When authoritarians silence universities

In this episode of The New Zealand Initiative podcast, host James Keirstead interviews Sarah McLaughlin, a senior scholar at FIRE, about her work on free expression issues, particularly concerning the influence of foreign authoritarian governments in academia. They discuss FIRE's expansion beyond higher education, McLaughlin's book "Authoritarians in the Academy," and specific cases in Australia and New Zealand where Chinese government influence has impacted academic freedom. The conversation covers incidents at Auckland University of Technology and the University of Canterbury, the role of Confucius Institutes and Chinese Students and Scholars Associations, research partnerships with PLA-linked universities, and the broader threats to free speech from both progressive authoritarianism and other autocratic governments like Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the UAE, as well as religious censorship.