9. juli 2014
Elise Harris, catholic news agency skriver bl.a.:
During a recent event discussing the origin and implementation of European hate-speech laws, lawyers argued that the “ill-conceived” laws pose a danger to free speech and often stifle constructive dialogue.
“While human rights provisions are meant to limit the reach of the state and empower citizens, hate speech laws do just the opposite – and that is why they are a tool of totalitarianism and not free democracies,” Alliance Defending Freedom’s legal advocate Paul Coleman stated in a July 4 speech.
Coleman’s discourse was part of a side-event hosted by the Alliance Defending Freedom and the Observatory on Intolerance and Discrimination Against Christians in Europe during a July 3 – 4 Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe’s (‘OSCE’) Supplementary Human Dimension Meeting, which took place at the Hofburg Palace in Vienna.
Referring to the side event’s title “’Hate Speech’ Laws in the OSCE Region: A Growing Threat to Freedom of Expression,” Coleman explained to CNA July 8 that the laws are not well defined, and therefore “are considered to be ill-conceived for several reasons.”
“The concept of ‘hate speech’ has no universally recognized understanding, as the European Court of Human Rights has said,” the lawyer noted, adding that because of this “hate speech laws are often over-extensive. They are loosely worded, employing malleable concepts such as ‘insult’ or ‘contempt.’”
Hele artiklen er <her>
Supplementary Human Dimension Meeting on promotion of freedom of expression: rights, responsibilities and OSCE commitments <her>