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A free speech campaign group has warned it has lawyers on standby as controversial new hate crime laws come into force in Scotland. Toby Young, the founder and director of the Free Speech Union (FSU), said it had been “preparing for this moment for some time”.
Alistair Grant, The Scotsman, 31st March 2024.
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West Mercia Police logged the comments as a “non-crime hate incident” (NCHI), but were successfully challenged by Mrs Maclean and the Free Speech Union. It has been determined that the comments did not meet the definition of an ‘incident’, police said in a letter to Mrs Maclean.
Redditch Standard, 29th March 2024.
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With help of the Free Speech Union Rachel Maclean successfully challenges West Mercia Police after social media transphobia spat.
Genevieve Holl-Allen, The Telegraph, 27th March 2024.
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After pledging in December to challenge the police over their decision to record the spat on her record, Ms Maclean won a major free speech victory today as the police said they would delete the incident. The victory comes after the Free Speech Union took on her case, and succeeded in forcing an apology from the force.
Christian Calgie, Express, 27th March 2024.
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The Free Speech Union, which is also working north of the border on Tory MSP Murdo Fraser’s case, took on Maclean’s. They have now succeeded in, following an apology from the police, getting the “incident” deleted altogether by establishing that what Maclean said does not represent a “real risk of significant harm to individuals or groups with a particular characteristic and/or a real risk that a future criminal offence may be committed against” them.
Guido Fawkes, 27th March 2024.
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Murdo Fraser was reported to the force following the post on X in November comparing non-binary people to those who identify as cats. The tweet was deemed not to have amounted to a crime but was classed as a “hate incident”. The Mid Scotland and Fife MSP, supported by the Free Speech Union, is now threatening legal action to have the record deleted and for the force to change its hate crime policy.
Kate Harris, The Express, 26th March 2024.
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Mr [Murdo] Fraser called in the Free Speech Union to back a legal challenge on the basis that Police Scotland has ‘adopted a cavalier and disrespectful attitude towards me and my rights to freedom of expression and privacy, and the right to be informed of false and damaging information held on police records’.
Michael Blackley, Mail Online, 25th March 2024.
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Mr Fraser is now threatening legal action against Police Scotland to have the incident deleted and its hate crime policy updated, with the support of the Free Speech Union (FSU). He said: “Police Scotland has behaved not just outrageously, but unlawfully according to the legal advice obtained by the Free Speech Union. This is Police Scotland attacking free speech – but it is more sinister than that. My tweet wasn’t pointing a finger at an individual – it was critical of a Scottish Government policy.”
David Bol, The Scotsman, 25th March 2024.
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Mr Fraser, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, is threatening legal action against the force to have the incident deleted and its hate crime policy changed, with the support of the Free Speech Union (FSU).
Graham Grant, Mail Online, 24th March 2024.
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Meanwhile, under proposed new legislation, Scottish parents could face prosecution if they do not accept that their child requires medical intervention to change gender. The SNP wants to push through a ban on what it misleadingly calls ‘conversion therapy’. This would make it illegal to ‘change or suppress another individual’s gender identity’. As the Free Speech Union explains, these new laws would, if passed, make it illegal to impose ‘restrictions or limitations’ on a child in order to ‘repress or prevent the development of their… gender identity’. Parents will essentially be forbidden, by law, from protecting their children from gender ideology.
Joanna Williams, Spiked, 21st March 2024.
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