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Mike Joy has forever been an outspoken commentator on environmental matters, and many of his views have irked farmers and pleased others.
OPINION: Sir Lockwood Smith has clearly and succinctly defined what academic freedom is all about, the boundaries around it and the responsibility that goes with this privilege.
Yes, it allows academics to speak out freely within the boundaries of the law, but it’s not a licence to make questionable, outrageous statements and physically threaten people.
Mike Joy has forever been an outspoken commentator on environmental matters, and many of his views have irked farmers and pleased others. He, like some academics, has used this freedom to the limit and that is his right. But it’s clear that his latest outburst of suggesting that dairy industry CEOs could be “hanged” for, in Joy’s opinion, allowing babies to be harmed by dairy farming, is way outside the realm and boundaries of academic freedom.
What’s worse, his initial response to Federated Farmers criticism was that it was “tongue in cheek”. Next time Joy is at any airport and, ‘tongue in cheek’, says to security officers ‘there’s a bomb in my bag’, guess what will happen – quite a few nights at his majesty’s lockup and more!
Threats are no longer seen as a joking matter and can often lead to nutters picking up the narrative and doing the deed. Feds are right to challenge Joy and the university and many are now rightly questioning why Victoria didn’t take some immediate action other than working through internal HR processes.
The vice chancellor of the university has rightly apologised for Joy’s comments, but he needs to be aware this is more than just an over-the-top remark, rather it’s close to a threat to kill – a crime – and surely deserves more than an apology.
One wonders what the reaction of people such as Mike Joy might be if farmers, tongue in cheek, suggested academics should be hung for their comments about farming. Maybe the university needs to call Sir Lockwood for some sage advice.
OPINION: Milking It understands a formal disciplinary process is being conducted by Victoria University of Wellington on what one of its academics, Dr Mike Joy, said about "hanging" dairy chief executives for nitrate leaching and poisoning waterways.
Academic freedom is a privilege and it's put at risk when people abuse it.
Academic Dr Mike Joy and his employer, Victoria University of Wellington have apologised for his comments suggesting that dairy industry CEOs should be hanged for contributing towards nitrate poisoning of waterways.
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