‘Racist’ publicity campaign condemned by researchers

Students and researchers at Niels Bohr Institute urge Danish intelligence service to halt “racist campaign”

More than 180 students and researchers at the Niels Bohr Institute in Copenhagen have signed an open letter to denounce a recent publicity drive from Denmark’s security services. The letter complains that adverts posted next to a bus stop outside the institute are “an explicitly racist campaign that puts non-white immigrants at the centre and explicitly designates them as people you should not have as colleagues or even as friends”.

One of the posters in question reads: “You get off at Niels Bohr Institute, but does your work end up in Tehran?” The goal of the advert—according to Karen Lund Petersen, head of the Center for Innovation and Knowledge Security at the Danish Security and Intelligence Service, which is responsible for the advert—is to raise awareness of national security concerns among researchers.