Insulting politicians or lawyers could land you in jail, warns FMF

The Free Market Foundation (FMF) released a statement on Tuesday morning slamming government’s proposed Prevention and Combating of Hate Crimes and Hate Speech Bill.

It warned that “In its current form, the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) ‘Hate Speech Bill’ will have a profound effect on our constitutional democracy, violates the principle of double jeopardy, introduces 17 grounds for offence – 13 more than the current four of race, ethnicity, religion and gender – and makes normal insult and ridicule into a crime. If enacted, South Africa will become one of the few countries in the world where freedom of expression is regulated to this draconian extent especially as, contrary to international practice, the Bill provides for no exemptions or defences.”

The FMF pointed out that someone making general statements such as, “All politicians are thieving liars” or “All lawyers are blood-sucking parasites”, may land the supposed culprit in jail for up to three years if the bill is passed into law in its current form.

The foundation says it doesn’t think the bill will pass constitutional muster anyway, as it “is far too wide, that much of the content is unconstitutional and, inevitably, will lead to successful constitutional challenge”.

It wants four critical areas in the bill scrapped or amended, although “existing legislation does the same job, and new legislation is not required or desired”.

“The Bill will allow up to a three-year prison sentence and 10 years for a second offence for petty disputes and minor insults.”

“The Equality Act prohibits hate speech, and the Films and Publications Act empowers the Films and Publications Board to refuse classification to publications which contain hate speech. The doctrine of crimen injuria has been used to prosecute cases of hate speech, most notably the recent case of Penny Sparrow, and is superior to the proposed Bill because, unlike the Bill, it requires someone’s dignity to have been violated – and – that the reasonable person, in the same circumstances, would also have felt degraded. Under the new Bill, petty disputes and jokes may lead to a prison sentence.

“The Constitution guarantees freedom of expression but does not protect speech that advocates hatred based on the four specified grounds of race, ethnicity, gender or religion, and which constitutes incitement to cause harm.

“The DOJ intends to regulate these expressions in line with the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination. It also claims that the Bill was inspired by anti-hate speech laws in Kenya, Australia and Canada. However, the South African Bill contains much harsher provisions. It also falls foul of international free speech obligations and goes far wider than any international anti-hate speech instrument, including the above Convention.”

To read the whole of the FMF’s submission to government, you can find it here.