Self-Censorship in Arab Higher Education

A number of organizations report on the freedom-of-speech restrictions that governments impose on academics, journalists, and public intellectuals in the Arab region. But the constraints that academics impose on themselves because of fear of reprisals are not as well understood or publicized. Self-censorship affects the professional performance of faculty members, which in turn is reflected in the quality of university education in general. We have cooperated with the Scholars at Risk Network, an independent not-for-profit organization based at New York University, on a survey that attempts to measure self-censorship in academia in the Arab region. You can check out the survey's results in our in-depth report, and read additional commentaries by academics on their own experiences and thoughts. We hope this work will help start a long-needed discussion on this issue and possible ways of avoiding it and strengthening academic freedom in the region.