From my article in The Sunday Times today:
“The notion that an academic could have their job threatened by the consequence of their controversial opinions is abhorrent. But the protection that academics rightly enjoy, giving them the space to think freely and critically, burdens them with the responsibility to be honest about the evidence that they cite.
“I have seen Mercieca stand three feet away from me and in the frankest way admit freely that he made no attempt to verify claims he published as facts. Though his website is not an academic journal, he can as much strip off his ethical obligations as an academic when he’s writing in it, as much as, say, a medical doctor can claim they are doing no wrong when they publish on their website articles recommending unhealthy practices they would be fired for advising inside a hospital.”