In what looks like a victory for the increasingly threatened liberty of free speech, the BNP leader Nick Griffin and a follower were acquitted yesterday of inciting racial hatred through saying that Islam was "a wicked religion". The jury failed to reach a verdict on some charges and acquitted on others.
http://www.bnp.org.uk/news_detail.php?newsId=763
The BNP say: "Even many voters who dislike the policies of the BNP have written in to say that they want to hear about us in a democratic environment and we should all be free to disagree with one another without risking a jail sentence for disagreeing."
This is true. Even Shami Chakrabati the head of Liberty, which mostly campaigns on behalf of the rights of suspected Muslim terrorists, seemed to think Griffin should not have been charged. The BNP's statement above is slightly ironic since while they are careful not to say anything that could be reasonably regarded as race hatred, if you read their website long enough you will see articles including comments like "when we take power the media will be prevented from spreading their lies and disinformation. All news will come from government-approved sources." So they are perhaps not the ideal poster boys for free speech.
But that's really the point, isn't it?
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1 comment:
AMEN, ViL.
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