free speech should be called off in this way. Self-censorship was one of the themes of the conference.
In a statement, Queen's University Belfast said: “This issue is not related to academic freedom and Queen's continues to uphold the importance of academic freedom in a world-class institution and has demonstrated this over many years.”
Full report on the BBC News site

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