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Topic: Blasphemous libel

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	: Does Blasphemy Exist?
		He observed that blasphemous libel is an anachronism of English history from a time when the State was intrinsically linked with the Church, through the Ecclesiastical courts, and the unity of State and Church was not transported to the Australian colony.
		As for reasons why blasphemous libel might still exist in Victoria, Justice Harper merely noted the existence of section 469AA of the Crimes Act (Vic) and stated that there is a body of law which suggests that blasphemous libel may exist in Victoria.
		If blasphemous libel did exist, Justice Harper held the view that it would have to be shown that the exhibition of Piss Christ raised the risk of a breach of the peace.
	www.artslaw.com.au /Publications/Articles/97Blasphemy.asp (1736 words)

	Inter American Press Association
		Defamatory libel is matter published, without lawful justification or excuse, that is likely to injure the reputation of any person by exposing him to hatred, contempt or ridicule, or that is designed to insult the person of or concerning whom it is published.
		The proprietor of the newspaper is liable for the libel unless he proves that the defamatory matter was published without his knowledge and without negligence on his part.
		Given that criminal libel requires knowledge of falsity and an intent to defame, the Court reasoned that speech covered by criminal libel is of minimal value, and therefore the infringement on freedom of expression is justifiable under the Charter.
	www.sipiapa.org /PROJECTS/laws-can7.cfm (597 words)

	Blasphemy: European Law and Cases
		It is not blasphemous to speak or publish opinions hostile to the Christian religion, or to deny the existence of God, if the publication is couched in decent and temperate language.
		libel shall, on conviction thereof on indictment, be liable to a fine not exceeding five hundred pounds or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years or to both such fine and imprisonment or to penal servitude for a term not exceeding seven years
		Because blasphemy as an offence could not be abolished without a constitutional referendum the Commission recommended creation of a new statutory offence of blasphemous libel, which would cover matter "the sole effect of which is likely to cause outrage to a substantial number of adherents concerning a matter or matters held sacred" by a religion.
	www.caslon.com.au /blasphemyprofile5.htm (3352 words)

	Defamation - the Basics
		With libel it is possible to argue that you libelled the person by accident but you must be able to prove that there was no intent to libel.
		A criminal libel is one of a serious nature which is brought to prevent a breach of the peace rather than to protect the reputation of a discredited individual.
		The bringing of blasphemy and blasphemous libel cases is rare and in 1981 the Law Commission recommended abolition of the crime of blasphemy.
	www.student.city.ac.uk /~re326/defamation.html (1036 words)

	firstamendmentcenter.org: Press - Topic
		On the one hand, libel suits are a necessary recourse for those who believe that they have been wronged by the press.
		Libel generally refers to written defamation, while slander refers to oral defamation.
		For example, a lawyer in a divorce case could not be sued for libel for comments he or she made during a court proceeding.
	www.firstamendmentcenter.org /press/topic.aspx?topic=libel_defamation (3657 words)

	Blasphemous libel - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
		Blasphemous libel is a common law criminal offence in England and Wales.
		Where there has been a guilty verdict for the "composing, printing or publishing" of blasphemous or seditious libel, section 1 of the Criminal Libel Act 1819 gives to the court the power to order the search for and seizure of the material.
		In New Zealand it is illegal under the Crimes Act 1961 (Section 123) to publish any blasphemous libel.
	en.wikipedia.org /wiki/Blasphemous_libel (142 words)

	Consultation Paper on The Crime of Libel
		A true libel was therefore a “greater” one because of its greater potential to provoke a breach of the peace.
		The law as to what amounted to a seditious libel, having been formed in the period when the ruler was regarded as the superior of his subjects, assorted badly with the new view that he was their agent or servant.
		There were numerous prosecutions for blasphemous libel in England at the end of the eighteenth and beginning of the nineteenth centuries, including the celebrated prosecution of Williams, publisher of Paine's Age of Reason, where the prosecution for the Crown was conducted by Thomas Erskine, the leading advocate of the day.
	www.lawreform.ie /publications/data/volume10/lrc_65.html (9138 words)

