Category: Freedom of Expression

Here we go again

| 9 Comments
| advertising, Freedom of Expression, Irish Society, Media and Communications

The headline in today’s Sunday Independent says it all: Shock as ad on autistic children banned. Niamh Horan reports:

A new advertisement highlighting the urgent needs of autistic children in Ireland has been banned from radio stations on the grounds that it is too political.

Now Irish Autism Action [IAA], which champions the rights of Irish children suffering from autism, has said they are surprised that the ad was banned by both the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland (BCI) and the national State broadcaster, RTÉ.

We have been here before. …

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Handing over customer records as protected speech?

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| Digital Rights, Freedom of Expression, Media and Communications, Privacy

verizon logo, via the verizon siteOn the day I learn (hat tip Media Law Prof Blog) that US not-for-profit NGO Freedom House has released its annual global Freedom of the Press Survey for 2007 (Ireland fares reasonably well – equal thirteenth in Europe, equal sixteenth worldwide – but we could do better), I also learn (hat tip madisonian.net) that Verizon have made an extraordinarily tendentious free speech argument in favour of disclosing customer records to the US security services. …

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The Constitution at 70

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| Freedom of Expression, Media and Communications

Bunreacht ConstitutionThe Irish Constitution is 70 years old this year. To mark this (platinum?) anniversary, Dr Oran Doyle and Dr Eoin Carolan, colleagues at the School of Law, TCD, have organized a conference, The Constitution at 70 (website | brochure (pdf))

Oran invited me to speak at the conference on the theme of freedom of expression in a session on unenumerated rights; I was delighted by the invitation, and (as I’ve mentioned before on this blog) I accepted with alacrity, as this is something on which I have Views! This post is about the current state of those Views, but it is offered not as my final thoughts on these issue but very much as ideas in progress, on which I would be grateful to receive comments, either here or off-blog.

Under the Constitution, there are at least three expression interests. First, there is the right to freedom of expression in Article 40.6.1(i). Second, a right to freedom of the press has also been spelled out of Article 40.6.1(i). And third, there is a right to communicate as one of the unenumerated rights in Article 40.3.

The first theme of my paper will largely be the story of this right to communicate.…

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What do words mean?

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| Freedom of Expression, Irish Society, Media and Communications

Language is a tricky thing. It isn’t static, but evovles over time, by the introduction of new words, phrases, grammar and so on, and by movement in the meaning of words. New words are obvious, new meanings less so; moreover, as the new meaning becomes dominant, phrases using words in their old meanings either become unintelligible or are co-opted to the words’ new meanings. Most of the time, such shifts are subterranean, and matter little. But we should nevertheless be aware of this, so that we can make the necessary adjustments when it does matter. An example is provided by the front of today’s Sunday Independent …

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Xenophobic European Bloggers Beware

| 4 Comments
| Blogging, Freedom of Expression, Media and Communications

Kevin Jon Heller cuts right to the heart of what will happen now that the EU Criminalizes Racist and Xenophobic Speech:

The real problem with the Framework’s approach to racist and xenophobic speech is the profoundly chilling effect it will almost certainly have on such speakers. What rational artist or filmmaker will risk pushing the ideological envelope if she knows that the criminality of her speech depends not on her intent but on the (unpredictable) reactions of others to it?

…

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Holocaust Denial in the EU

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| Freedom of Expression, Media and Communications

Holocuast Memorial Day logoThe Holocaust Memorial Day Trust will be holding its second annual conference on Monday 30th April at the Town Hall in Leeds, England (conference details pdf here). No doubt there will be much discussion of the merits of legislation against holocaust denial. The German proposal in January to have the EU make holocuast denial a criminal offence as a matter of EU law (blogged here by me, and with great insight by Section 14 and Liberal England) was debated in the Parliament in March, and was adopted by the Council of Ministers yesterday …

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