måndag 6 maj 2013

UNESCO Recommendation of Freedom of Institutional Censorship and KTH-gate

The UNESCO Recommendation concerning the Status of Higher Education Teaching Personnel (1997) states under VI. Rights and freedoms of higher-education teaching personnel:
  • ...the principle of academic freedom should be scrupulously observed. 
  • Higher-education teaching personnel are entitled to the maintaining of academic freedom, that is to say, the right, without constriction by prescribed doctrine, to freedom of teaching and discussion, freedom in carrying out research and disseminating and publishing the results thereof, freedom to express freely their opinion about the institution or system in which they work, freedom from institutional censorship and freedom to participate in professional or representative academic bodies. 
  • All higher-education teaching personnel should have the right to fulfil their functions without discrimination of any kind and without fear of repression by the state or any other source. Higher education teaching personnel can effectively do justice to this principle if the environment in which they operate is conducive, which requires a democratic atmosphere; hence the challenge for all of developing a democratic society.
As described in under KTH-gate and KTH-gate2, my book Mathematical Simulation Technology was "stopped" and "removed" in the middle of a course in the Fall 2010, and the "ban" of the book was still in operation in the Fall 2012, when my coauthor wanted to link to the book in a course given by that author, but was prevented by KTH from doing so. The ban was expressed by KTH to the press in the following words:
  • After student protests, pages in the book have been deleted...
  • A course book has been censored during ongoing course.
  • We don't want to have anything to do with the book. It is extremely unusual to "stop a book". This is very serious. (Leif Kari (in charge of the engineering physics program at KTH))
  • After student protests to KTH, the (in)famous book has been "removed" and "replaced". (President KTH Peter Gudmundson) 
KTH-gate and KTH-gate2 is nothing but institutional censorship of my book, and at least to me represents a violation of the UNESCO Recommendation of freedom from institutional censorship. I think my case is exceptional in academics in democratic societies and KTH has very good reasons to seek to keep this as secret as possible, although going to media is maybe not the best tactics to this end.

Inga kommentarer:

Skicka en kommentar