	Blasphemy, Offensive Speech and Censorship: Australia
		The shape of the federal government's responsibilities under the Constitution and the progressive updating of enactments mean that at the national level blasphemy is not an offence in common law and that there are few explicit references to blasphemy in federal legislation.
		An offence of sending blasphemous material through the post was abolished in 1989, replaced by the offence of using postal or telecommunications services to menace or harass a person, or in a manner that would be regarded by reasonable persons as "offensive" in the circumstances.
		The common law misdemeanours of criminal libel, blasphemous libel, seditious libel and obscene libel are abolished.
	www.caslon.com.au /blasphemyprofile3.htm (2185 words)

	SCU Printery Legals
		Libel is a complex area of law because different laws operate in different jurisdictions (e.g.
		Libel is about inference and innuendo as well as the literal meaning of words.
		Blasphemous libel is material which is said to deprave public morality or shake the fabric of society.
	www.scu.edu.au /services/printery/P_CpyrghtLglIsss.htm (1349 words)

	House of Lords - Religious Offences in England and Wales - First Report
		Blasphemy (and blasphemous libel) is a common law offence with an unlimited penalty.
		In the case of blasphemous libel, where material is judged to be a blasphemous libel "tending…to excite his Majesty's subjects to attempt the alteration of any matter in the Church…by law established, otherwise than by lawful means", the court making that judgement can order the seizure of that material.
		Section 4 of the Law of Libel Amendments Act 1888 was repealed, in relation to blasphemous libel, by sections 17(2) and 18(3) of the Defamation Act 1952.
	www.parliament.the-stationery-office.co.uk /pa/ld200203/ldselect/ldrelof/95/9505.htm (1509 words)

	Seditious libel - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
		The crime of seditious libel was defined and established in England during the 1606 case "De Libellis Famosis" by the Star Chamber[1].
		The phrase "seditious libel" and "blasphemous libel" were used interchangeably at that time, because of the strong connections between church and state.
		The United States of America's Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798 broke with the common law precedent of the time, in that it allowed for truth as a defence, though Judges were not consistent in their rulings.
	en.wikipedia.org /wiki/Seditious_libel (204 words)

	Lawlink NSW: 3. Other Jurisdictions
		An offence of sending blasphemous material through the post was repealed in 1989, and replaced by an offence (s85S) of using federal postal or telecommunications services to harass or in a manner that would be regarded by reasonable persons as “offensive” in the circumstances.
		In this respect the prohibition on the transmission of blasphemous material is to be read in conjunction with Programme Standards covering the denigration of religious faiths and beliefs of all kinds (rather than with notions of punishment under the criminal law).
		Recognising that it is impossible to abolish the offence of blasphemous libel under the existing constitutional provision without a referendum, the Commission proposed a temporary improvement.
	www.lawlink.nsw.gov.au /lrc.nsf/pages/DP24CHP3 (3914 words)

	Schofield, Freedom of the Press in the United States, 1914
		The remedy for a publication alleged to be a seditious libel, a blasphemous libel, or an obscene and immoral libel, was a criminal prosecution.
		In a civil action for a defamatory libel the truth of the publication was a decisive answer, the burden of proving the truth being on the defendant author and publisher.
		In all criminal prosecutions, whether for defamatory libel, seditious libel, blasphemous libel, or obscene and immoral libel, the truth or falsity of the publication was of no importance.
	www.uark.edu /depts/comminfo/cambridge/scof.html (7433 words)

	The Campaign for Philosophical Freedom
		Because the Church and the state are still established in Great Britain neither the Conservative or the Labour Governments have taken action on this recommendation that the law of blasphemous libel is abolished.
		All the time the Church and the state are established, and this antiquated law remains in place, we are a theocracy and not a democracy.
		Blasphemous Libel - Letter from The Law Commission to Michael Roll (June 22, 1982)
	www.cfpf.org.uk /letters/2002/2002-07-02_mr2rb.html (508 words)

