Note to students: do what the rest of us do - go to these places called "newsagents" to buy your Sun and Star. Oh, and Charlie Hebdo is seriously over-rated.

This is a worrying trend, the censorship of opinions is the mark of an autocrat and has no place in a democracy. Student Unions are of course far from being democracies in most cases, having only a partial mandate at best.

No academic worth the title should have anything to do with those who seek to stifle opinion, however much that individual may be 'offended' by it. Universities are places where opinions are supposed to clash and debate is supposed to be free and open.

The irony of course is that the type of individual that 'votes' for this kind of practice is ever so fond of calling others fascists.

Few university students would buy or read the Sun or Daily Star at face value or in isolation, without complementing them with other papers and analysing them in a detached, media-studies way. And if they are banned, how do the zealots know or object to their content, unless they hypocritically obtain copies elsewhere? If censoring the Sun is based on its topless pin-ups, why does the ban persist now these have been discontinued from the print edition? Free speech entails allowing availability of all voices even if - indeed, especially if - you disagree with them.

It's not universities banning publications, it's student unions. We had this back in the 80 when Trent Polytechnic SU 'banned' the local evening Nottingham Post and adopted a 'no platform' policy on speakers from the hard right (but not the hard left). Actually these 'bans' have no effect outside the SU building. Officially Barclays Bank was also 'banned' due to activities in the RSA but that didn't stop students banking with Barclays or reading the NEP in the library (where it wasn't banned). It didn't stop us on the student newspaper from running stories about the ethics of no platform or accepting Barclays cheques fom advertisers. Times don't change. This is posturing by a bunch of SU activists who will be working in the stock exchange and sending their kids to private schools in a few years from now. Clubs or societies can be 'banned' for a variety of reasons, unconnected with censoship (non payment of fees, impropriety, insufficient membership numbers - as well as taste/decency or extremism - the latter of which is backed up by primary legislation). Mountains and molehills spring to mind.