An Australian professor and government education advisor has resigned from the University of Sydney after a row over racist emails.
Professor Barry Spurr was suspended by university officials in October after using offensive language in emails obtained by magazine New Matilda.
The leaked emails had been sent to about a dozen people, including officials and academics at the university between September 2012 and late 2014.
In those emails he referred to specific ethnic groups and specifc people using derogratory terms, although these people were not the recipients of the emails.
The academic does not deny sending the emails but told New Matilda that they were part of a 'whimsical linguistic game'.
He said the comments were not a reflection of his views, but were 'repartee, mocking, in fact, that very kind of extreme language'.
He insisted that he had always treated all of his students with 'equity and dignity'.
It is not clear from the press reports how the magazine New Matilda came to be in possession of the emails.
Read more here: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-30526966
If the emails were sent as private correspendence between people who understood the context and understood their correspendence to be private, is it fair for the Professor to be judged on their content?
In a world where many conversations, that in the past would have been held face to face, now take place through email communications, to what extent should the account holders have to be accountable for email content that doesn't directly involve those other than the recipients listed?
Should we all be able to freely express ourselves when communicating with close colleagues?
Alternatively should an employee always be expected to uphold the integrity of the institution whether that be within public or private communications?
Should there be freedom of expression within work emails or should there be no such thing as private work email content?
What do you think?
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It is proposed that employees should have the right to freedom of speech and expression when sending emails from work email accounts