Climate change

UK Denies Entry to Swedish Climate Academic Andreas Malm

Is this brazen political censorship or ordinary border policy?

4 hours ago·Updated 1 hour ago

UK Denies Entry to Swedish Climate Academic Andreas Malm

Story

Above: Andreas Malm attends the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival at TIFF Bell Lightbox on Sept. 10, 2022. Image credit: Jeremy Chan/Getty Images

The Facts

Swedish climate academic Andreas Malm said his U.K. electronic travel authorization was cancelled on Wednesday, with officials saying his presence was not considered conducive to the public good. He called the decision scandalous and urged a rethink.
The Guardian
EconoTimes
Malm had been due to headline a Tribune magazine launch event at London's Rose Lipman Building next Wednesday alongside Palestine Action co-founder Huda Ammori, and to be interviewed for BBC Radio 4's Radical With Gabriel Gatehouse.
AOL
EconoTimes
Ammori's challenge to Palestine Action's proscription under the Terrorism Act 2000 is listed at the UK Supreme Court for Nov. 4-5. A Divisional Court found the ban unlawful on two grounds before the Court of Appeal reversed that ruling.
EconoTimes
EconoTimes
More than 3,850 people have been arrested for publicly supporting Palestine Action since it was banned. Earlier this year, U.S. commentators Cenk Uygur and Hasan Piker were barred from the U.K. on the same public-good grounds.
SSB Crack News
News Beep
Sally Rooney's books were withdrawn from sale in the U.K. this month over her support for Palestine Action. Verso Books said that in more than 55 years of publishing, no British government had revoked an author's right to enter the country.
Verso Books
Al Jazeera
The group rs21 said Malm had also been scheduled to speak at the Historical Materialism conference in London and described the ban as political repression. Critics have said the case is not isolated and accused the government of censorship.
Jeremy Corbyn on X
Revolutionary Socialism in the 21st Century (RS21)

Sources Split

LEFT

CENTER

RIGHT

ESTAB
CRIT

CENTER

PRO
ESTAB

The Spin

Left narrative

Banning a world-renowned climate scholar from entering Britain is censorship. Barring authors rather than debating them is the move of a government too scared to face criticism of its own record on Palestine. Free inquiry dies fast when the Home Office decides which ideas are allowed through the airport.

Jeremy Corbyn on X

Verso Books

Right narrative

Praise for the Oct. 7 massacres is not a scholarly position that earns a lecture tour, and refusing entry is ordinary border policy rather than censorship. Shouting about free speech while never quoting the words actually being defended is a dodge. Awards and book deals do not entitle a foreign national to a platform in Britain.

Adam Sellers on X