Library at the University of Canterbury, New Zealand. Claude 12/Wikimedia Commons. Public Domain.The principle of academic freedom is increasingly regarded with institutional indifference, if not contempt, across the world.
One recent example was the revelation that New Zealand Police effectively tried to censor the gang research of the sociologist Jarrod Gilbert by barring his access to “basic and uncontroversial police data” and by insisting that they "retain the sole right to veto” the publication of any research findings. The reluctance of the New Zealand government to say anything about the substantive issues involved in this case offered little in the way of contrast. Its lack of interest in the principle of academic freedom matched its previous nonchalance about press freedom.
But the picture is not entirely bleak.
