Irish Govt guilty of legislating for thought crimes, says TD
from The Christian Institute:
People are at risk of arrest for ‘hateful thoughts’ under Ireland’s proposed Criminal Justice Bill, a Dáil member has warned.
Paul Murphy TD said the Government’s hate crime legislation was in danger of criminalising someone in possession of supposedly ‘hateful material’, even if it remained private and harmed nobody.
Last year, the Government claimed that “genuine freedom of expression” would not be caught by the Criminal Justice (Incitement to Violence or Hatred and Hate Crime) Bill 2022, but opponents fear the law will be used to censor less popular views.
Free speech threat
During a debate in the lower house, Murphy warned that Section 10 of the legislation “creates the possibility of a person being criminalised purely for having material that is hateful, without that material being communicated to the public”.
He asked: “How can we hold people responsible for actions that they have not taken? That goes against the main thrust of our criminal law, which relates to actual crimes that take place, not bad thoughts that people have, that they write down.”
The Deputy called for “explicit reference” to be made to article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights, “including the general principle that the right” to free speech “applies to the expression of information or ideas that offend, shock or disturb”.
Amendments moved by the People Before Profit member “defending the right to freedom of expression”, which sought to prevent the Bill from undermining “basic issues of civil liberties”, were voted down by the House.
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