The British government is moving to abolish the offences of blasphemy and blasphemous libel, tabling amendments to the Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill currently before the House of Lords. Naturally, the Church of England, which enjoys special protection under the law, is offended - but even they recognise that in a free society such laws are indefensible. Meanwhile, Mark Vernon gives a good example of why the law needs to be abolished now:
For example, it was only in 1997 that a police investigation into blasphemy of some 18 months finally came to an end. I was one of the subjects. I had run a website for the Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement (LGCM). On it we had put a link to an American computer from which the poem that so offended Mary Whitehouse could be downloaded. A conservative Christian group, Reform, made a complaint. It led to computer departments in two universities being raided, people being questioned under caution - myself on more than one occasion - and many hours of wasted police time. When a file was finally sent to the CPS, it concluded there was nothing to go on. The police had to act: a complaint had been made. Far better to be rid of that ridiculous obligation.(Link added; information on the famous court case is here).
In New Zealand, we've had both criminal complaints and attempts at private prosecution, both in an effort to inflict a small group of zealots' religion on others. Isn't it time we followed the UK's example and expunged this law from the books?
