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One of our cherished freedoms (and our party’s core principal) is the defence of free speech. There are many threats to this. One of the latest is the threat of and actual prosecution of individuals for ‘offending’ someone. Section 5 of the Public Order Act allows the Police to arrest someone whose comments might be regarded as ‘insulting’ if they had heard or read it. Free speech of course is meaningless if everyone has to agree with the content and those who claim offence use it to gag ‘free speech’. A campaign backed by the National Secular Society – Reform Section 5 – supported by the likes of Rowan Atkinson and Stephen Fry is calling for this Section to be appealed. We agree. Find out more at
http://reformsection5.org.uk/–
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Dear RS5 supporter,
Rowan Atkinson and Stephen Fry
back Reform Section 5
It’s been quite a busy couple of weeks here at the Reform Section 5 campaign.
Last week Stephen Fry ‘Fryed’ the RS5 website when he tweeted his support and thousands of people came to see what the fuss was about. Don’t worry. We had the site back up and running in minutes so lots of new people were able to join our mailing list (“Welcome!”) and use the site to urge their MPs to back reform.
On the same day, comedian Rowan Atkinson gave a brilliant speech to MPs and Peers at a Reform Section 5 Parliamentary reception.
Within days our YouTube video of his stirring defence of free speech had been viewed over 160,000 times. You can watch it here.
Click on the image below to see our video report on the RS5 Parliamentary Reception.
Thanks for your support.
Don’t forget to follow us on Twitter @reformsection5 and on Facebook.
Yours,
Simon Calvert,
Campaign Director,
Reform Section 5
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