GOVERNMENT TO DROP PLAN FOR HATE SPEECH LAWS AS ELECTION LOOMS

In what is being seen as a “victory for free speech”, the Coalition Government will scrap the most controversial provisions of legislation which would have introduced hate speech laws.

The proposal – which critics say would have introduced thought crimes and criminalised ordinary debate, in addition to jailing citizens for failing to provide passwords to devices – had originally passed easily through the Dáil, although it was opposed by Independents, Aontú and PbP, but controversy grew as it then came under public scrutiny and was also strongly opposed in the Seanad.

Analysis by Ben Scallan for Gript showed that out of thousands of respondents to a government public consultation on hate speech, more than 70% were opposed to the measures.

TDs and Senators pointed to serious flaws in the hate speech bill, including the lack of a definition of ‘hatred’ – and the offence of simply possessing material.

A packed conference in the RDS on Free Speech last year heard from a range of speakers who expressed concern regarding the ability of the proposals to “ruin the whole platform for debate in Ireland”, including former editor of The Economist, Helen Joyce, who said “My free speech is your free speech… you don’t know what unpopular thing you may one day feel a moral imperative to say.”

Statements by some members of the Coalition parties, such as this one by Senator Pauline O’Reilly – who said in regard to hate speech that “we are restricting freedom for the common good”, and censoring views on gender identity dealt with “discomfort” – attracted attention not just in Ireland but internationally.

Reacting to the decision to scrap the hate speech proposal, Independent TD Carol Nolan said: “This is a victory for free speech and a calamitous political and ideological defeat for Minister McEntee and a government that had to be pushed into accepting the validity of basic democratic norms.”

“It also demonstrates that the Minister is now an electoral liability for a Fine Gael leadership,” she added.

Aontú leader Peadar Tóibín said he was delighted to see that the government have dropped plans for hate speech law. It was a censorship law, which sought to prevent people articulating opposition to many of the crazy policies the government have. Indeed, over the last number of years, the government had become increasingly authoritarian in terms of how they deal with dissent. We’re delighted that our work against the bill has helped to bring about this outcome.”

It is understood that Minister McEntee is now set to remove from the legislation provisions that deal with incitement to violence and hatred, and instead only proceed with hate crime elements of the bill.

Source