Arts body denounces 'assault on freedom'

Attempts to pulp a book under the Obscene Publications Act have been attacked as "an astonishing assault on academic freedom" by the Council of University Deans of Arts and Humanities in letters to the home secretary, the education secretary and the higher education minister. West Midlands police confiscated Mapplethorpe from the University of Central England last month after the Director of Public Prosecutions advised that it was likely to "deprave and corrupt". UCE vice-chancellor Peter Knight is to meet police this week. He has said he will not have the book destroyed. Letters, page 15