University of Oxford - Ban on animal activists rejected

Animal rights activists will continue to be allowed to protest outside graduation ceremonies at the University of Oxford. The university had sought an order for an "exclusion zone" from the High Court, which would have stopped protesters chanting slogans during ceremonies. But the judge said that the protesters had not been threatening or menacing in the past. The university failed to show that the protests were sufficiently distressing to amount to harassment, the judge ruled. He refused the order, but said this would not preclude an application in future if, for example, the protesters used megaphones.