Uppsala University has introduced a new procedure requiring every speaker who is interrupted during a lecture to answer each interruption individually before resuming, and the first test case has run for most of a week. Former German foreign minister Annalena Baerbock, who was shouted down by pro-Palestinian activists on Tuesday, has now spent the better part of three days in a lecture hall in Uppsala, answering one questioner at a time.
The protocol, drafted by the university's Office for Public Dialogue, states that a speaker must acknowledge a question, reply to it in full and confirm the questioner's satisfaction before a new one is taken. Baerbock began the procedure with a single sentence and, according to attendance logs, has since addressed more than four hundred interventions. Lecture rooms on the ground floor have been converted into overflow chambers, and a second podium has been installed so that heckling may be handled in parallel.
Asked by a reporter whether she considered the arrangement excessive, Baerbock replied: «I was asked whether a bombing was justified. I intend to answer that question, and the next one, and the one after that, until everyone in this building has been heard.» The university has since extended the lecture series to cover the full autumn term, with the final session scheduled for the weekend after the next.