'Free speech is not appreciated’: Melbourne Professor fired over online posts

Universities are becoming increasingly hostile to the concept of free speech, says Sky News senior reporter Caroline Marcus. Ms Marcus’s comments come after it was revealed one professor is taking Melbourne’s RMIT University to the Fair Work Commission over claims of bullying and unlawful dismissal. Professor Andrew Timming was a professor of human resource management and at one stage a deputy dean at RMIT but was fired after getting involved in an online feud on X (formerly twitter) between Andrew Tate and Greta Thunberg. “We've seen a disturbing trend in universities here and around the world where free speech is simply not appreciated,” said Ms Marcus. “You would think that universities should be grounds for free, intellectual speech, even challenging speech, but that doesn’t seem to be the case. “The irony is that some of the universities – top universities, both in the US and here in Australia - seem to only be fiercely protective of free speech when that free speech involves anti-Semitism.”