'One of the fundamental principles of English common law is that you are innocent until proven guilty. And rightly so, for imagine how unfair it would be if any old loon with an axe to grind had only to lodge a trumped-up complaint with the relevant authorities in order to have you punished for no reason whatsoever.Actually, though, this cruel and capricious system exists in Britain. It's called the Independent Press Standards Organisation (Ipso) and, as might be expected of the bastard offspring of the Leveson inquiry, it's doing an absolutely first-rate job of empowering bullies and curbing freedom of speech in order to assuage the spite of that small but vocal lobby of caught-red-handed luvvies, lefty agitators and failed hacks which thinks our press has got too big for its boots.'
'As hatred is defined as intense dislike, what is wrong with inciting intense dislike of a religion, if the activities or teachings of that religion are so outrageous, irrational or abusive of human rights that they deserve to be intensely disliked?'Context here http://www.israellycool.com/2013/09/30/batsht-crazy-claim-of-the-day-rowan-atkinson-converted-to-islam/
'A Nepali teacher who taught chemistry at Qatar Academy has been jailed in Doha on felony charges for insulting Islam.'Do read the whole article here http://m.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2013/05/09/qatar-jails-a-nepali-teacher-on-charges-of-insulting-islam/
'A Saudi woman has been sentenced to eight lashes by a court in Qatif for mistakenly sending a text message allegedly promoting the Shiite branch of Islam.
The 30-year-old woman, identified only as YH, has been pronounced guilty for sending an SMS to another Saudi woman, containing a group of telephone numbers under the name 'Shiite Islamic religious services'.'
'It appears to be hateful and loathsome and vile to drunkenly utter on social media a racist taunt which you then withdraw, but it is fine to loudly and widely revel in the death of an octogenarian and hurl abuse of the most extreme kind at any who defend her legacy. And now it turns out that being from Liverpool places you in a special class affording you protection from nasty words, presumably because you can't handle them when they're coming your way.More here http://batsby.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/to-death.html
Thus it was that Twitter stalwart @Old_Holborn was by all accounts arrested yesterday (although this is yet to be confirmed at the time of writing) for tweeting harsh words about whiny Scousers, yet no such action seems to have been taken against any of the many that took it upon themselves to call for a mob to descend on his home and take the abuse from the merely verbal to the physical level.
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We even allow frequent Islamic protesters to loudly and fanatically call for the actual death of all non-Muslims, yet quickly deploy police to turn away those holding counter protests, denouncing those views as hate crimes.
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Arresting somebody for merely saying 'out loud' what a significant number of people are thinking is one step on the way to making opinions a legal matter.
And when we get to that point (this year, next year?) who will decide what opinions are acceptable? In fact, will we allow individual opinion - let's call it dissent - at all? I believe such things have been tried before and Winston Smith would easily recognise the sort of world that creates. What thought crimes have you committed today?'
'There has been a certain amount of concern as to whether bloggers might be caught by the proposed press regulations, and thus be exposed to crippling fines. However, in the debate last night in the Commons, the position was made clear by culture secretary Maria Miller.I will wait to see if such a clause is inserted but I won't be allowing myself a celebratory drink just yet.
A clause inserted into the coming Bill makes the law apply only to a "relevant publisher". Such a publisher would have to be publishing news-related material in the course of a business, the material would have to be written by a range of authors and it would have to be subject to editorial control.
These tests, says Miller, "would exclude a one-man band or a single blogger". The clause added is "specifically designed to protect small-scale bloggers", she said. Lone bloggers clearly do not meet the criteria necessary to include them in the regulatory maw.
However, online news sites such as Huffington Post, may well be caught in the net. Thus, if anything, this new law will have the effect of levelling the playing field between the clogs and the independent bloggers.'
b) “relevant publisher” means a person (other than a broadcaster) who publishes in the United Kingdom:This blogger is currently based in the UK, where it is published is a moot point, and it contains news-related material.
i.) a newspaper or magazine containing news-related material, or
ii.) a website containing news-related material (whether or not related to a newspaper or magazine);
'The charter will not be passed by MPs, but will need to be approved at the May meeting of the Queen's Privy Council - advisers to the Queen, mostly comprising senior politicians.'And that:
'Meanwhile, a clause in the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Bill, which will mean that the charter cannot be amended without a two-thirds majority in Parliament, was approved in the Lords on Tuesday evening.'The BBC manage to report that:
'And a separate bill, the Crime and Courts Bill, will have amendments ensuring that newspapers who refused to join the new regulatory regime would be potentially liable for exemplary damages if a claim was upheld against them.'But not that if anyone in the future should have a complaint about something written on this blog then they will be able to complain to the new Regulator without bearing any costs. If the Regulator finds for complainant then I would be forced to apologise and retract, which is fair. What is not fair is that regardless of whether the complaint is upheld or not, I would have to pay the costs of the complainant. That is iniquitous and a licence for the censorious, the vexatious and the malicious to make complaints. This Charter will simply encourage people with a grudge to make a complaint in the full knowledge that they will never be held responsible for so doing.
Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.
'In an extraordinary move, a civilian has been sentenced to a year's imprisonment for posting a picture on Facebook of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas dressed in a Real Madrid soccer outfit and kicking a ball. The sentencing is among several instances of a targeting of media in Palestinian areas.'http://www.ipsnews.net/2013/03/media-face-a-palestinian-kick/
Thanks for all you've achieved to date - I'm sure it's been a pretty thankless task but many of us value it tremendously.