Alert

Irish defamation law and EU human rights

August 18, 2009

EUOBSERVER / COMMENT - On July 23, a new defamation law went into effect on Ireland.

The new legislation has made blasphemous speech illegal, which means that a citizen of the European Union can be punished for making a comment that is determined to be offensive to a substantial number of followers of a religion.

The punishment of a fine, up to €25,000, can hardly be consistent with human-rights obligations under the EU treaties, and I have therefore filed a complaint to the European Commission.

Author: KARL SIGFRID

Source: http://euobserver.com/9/28558/?rk=1

The International Federation of Journalists is the global voice of journalists. It was formed in 1926 and today is the world’s largest organisation of journalists, working across all sectors and representing more than 600,000 news staff in unions and associations of journalists from 120 countries.

The Ethical Journalism Initiative is a global campaign of programmes and activities to support and strengthen quality in media. It was adopted by the World Congress of the IFJ in Moscow in 2007 and was formally launched in 2008.

The EJI Europe campaign is co-funded by the European Union's Fundamental Rights and Citizenship Programme.

Web technology by Locarea