At its recent Annual General Meeting, the New Zealand Political Studies Association discussed the increasing incidence of harassment and intimidation academics are facing from outside of the university, especially in response to activities associated with commenting publicly in the media. The experiences of members included being sent abusive emails, phone calls or messages, and having personal information posted online.

The New Zealand Political Studies Association stands by its members who comment publicly in the media expressing their statutory role as ‘critic and conscience of society’ as established in Section 162 of the Education Act. We note that university staff and students are held accountable to high ethical and academic standards, and call on universities to support academics exercising this ‘critic and conscience' role.