Alistair Hardaker
Director clarifies postponement was not a cancellation, with lecure expected to have larger audience when rescheduled.
The director of the British Museum has clarified the institution’s decision to postpone a public talk which was part of Jewish Culture Month.
Dr Paul Collins, Keeper of the Department of the Middle East, was due to conduct a lunchtime talk on ancient Israel and Judah at the museum last week.
The event, which had been scheduled for 28 May, was postponed after the museum said it had been informed some of the attendees were individuals “intending to deliberately disrupt the event”.
Announcing the postponement, the museum said it had concluded, following discussions with organisers and security partners, that it would take place at a later date “in an environment that properly safeguards both the audience experience and the integrity of the programme itself.”
The postponement drew online criticism, with some characterising the move as a blow to its freedom of expression.
Writing on the museum’s website and in the Sunday Times yesterday, museum director Dr Nicholas Cullinan OBE has now shed more light on the decision.
Cullinan began by clarifying that the event “was not cancelled. It was postponed”, adding, “that distinction matters”.
Cullinan said freedom of expression “does not require institutions to provide a platform for disruption. Nor does it require organisers to knowingly place speakers, audiences or visitors in circumstances where a legitimate event cannot proceed safely and respectfully.”
“ Academic inquiry requires an environment in which ideas can be heard before they are challenged. If disruption becomes an accepted means of determining which conversations are permitted, then the result is not greater freedom but less of it.”
“The British Museum remains committed to supporting Jewish Culture Month and to presenting the full breadth of human history, including subjects that some may find uncomfortable or contentious.”
Concluding, Cullinan said “The test of an institution’s commitment to free expression is not whether it avoids controversy. It is whether it creates the conditions for ideas to be examined rigorously, respectfully and without intimidation.
A new date for the event has not been yet been announced, but Cullinan said the lecture is now expected to have a larger audience.