	[No title]
		One of the best known 'hoaxes' to come out of the 2000 presidential election was the report of a presidential IQ study from the Lovenstein Institute.
		The Institute had reportedly studied the IQ's of all the presidents since FDR and concluded that President Bush's was the lowest, at 91.
		By reporting his IQ at 91 it meets the definition of libel; "a statement or representation published without just cause and tending to expose another to public contempt".
	www.thepublicview.com /TPVArticles/LiberalSlander.asp (370 words)

	Comm
		Colonial authorities suppressed opinions they believed to be blasphemous or seditious, they paid little attention to private libel or obscenity.
		Seditious Libel (p.7 – crime of criticizing the king and other government officials, form of government, laws, symbols or politics of government).
		The Constitution of the Confederate States of America was ratified March 29, 1861 and it included a freedom-of-speech clause identical in language to that of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
	mason.gmu.edu /~sklein1/comm454/chapter2outline.htm (710 words)

	Catholic World News : Blasphemy free for all
		He maintained that the cartoon and caption appeared calculated to insult the feelings and religious convictions of readers, by treating the sacrament of the Eucharist and its administration as objects of scorn and derision.
		And while courts have gradually narrowed the scope of what might be considered blasphemous, they have simultaneously widened the range of religious beliefs that might be protected from such attacks.
		I will not lend my voice to a view of the law relating to blasphemous libel which would render it a dead letter, or diminish its efficacy to protect religious feelings from outrage and insult.
	www.cwnews.com /news/viewstory.cfm?recnum=20739 (906 words)

	Eamonn Greene and Company
		The recent decision in John Conway -v- Independent Newspapers (Ireland) Limited, Independent Newspapers plc and Aengus Fanning concerned an application for leave to institute criminal proceedings for blasphemous libel.
		The proceedings concerned the publication by the Sunday Independent of a cartoon which was beside an article on the divorce referendum.
		He sought to institute criminal proceedings for blasphemous libel against the Sunday Independent.
	myhome.iolfree.ie /~greene/news/news2.htm (217 words)

	Scrivener, 'The Discourse of Treason, Sedition, and Blasphemy in British Political Trials, 1794-1820' - Romanticism and ...
		According to Justice Holt in a ruling of 1704, criticism of the government was seditious libel, period (Holdsworth 6: 266).
		Punishment for seditious libel also varied greatly in severity, from a few months imprisonment, probationary security, and fines, to transportation and banishment from the realm--the lattermost punishment being an innovation of the Six Acts of 1820.
		Perhaps the first English blasphemer to be convicted and burned at the stake was an Oxford deacon who converted to Judaism to marry a Jewish woman in 1222.
	www.rc.umd.edu /praxis/law/scrivener/mscrv.htm (3645 words)

	The PISS CHRIST controversy@Arts & Opinion
		Naturally, the public display of blasphemous or sacrilegious works will generally be hurtful to believers; indeed, the fact that such art-work is shocking to ‘ordinary sensibilities' is generally regarded as one of its principal virtues by its creators and promoters: this kind of art only works because it hurts.
		There are two elements to the offence of blasphemous libel: a scurrilous insult to Christians and their beliefs beyond the bounds of what is generally accepted as decent difference of opinion, and the publication of that insult.
		First, blasphemous libel does not involve ‘censorship' in the sense of excluding certain opinions from being expressed in the public realm.
	www.artsandopinion.com /2004_v3_n4/pisschrist-2.htm (3132 words)

