Ireland too poor to afford Freedom of Expression
First post of 2010 and under the Dermot Ahern blasphemy law. RTE’s PrimeTime had a feature of the law, which is drawing admiring noises from such bastions of individual liberty as Egypt, Iran and Pakistan.
On the panel was Ali Salim from the Irish Council of Imams who wanted to draw the line between “freedom of expression and transgression”, though sadly he wasn’t pressed on exactly what transgression entailed. He, of course, was delighted with the law.
Meanwhile, the token government spokes-lamb-to-the-slaughter was Thomas Byrne TD, a member of the Oireachas Joint Committee on Justice, who said that the Referendum required to remove the crime of blasphemy from the Irish Constitution was too expensive.
Just how poor does a country have to be before basic humans rights become a luxury purchase?
