Another Terrible Court Decision In Europe: Insulting A Religion Is Not Free Speech

Another Terrible Court Decision In Europe: Insulting A Religion Is Not Free Speech

5 years ago
Anonymous $oIHRkISgaL

https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20181026/02034540916/another-terrible-court-decision-europe-insulting-religion-is-not-free-speech.shtml

Let's start off with the basics, because if I don't, I know we'll be flooded with these comments: no, the European concept of "free speech" differs quite a bit from the American one. The American 1st Amendment creates extremely strong protections for all sorts of expression -- including insulting or offending expression. Europe has always been a bit more willing to shove various exceptions into the right of freedom of expression, while mostly paying lip service to the concept. Article 10 of the Human Rights Act says that you have the right to your own opinions and the freedom to share them without government interference, but in practice, Europe has always been much quicker in brushing that aside in order to engage in all sorts of censorship from prior restraint to rewriting history.

And, according to a new ruling from the European Court of Human Rights, another exception to free expression is that you can't disparage religions because it might hurt the feelings of religious practitioners. No, really.