Rowan's attack on religion Bill

Rowan Atkinson has renewed his attack on the Religious Hatred Bill he fears will curb freedom of speech.

His new comments came as he joined an all-party group of Peers pressing from amendments to the Bill which they say would protect jokes or genuine criticism.

Their proposed changes would mean prosecutors must prove an deliberate motive to stir up religious hatred, and that comments are genuinely threatening, rather than simply offensive or insulting.

Atkinson told a news conference in the House of Lords, where the Bill will go through its committee stage next Tuesday, that it was the "bloke in the pub" who would suffer if the law was brought in, rather than high-profile comedians.

He said: ‘It is often asked why under present race hatred legislation, there haven’t been more high-profile prosecutions of comedians who are well known, over the more racist content of their routines? And because that has not happened, then surely it would not happen under the Religious Hatred Bill

‘I think the reason why there haven’t been prosecutions of people like Jim Davidson and Bernard Manning is because in the end the prosecuting authorities would just regard it as too much trouble...they don’t want high profile trials that might expose the weaknesses and vagaries of legislation.’

And he said the mere possibility of prosecution was likely to lead to more self-censorship and a fear of expressing yourself – even if few cases were actually brought.

‘Much better to have an intimidating bit of legislation which results in no prosecutions whatsoever,’ he said.

‘It is the little person I fear for - I think it is highly unlikely that I personally would, at least under the present administration - that I would be pilloried for a religious joke.

‘But I worry about the bloke in the pub, the bloke writing the thesis about Judaism. It is those people who are more likely to be got at.’

Published: 20 Oct 2005