The View | Bravo to Cambridge University for its U-turn on China’s censors

When facts and truth become banal, where “fake news” is like daily wallpaper, then censorship simply becomes an easily justifiable business and editorial decision.

Whether it is social media that we’ve so slavishly been devoted to, or in China where it is a reality of gaining market access, the conflict over the importance of truth has necessarily become more amplified.

The publishing arm of the University of Cambridge has reversed its earlier decision to block access to more than 300 articles in China, after it was accused of folding to Beijing’s pressure. The incident represents the dangers of China’s bid for internet sovereignty and cyber imperialism.

“It is not the role of a respected global publishing house like CUP to hinder access to the journals it publishes. This puts academic freedom where it belongs, which is before economic considerations,” Tim Pringle, editor of the China Quarterly, the Cambridge University Press’ (CUP) leading China-focused journal said on Monday.

Reconcile this by presuming that Pringle’s first consideration was really profits. Cambridge sells content and subscriptions in China. They may well be threatened with a total loss of access to that market. But that doesn’t make their initial decision any more acceptable. It just confirms that the CUP, and indeed Cambridge University, was probably starting to act more like a business than as a traditional academic institution. This time, the academics resisted.

CUP did the right thing, although it may face complete censorship in China. As always, some would argue that partial access to ideas and self-censorship is better than suffering a complete ban from China.