A pro-democracy protester holds a portrait of Chinese human rights lawyer Pu Zhiqiang, demanding his release during a demonstration, outside the Chinese liaison office in Hong Kong, China December 15, 2015. Photo: Reuters A pro-democracy protester holds a portrait of Chinese human rights lawyer Pu Zhiqiang, demanding his release during a demonstration, outside the Chinese liaison office in Hong Kong, China December 15, 2015. Photo: Reuters
A pro-democracy protester holds a portrait of Chinese human rights lawyer Pu Zhiqiang, demanding his release during a demonstration, outside the Chinese liaison office in Hong Kong, China December 15, 2015. Photo: Reuters
Kenny Hodgart
Opinion

Opinion

Off Centre by Kenny Hodgart

Timidity over free speech is a gift to political authoritarians

Criticising China for its attempts control free speech ignores what is happening in the universities of the UK and the USA: concepts such as “microaggression” seem tailor-made for regimes like China’s

Kenny Hodgart
Kenny Hodgart

Updated: 2:52pm, 29 Dec, 2015

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A pro-democracy protester holds a portrait of Chinese human rights lawyer Pu Zhiqiang, demanding his release during a demonstration, outside the Chinese liaison office in Hong Kong, China December 15, 2015. Photo: Reuters A pro-democracy protester holds a portrait of Chinese human rights lawyer Pu Zhiqiang, demanding his release during a demonstration, outside the Chinese liaison office in Hong Kong, China December 15, 2015. Photo: Reuters
A pro-democracy protester holds a portrait of Chinese human rights lawyer Pu Zhiqiang, demanding his release during a demonstration, outside the Chinese liaison office in Hong Kong, China December 15, 2015. Photo: Reuters
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Kenny Hodgart

Kenny Hodgart

Formerly a staff journalist at SCMP, Kenny Hodgart has lived in Hong Kong since 2011. He comes from Scotland, which remains part of the United Kingdom, but his views are almost exclusively his own. He suffers from status anxiety more than some but less than others.