	Lawlink NSW: 2. The Law of Blasphemy
		A court which accepted the theological arguments for punishing blasphemers would be unswayed by arguments that the alleged blasphemy was published in a sober and serious manner, intended to promote discourse and rational thought rather than civil unrest.
		If it be accepted, as I think it must, that that which is sought to prevent is the publication of blasphemous libels, the harm is done by their intentional publication, whether or not the publisher intended to blaspheme.
		Guilt of the offence of publishing a blasphemous libel does not depend on the accused having an intent to blaspheme but on proof that the publication was intentional (or, in the case of a bookseller, negligent (Lord Campbell’s Act 1843)) and that the matter published was blasphemous.
	www.lawlink.nsw.gov.au /lrc.nsf/pages/DP24CHP2 (12575 words)

	Press Release on LGCM and linking
		Blasphemous libel does only apply to religious beliefs and not to secular humanism.
		Prohibition of blasphemous libel is in its nature a discriminatory practice and should be abolished.
		The James Kirkup poem, ‘The love that dares to speak its name,’ following its publication by Gay News in 1979, was at the centre of a successful blasphemous libel prosecution brought by Mary Whitehouse.
	www.xs4all.nl /~yaman/linkpoem.htm (1146 words)

	United Kingdom's Blasphemy Laws
		Blasphemous libel occurs not only when hateful literature is published, "reviling" or "scurrilous", but even when "ludicrous matter" relating to Christian concepts is published.
		The problem with the first method is this: There are hundreds of religion with all kinds of absurd, irrational and heartfelt issues that would be deemed "blasphemous".
		Even if we made it so that intent to blaspheme was a requirement for conviction, it would not be right in a free society to enforce blasphemy laws for hundreds of religions upon the populace.
	www.vexen.co.uk /religion/blasphemy.html (1664 words)

	New Statesman - Protecting Our Lord
		Presumably the defence will also mention the latest Royal Commission on the Press, which recommends that private prosecutions against the press should be abolished in cases of blasphemous libel, as well as in those of seditious and criminal libel.
		It was a perfect trio for the prosecution, who could imply, though not state, that the defendants were not just blasphemers but filthy-minded deviants as well.
		And we heard, of course, the worthy chestnut from the judge to the jury: 'This is not a court of morals, this is a court of law.' This week, that excellent definition seemed totally inapt.
	www.newstatesman.com /200602130044 (1636 words)

	Kidnapping, Trafficking in Persons, Hostage Taking and Abduction (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-10)
		Every one who publishes a defamatory libel that he knows is false is guilty of an indictable offence and liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years.
		No person shall be deemed to publish a defamatory libel by reason only that he publishes defamatory matter that, on reasonable grounds, he believes is true, and that is relevant to any subject of public interest, the public discussion of which is for the public benefit.
		No person shall be deemed to publish a defamatory libel where he proves that the publication of the defamatory matter in the manner in which it was published was for the public benefit at the time when it was published and that the matter itself was true.
	laws.justice.gc.ca /en/C-46/280786.html (3497 words)

	Slaw \| Archive \| Canadian blasphemy law
		This is what results: "At common law, blasphemy and blasphemous libel consisted of the publication of contemptuous, reviling, scurrilous or ludicrous matter relating to God, Jesus Christ, the Bible, or the formularies of the Church of England.
		It was not blasphemy at common law to attack any religion except Christianity, and an attack on the Christian religion had to be such as tended to lead to a breach of the peace.
		While it is blasphemy to publish attacks upon God, it may no longer be blasphemous to publish attacks upon the doctrines of Christianity or upon Christian clergy.
	www.slaw.ca /2006/02/07/canadian-blasphemy-law (446 words)

	GALHA Submission to the House of Lords Committee on Religious Offences
		GALHA seeks an end to the offences of blasphemy and blasphemous libel.
		Far from being extended to other religions, the notion of an offence of blasphemy or blasphemous libel should be abolished as unworkable and unfair.
		and its editor, Denis Lemon, in 1977 on a privately brought prosecution of ‘blasphemous libel’, GALHA recognises how easy it was for such a law to be used against a vulnerable group within society.
	www.galha.org /submission/2002_07.html (1024 words)

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