Democracy cannot exist without the right to free speech.
Free speech should be robustly defended as a fundamental freedom.
The National Secular Society has defended free speech from religious threats since our founding. We played an instrumental role in abolishing "blasphemy" laws in Britain, but serious concerns remain. Blasphemy laws still exist in Northern Ireland. And throughout the UK, religious fundamentalists seek to impose their blasphemy taboos on others through violence and intimidation.
There are also increasing attempts to categorise offending religious sensibilities as 'hate speech', making criticism, mockery or perceived 'insult' of religion a criminal act akin to racial hatred or inciting violence – in other words, a 'blasphemy law by the back door'.
Without free speech no search for truth is possible; without free speech no discovery of truth is useful; without free speech progress is checked… Better a thousand fold abuse of free speech than denial of free speech.
We are further concerned by a developing 'culture of offence' in which any speech or action deemed likely to offend religious sensibilities is considered taboo. Enforced by a toxic mix of terrorism and religious deference, this is chilling free speech through self-censorship.
We also campaign against blasphemy laws around the world, where they continue to be used to target religious and political minorities. These are sometimes described by UK politicians as 'misuse' of blasphemy laws, but we contend there are never any legitimate uses for blasphemy laws.
Being offended from time to time is the price we all pay for living in a free society. Rather than trying to silence those we disagree with, we believe the answer to speech we don't like is more speech – better speech.
We therefore campaign to protect and preserve freedom of expression, including offensive, critical and shocking speech.
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Latest updates
Turkish musician Fazıl Say awarded 2015 International Secularism Prize
Posted: Thu, 29 Oct 2015 10:44
Turkey's most famous modern pianist, Fazıl Say has been awarded the 2015 International Secularism Prize (Prix de la Laïcité) by the France Committee of Secularism, two years after being convicted of blasphemy for a series of tweets.
Mr Say used his acceptance speech to celebrate the role of secularism in the foundation on the Turkish republic and its justice system. Mr Say told guests, including the French Prime Minister, that secularism "has given freedom to a range of philosophical approaches ensuring equal rights to its people dispersed under different beliefs and ethnic origins, both to believers and non-believers".
He also warned of the rising sectarianism and the perception that "secularism is about to disappear" in "a tragic change".
Mr Say has been a vocal proponent of the role of the arts in challenging establishment power and a prominent critic of the AK party led by Turkey's then Prime Minister (now President) Recep Tayyip Erdogan. His 2012/13 trial for 'denigrating Islam' and 'inciting hatred' was widely viewed as politically motivated. His offending tweets had included a verse from a poem by 11th-century Persian poet Omar Khayyám which criticises pious hypocrisy – seen as a comment on Erdogan's use of religious power to bolster the increasingly authoritarian regime.
After his speech Mr Say dedicated a performance of his Kara Toprak (Black Earth) piece to victims of terrorism including the Charlie Hebdo attack and the suicide bomb attack on an Istanbul peace parade last month.
Commenting on the award, Turkish MP and NSS honorary associate Şafak Pavey, said: "Fazil Say has resisted all threats and defamation of his character to tell the value of secularism and its vital importance to Turkey.
"This esteemed award is a most-deserved recognition of his work, and gives strength to secularists' struggle of survival.
"Unfortunately, ours is the last secularist struggle in the Middle East. Secularism has been all but defeated in the region and the odds are not in our favour in Turkey.
"Fazil Say is a most precious symbol of our deep cultural conflict and struggle to exist. The outcome of this conflict will affect the entire world, to a far larger degree than anyone would like to think."
Şafak Pavey was awarded the National Secular Society's Secularist of the Year prize in 2014.
Also see: Turkish police storm opposition media offices as election looms
Freedom of expression cannot be left to the “mercy of others”, says chair of EHRC
Posted: Wed, 21 Oct 2015 13:34
Baroness O'Neill, chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, has warned that there is no way of securing freedom of expression and a right not to be offended.
Speaking at Inner Temple for an event held by Theos, attended by the National Secular Society, Baroness O'Neill spoke on freedom of expression and religious freedom, telling the audience that society was in a "terrible muddle about the shape that rights" to free expression and religious freedom should take.
The Baroness said that while freedom of speech and religion has taken "high importance in the contemporary world", the rights were clearly not "universally respected" – as evidenced by the "persistence of intolerance and intimidation, of outright censorship and religious persecution of those of other faiths, and in the criminalisation of apostasy in some states."
Addressing the attack on Charlie Hebdo, and the Danish cartoons published a decade ago, Baroness O'Neill said that "offence is a subjective matter" and that there is "no way of securing freedom of expression if we also maintain that there is a right not to be offended."
Certain types of speech, such as intimidation or inciting hatred, she said, "can be regulated without putting freedom of expression at the mercy of others." However a "right not to be offended … would put everyone's freedom of expression at the mercy of others."
She said that "attempts to regulate speech content have repeatedly foundered because parody and euphemism, satire and pseudonyms, allow people to convey ostensibly prohibited content, while keeping within the law" and that "the Censor's life is not a happy one."
"Our legislation, I think correctly, does not restrict freedom of expression merely because some speech act offends some others, or even offends some of them gravely."
In 2013 the National Secular Society and Christian Institute, along with others, successfully campaigned to change the law to remove "insults" from Section 5 of the Public Order Act.
Because offensiveness is subjective, she told the audience, any "supposed right not to be offended" would "put others' freedom of expression wholly at the mercy of the sensibilities of possible audiences, including audiences who may include some who are hypersensitive, paranoid or self-serving—or worse."
Turning towards religious freedom and freedom of belief, Baroness O'Neill said the law was unclear about what exactly constituted a "belief", pointing out that "opposition to fox hunting [is] classified as a 'religion or belief', but support for fox hunting [is] not classified as a 'religion or belief."
Only further legislation or complementary court decisions could establish what types of belief are protected by current law, she said.
When asked about her views on whether it was necessary to protect religion or belief further with a new workplace duty of reasonable accommodation, analogous to the duty on employers to make reasonable adjustments for disabled people, Baroness O'Neill said she had "no firm view" but said the problem with such a duty is that it may "fall on other employees".
When asked how she would respond to Christians who feel "persecuted" in the UK, the Baroness said could see how "a misreading of employment tribunal case could lead people to feel unnecessarily anxious".
The full text of Baroness O'Neill's speech can be read here
