Academics Slam Dismissals Of Pro-democracy Scholars

More than 500 local and overseas academics have condemned the dismissals of legal scholar Benny Tai and lawmaker Shiu Ka-chun from their teaching jobs at universities.

In a joint statement, the scholars said the terminations dealt a severe blow to the city's academic freedom, and the decisions breached procedural justice -- as the pair is still waiting for court appeals.

Tai was sacked by the University of Hong Kong’s Council last month, over his convictions related to the 2014 Occupy protests. Baptist University, meanwhile, decided not to renew the contract of Shiu, who was jailed for inciting others to join the pro-democracy movement.

University of Science and Technology scholar Dixon Sing was one of those who launched the joint petition. He said the two universities should retract their decisions and do more to protect academic freedom.

“If academic freedom is undermined, if you erode freedom of the press and the quality of our debate in the public arena…, the overall governance of the society will suffer. So I think that is why, so many people including not only local scholars but the international scholars which are spread in four continents, they all express their strong protest”, Sing said.

The president of the Professional Teachers' Union, Fung Wai-wah, added that the imposition of the national security law, coupled with growing concerns over dwindling academic freedom in the city, having forced many academics to consider moving overseas.

“Many of the scholars are worried about whether they will touch the red line when they do research and when they teach or when they criticise the public policies. So, many of them are thinking whether they should stay in an environment that is quite dangerous. Some of them are now considering to find some jobs in other countries where there are higher academic freedom”, he said.