Ruadhán Jones
Free speech specialist and lawyer Ivan Hare has attacked proposals which could “suppress expression which is at the heart of political debate” in the North.
The proposals are set out in a recent review of the region’s ‘hate crime’ laws, spearheaded by Judge Desmond Marrinan.
Mr Hare wrote in an article for The Christian Institute that proposals to extend those laws to the expression of disagreement on issues like marriage and transgenderism could have a “chilling effect”.
“[There is] a very real risk that robust and uninhibited discussion of matters of great public importance will suffer a chilling effect,” said Mr Hare.
“Such a chilling effect is particularly likely where the penalty is criminal and may include imprisonment.”
Mr Hare’s criticisms focused on the absence of a clause which protects the freedom of expression, a significant difference from English and Welsh law.
Marriage
Mr Hare said that speakers who invoke “sincerely held Christian beliefs concerning marriage and homosexual conduct” could be prosecuted as a result.
“Some of the debate around, for example, accommodating transgender women in female prisons or in women’s hostels may expose the speakers to the risk of criminal prosecution,” Mr Hare said.
He added that the omission of such legal protection results in the “clear potential to infringe the right to freedom of expression”.
Freedom
Mr Hare argued that free speech clauses should be introduced as they are the only way “to ensure that religious freedom and conscience are protected in Northern Ireland can be made good”.
Simon Calvert, Deputy Director for Public Affairs at The Christian Institute, said that Mr Hare’s comments “confirms our fears that Northern Ireland law is already open to misuse by those who want to shut down debate, and that introducing swathes of new ‘hate crimes’ would make the situation much, much worse”.