Challenges to free speech

COMMENT

A lot has been said over the past few years about freedom of expression – who has the right to say what, is this kind of language acceptable, is that OK to say in public but not online, and what, if any, consequences should there be for offensive speech?

People have lost their jobs or been kicked off courses because of things they have said about the nature of marriage or biological sex. Some have required long, often costly, legal battles to clear their name. And even though they have been vindicated, it risks creating a real chilling effect, as people may feel it’s easier to stay silent than to risk saying something that might get them into trouble.

This has been a real concern to Christians in particular. We saw Angus Cameron, a street preacher, being put in handcuffs and kept in police custody simply because someone took offence when he was preaching from the Bible. He was later released without charge, but a ‘non-crime hate incident’ was logged against his name. The police were keeping tabs on him, even though he’d done nothing wrong. He got in touch with the CI and we ensured he received an apology, compensation for his unlawful arrest, and crucially, that the non-crime hate incident was expunged from his record.

Christians need to be at the vanguard of those advocating for the precious religious liberty and freedom of expression we enjoy to be maintained

Legal jeopardy

The previous Government made a few positive moves. It passed the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act to promote free speech at university – the home of so much of today’s cancel culture. When she was Home Secretary, Suella Braverman told the police there should be a much higher threshold on recording non-crime hate incidents.

That’s not to suggest the Conservatives were perfect on free speech by any means. After all they first put forward the plans for a broad ban on so-called conversion therapy that we’re campaigning against because it endangers gospel freedom.

But the Labour Government now appears to be looking to roll back some of the good measures the previous Government put in place.

Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson has put the university free speech law on hold, and is considering repealing it altogether. Academics are not pleased, and hundreds have implored her to urgently implement that law.

Yvette Cooper, the Home Secretary, has said she wants even greater recording of those non-crime hate incidents we mentioned earlier, and that she wants a zero-tolerance approach to ‘hate’.

There is discussion around a vague new legal definition of an offence of Islamophobia. Could that include Christians saying that Islam is false, and that Jesus is the only way to reach God?

people may feel it’s easier to stay silent than to risk saying something that might get them into trouble

There are moves to reassess what qualifies as ‘extremism’ – in particular ‘non-violent extremism’. Ten years ago, we led a campaign to challenge proposals for Extremism Disruption Orders – a bit like ASBOs to be slapped on anyone thought to be promoting an ideology that could lead to a hate crime. So these weren’t people who were inciting violence, but instead people who were promoting views which some didn’t like – and Christians could certainly have fallen foul of that.

Last but not least, Keir Starmer is under pressure to respond to this summer’s rioting by censoring online content deemed to be ‘legal but harmful’ to adults. Previous proposals on this were dropped following a lengthy CI campaign. It was another vague definition, which risked seeing sermons dealing with controversial cultural issues pulled off YouTube.

Hard-won blessings

Such measures should concern anyone who cares about free speech. Christians need to be at the vanguard of those advocating for the precious religious liberty and freedom of expression we enjoy to be maintained.

They were hard-won down the years by believers. In many places around the world our brothers and sisters can only long for such freedom. We must not take these great blessings for granted or treat them carelessly.

The Apostle Paul tells us that preaching Christ crucified is a stumbling block and an offence to many. And we know that many more of God’s laws and decrees are very unfashionable today. But despite the challenges, we should be confident in speaking out for the truth: praying and acting to challenge attempts to restrict free speech.

We must not take these great blessings for granted or treat them carelessly