The Free Speech Union

This week’s podcast guest is CEO, journalist and author Tanya de Grunwald.

Tanya has been making waves in the world of HR with her This Isn’t Working podcast. Tanya talks to FSU’s Jan Macvarish about the free speech issues arising in workplace culture and the network she is building of employees and employers who want to make things better.

Subscribe here to listen and here to watch.

Edited by Jason Clift

This week’s episode is a bit different — a live recording of an especially timely event hosted by the FSU as part of the Battle of Ideas Festival 2025.

Titled, ‘What is the Problem with Defining Islamophobia?’, this lively discussion, features fascinating comments from the audience, but first you’ll hear from a expert panel of speakers who have been at the frontline of debating the issue in parliament.

Professor Khalid Mahmood Former Labour member of Parliament for Birmingham Perry Barr, visiting professor at Birmingham City University, Director of KN Strategic Solutions Ltd.

Nick Timothy MP Member of parliament for West Suffolk, former special advisor to the UK Home Office, author and comment writer.

Baroness Amanda Spielman Conservative peer, former chief inspector for Ofsted.

Toby Young General Secretary of the Free Speech Union, associate editor of the Spectator, editor-in-chief of the Daily Sceptic.

Chaired by Dr Jan Macvarish, Education and Events Director of the Free Speech Union.

Edited by Jason Clift

This week, Jan Macvarish speaks to the FSU’s Director of Projects Stephen O’Grady about the continuing case of Hamit Coskun, the asylum-seeker from Turkey who the FSU is helping appeal his conviction for a public order offence.

As an act of political protest, against the Turkish government that had previously tortured and imprisoned him, Hamit burned a copy of the Quran, outside the Turkish consulate in London. He was immediately the victim of a violent attack by a man armed with a large knife, who recently received a suspended sentence, despite his declared intention to kill Hamit.

Jan and Stephen delve into the case, the reason why it is a priority for the FSU and why it has resonated so much with our members and the wider public.

You can donate to our fundraiser for Hamit’s case here https://freespeechunion.org/hamit/?v=7885444af42e

This week, Connie and Jan discuss the extraordinary level of interest in the case of Deborah Anderson, the Free Speech Union member and American citizen who filmed a visit from a British police officer who wished to talk to her about her ‘upsetting’ Facebook posts. The video has been viewed over 6 million times on X alone. Deborah’s indignant defence of her speech rights in the face of state overreach has clearly touched a nerve.

They then cross the pond to discuss the suspension of US talk-show host Jimmy Kimmel for his comments about the assassination of Charlie Kirk. Kimmel claimed that the shooter was part of the MAGA tribe and that the murder was being exploited for political capital by Trump and his supporters. The decision by ABC and the Nexstar Media Group to cancel Kimmel, apparently under pressure from chief of broadcast regulator the Federal Communications Commission, provoked much debate about whether those on the right who have claimed to be free speech defenders have now become justifiers of cancel culture.

Connie and Jan discuss the nuances of, on the one hand holding people to account for what they say, and on the other, upholding the importance of free speech.

Edited by Jason Clift