Lucinda Creighton: Dangerous Hate Bill will have chilling effect on free speech and should be canned
If passed, the law would have a devastating impact on social cohesion and free and open political discourse
As pressure mounts on the new Irish Government to abandon the proposed “hate speech” legislation, even before it is elected by Dáil Éireann, it is worth examining why such legislation is unnecessary and why it would undoubtedly have a further chilling effect on free speech.
Freedom of speech is, of course, a fundamental tenet of liberal democracy, but one which is increasingly under threat in modern society. So called hate speech legislation has become a weapon to silence those who disagree with prevailing orthodoxies. It evokes the type of policing of thought which was foreseen by George Orwell in his seminal work 1984, but which few believed might come to pass.
