New national polling commissioned by ADF International reveals a deep-seated concern amongst the Irish for the erosion of free speech, with a quarter revealing they already feel restricted in expressing their views and opinions in social settings like a pub, or in their place of work or study.
In the survey, 90% of respondents confirmed that free speech was “very important” to them – while the Irish parliament debates new and wide-ranging “hate speech” legislation, with egregious implications for the basic human right to free speech.
The proposed “hate speech” legislation would be one of the worst examples of censorship in the modern West.
Under the country’s new Criminal Justice (Incitement to Violence or Hatred and Hate Offences) Bill, which is currently before the upper house of the Oireachtas, it will become a crime punishable by up to five years in jail to say anything, on- or offline, which anybody with a protected characteristic drawn from a vague and open-ended series of such characteristics (e.g., race, gender, religion, sexuality, and so on) perceives to be ‘hateful’.
Troublingly, the draft legislation contains no definition of “hate”, which means that once the Bill is passed it will, in the first instance, be the Garda Síochána that determines what constitutes hatred based on its current, capacious definition of a hate crime as “perceived by the victim, or any other person, to have been motivated by prejudice, based on actual or perceived age, disability, race, colour, nationality, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation or gender”.
Even if cases involving ‘perceived’ incitement to hatred never reach the courts, the risk is that the investigatory process – the knock on the door, the officers of the law pushing past you into your living room, the search of your possessions, the formal interview down at the police station – effectively becomes the punishment, creating a chilling effect that will in future lead the ‘perpetrator’, and all those who know the ‘perpetrator’, to self-censor.
In an echo of Ireland’s Committee on Evil Literature, which was established in 1926, and the Censorship of Publications Act which followed three years later and prohibited the sale and distribution of “unwholesome literature”, the Irish government’s brave new Hate Speech Bill will also make it a crime, punishable by two years’ jail time, simply to “prepare or possess” material likely to incite hatred.
“Possession” in this context could simply mean having a dodgy meme or cartoon saved on your phone, or a copy of The Turner Diaries or Mein Kampf stored on your laptop. These and other, similar cultural artefacts will undoubtedly fall within the ambit of the Garda, since the bill reverses the usual burden of proof, and presumes “that the material [is] not intended for personal use”, and that you must be planning to disseminate it, unless you can prove otherwise.
Any attempt to frustrate the authorities in their pursuit of ‘unwholesome literature’ won’t get tech-savvy Irish citizens very far, either, since the legislation includes a provision that makes it a crime to refuse to give the Garda a password to any electronic device that you own.
That’s why voices from around the world were in Dublin on Sunday to speak up for the right to debate and discuss ideas.
At the 2024 Free Speech Summit in Dublin on 18th June, international free speech champions gathered with politicians to highlight the issues at stake under the bill.
“The world is watching Ireland,” Michael Shellenberger, the international journalist, author and speaker said. “The censorial ‘hate speech bill’, if passed, would not only shut down conversation nationally…it would have a worldwide impact on what we can all discuss online.”
Independent Senators Rónán Mullen and Sharon Keogan also the stage, as well as leading academics including Cambridge Associate Professor Dr James Orr. Also on the bill were cleric and broadcaster Fr Calvin Robinson; feminist campaigner Laoise de Brún; psychotherapist and Director of GenSpect, Stella O’Malley; international bestselling author Andy Ngo; and “Father Ted” Screenwriter Graham Linehan.
“The Summit is the very epitome of why we need free speech,” Linehan said. “We’re all coming together with different viewpoints, beliefs, and perspectives – but we agree on one thing. We should be allowed to freely discuss and debate ideas in Ireland. Our free speech must not be curtailed by a censorial government. It’s essential that the parliament consider the draconian impact that the hate speech bill could have on Irish society – and keep the public square open for all.”
Click here to view all the videos from the event on ADF International’s X page.
