Teacher called ‘free-speech martyr and misogynist’ after being sacked by Eton

The best of Voices delivered to your inbox every week - from controversial columns to expert analysis Sign up for our free weekly Voices newsletter for expert opinion and columns Sign up to our free weekly Voices newsletter SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. In a piece titled Why I was sacked from Eton, he said “the boys” who first came to his defence “correctly pinpointed free speech the principle at stake". "Otherwise why was it so essential the video should come down?” he asked.Eton has insisted Mr Knowland’s sacking was “not a matter of freedom of speech”. “‘Cheer up,’ I told one who looked un-enthused by Milton in my first week at the school, nine years ago," Mr Knowland wrote. "'Two hundred years ago, you’d have been down a mine!’ “‘Sir,’ he replied deadpan, ‘we’d have owned the mines.’ The class erupted in self-deprecating laughter.” Eton College said in a statement: “Mr Knowland’s dismissal was not a matter of freedom of speech, but was the outcome of a disciplinary hearing related to his repeated refusal to observe a reasonable request to temporarily remove his video lecture while Eton considered advice that its contents could well breach a number of the school’s policies as well as the school’s legal and regulatory responsibilities.” The statement added: “Eton believes passionately in free speech.