Rowan Atkinson on “insulting” free speech

No Right Turn blogged:

is a precious thing. But in the UK, it is being chilled by an outdated, overborad law. Section 5 of the UK's Public Order Act criminalises speech which is “threatening, abusive or insulting”. That's right – “insulting”. decides whether someone is “insulted”? The police.

As can be expected, this has led to a large number of abusive prosecutions. People have been threatened with prosecution or actually arrested, charged and tried for calling Scientology a cult (an obvious statement of truth), barking back at a dog, standing up for gay rights, opposing gay rights, debating , displaying “culled” toy seals with red food colouring on them, and saying that religions are fairy stories for adults. You can think a lot of things about those statements, but one thing is clear: none of them should be a criminal matter. None of them reach the level of threats or incitement which would justify restricting speech in a free and open society.

There is a campaign now to Reform Section 5, backed by everyone from the Christian Institute to the National Secular Society. These groups may disagree on a lot of things, but one thing they do agree on is that hurting people's feelings shouldn't be a crime. They have the backing of a pile of MPs, and hopefully this means the law will be changed soon.

I absolutely agree. It is a horrendous law. Have a look at the examples here.

at the launch of the campaign.

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