The following  link is to English PEN’s campaign to oppose legislation which
would  outlaw ’Incitement to Religious Hatred’, it is published here in the
context of Ireland’s 2006-2009 Defamation Legislation , enacted
January the  first 2010 which creates in Ireland a criminalisation for blasphemy.

Irish PEN continues to highlight the issue of this criminalisation and campaign here .

“English PEN  launched a campaign in 2005 to raise public awareness around the Government’s proposed legislation to outlaw ‘incitement to religious hatred’. The Bill as it was first drafted risked making criminals of anyone who voiced critical or satirical opinions of any religious beliefs, believers or practices. It was argued that Salman Rushdie might have been prosecuted under this law, had it existed when The Satanic Verses was published. English PEN feared that the Bill threatened to unduly curtail the public’s right to freedom of expression, preventing writers and others from creatively exploring the society in which we live. “

Details of the 2005 English PEN Campaign are here  http://www.englishpen.org/aboutenglishpen/campaigns/offence/

Urgent Need for Irish Constitutional Referendum on Blasphemy

The Executive Committee of Irish PEN, the Irish Centre for PEN International, is campaigning for a constitutional referendum to be held on blasphemy in the Republic of Ireland by the end of 2011… (click here to read entire PEN statement)

For more information please click on the following links:

2. International Pen: Writers Urge U.N. to Abandon Efforts to Prohibit Defamation of Religions, Concentrate Instead on Respect-Building Initiatives

3. Amending the Law on Blasphemous Libel Speech by Mr. Dermot Ahern T.D., Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform at the Dail Committee on Justice, Equality Defence and Women’s Rights Wednesday, 20th May, 2009

4. Ireland voted against the UN resolution in 2009; see Annex IX here:http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2009/gashc3966.doc.htm

5. OSCE argues against blasphemy law: Europe’s top security and human rights watchdog has urged Ireland not to preserve blasphemous libel as a crime. http://www.rte.ie/news/2009/0519/defamation.html

6. WiPC 2008 Resolution: Defamation of religions The Assembly of Delegates of International PEN, meeting at its 74th Congress in Bogota, Colombia, 17-22 September 2008

7. Art 19 , OSCE. publ 2006: “We welcome the abolition of the common law offences of blasphemous, obscene and seditious libel in section 34 of the Defamation Bill…

http://www.englishpen.org/aboutenglishpen/campaigns/offence/

  http://www.irishpen.com/wordpress/blasphemy/

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