The Free Speech Union has seen a Stuff report suggesting
we are indifferent to the risks the Harmful Digital
Communications Act poses to free speech. We are not. The Act
is bad law. It was well meant but naïve, and we have said
so for years. Nothing has happened to soften that
judgement.
“Stuff reports that Mr Bradbury now
appears to share our concerns,” said Stephen Franks, Chair
of the Free Speech Union. “If he believes he has been
wrongly gagged, he should get in touch. Given his long
hostility to the Free Speech Union that might be difficult
for him, but we regularly defend people many of us disagree
with. We choose cases that highlight key
principles.”
The Act gives courts powers that can
too easily be used to shut down lawful expression, including
speech about powerful people that the public has every right
to hear. The Free Speech Union has fought to reform it for
years, and is not stopping.
“Wanting a law reformed
has never obliged anyone to disarm while it remains on the
books,” said Mr Franks. “Every citizen may use the
protections Parliament has enacted, whatever any of us
thinks of them. Lawyers do it every day, applying rules for
their clients that they would rather see abolished tomorrow.
That is not hypocrisy. It is the ordinary use of the law as
it stands, and it is exactly why leaving bad law in force is
so dangerous. Bad law does not sit quietly. It gets
used.”
The Free Speech Union’s position is
straightforward. The Harmful Digital Communications Act is
bad law. It should be substantially reformed. We will keep
saying so, plainly, until Parliament
acts.
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