About Me

My photo
Australian philosopher, literary critic, legal scholar, and professional writer. Based in Newcastle, NSW. My latest books are THE TYRANNY OF OPINION: CONFORMITY AND THE FUTURE OF LIBERALISM (2019) and AT THE DAWN OF A GREAT TRANSITION: THE QUESTION OF RADICAL ENHANCEMENT (2021).

Friday, May 01, 2009

What the hell is Ireland doing?

Another story on Ireland's proposal for what looks like an extraordinarily draconian law forbidding "blasphemous libel". Just as I was giving credit to the Vatican for apparently being in (at least mild) opposition to the OIC's defamation of religion proposal, we get this proposal in a not-so-coincidentally Catholic country.

But Ireland, to its credit, is one of the countries that voted against the "defamation of religion" resolution last time it came up in the UN General Assembly. As of late last year, it was one of the good guys - one of the countries supporting freedom of speech.

The global politics of freedom of speech are getting more difficult to understand day by day, at least for me. If anyone can shed light on what the hell Ireland is doing, please go ahead. You have the floor.

2 comments:

Elephant said...

Well it's like this:













Erm.











Hmmm.












No, sorry. Got me there.

Richard T said...

Is it just conceivable that this is linked to protecting Holy Mother Church against attacks like oh say exposing priests as child molesters. You get the picture - a knock on the door and a couple of Garda are there. Get them banged up for a few years for blasphemy - problem solved.