A law that criminalises “insults” needs to be reformed, a Daily Telegraph commentator has said.
Cristina Odone believes that Section 5 of the Public Order Act “leaves too much room for personal score-settling, not to mention paranoia”.
Currently, Section 5 outlaws “insulting words or behaviour”, but what exactly constitutes “insulting” is unclear and has resulted in many controversial police arrests.
Criminal
The commentator cited the case of a teenager who got into trouble under Section 5 for holding a placard calling Scientology a cult.
Earlier this year on Question Time she dismissed a protester against unpaid apprenticeship as “an ungrateful creature”.
A lawyer tweeted that such an “insult” was potentially a criminal offence.
Rude
In response to this she remarked: “I’d been living under two misapprehensions: first, that ‘creature’ was an acceptable rebuke here; second, that I had a right to be rude.”
The commentator praised the work of Reform Section 5, a campaign that is aiming to strip the word “insulting” from Section 5.
She said: “Thank goodness, an unlikely alliance of David Davis MP, Peter Tatchell and The Christian Institute are campaigning to change Section 5.
Freedom
“Until they win, I’ll steer clear of calling anyone a ‘creature’ again.”
Politicians of all stripes, civil liberty groups and others have highlighted the need for change.
Last month Guardian columnist Timothy Garton Ash said fixing the problem is “not a party-political issue”, but rather: “It is about freedom. And it is about what it means to be British.”