Defamation Bill Amendment: "blasphemous libel" - Anonymous/$cientology example.

national | crime and justice | other press

Friday May 01, 2009 23:00

by Anonymous

"EVERY SATURDAY a group of young people, their faces hidden by masks or scarves, gathers outside the office of the Church of Scientology in Abbey Street in Dublin with leaflets and placards making serious allegations about the sect.

If the new law prohibiting publishing or uttering blasphemous matter becomes law, as proposed yesterday by Minister for Justice Dermot Ahern, they could face fines of up to €100,000 and have their homes raided by members of the Garda Síochána in order to seize the offending material."

An article published in the Irish Times about the Defamation Bill Amendment regarding "blasphemous libel" which I find quite interesting.
For the full article: http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/opinion/2009/0430/1....html

ANALYSIS: The proposal to make blasphemous libel an offence would likely criminalise many writers and publishers, writes CAROL COULTER

EVERY SATURDAY a group of young people, their faces hidden by masks or scarves, gathers outside the office of the Church of Scientology in Abbey Street in Dublin with leaflets and placards making serious allegations about the sect.

If the new law prohibiting publishing or uttering blasphemous matter becomes law, as proposed yesterday by Minister for Justice Dermot Ahern, they could face fines of up to €100,000 and have their homes raided by members of the Garda Síochána in order to seize the offending material.

For that to happen, a court will have to be satisfied the matter published is “grossly abusive or insulting in relation to matters held sacred by any religion, thereby causing outrage among a substantial number of the adherents of that religion”, and that the outrage was intentional. These provisions came unannounced in a proposed amendment to the Defamation Bill, which was before the Oireachtas Committee on Justice yesterday (but was not discussed). The proposal from Ahern does not define “religion”, so there is no reason to imagine the Church of Scientology would not be protected by it from the publication of “abusive or insulting matter”.

http://forums.whyweprotest.net/15-media/irish-times-def...4710/