Campaign targets law banning 'insults'

Rowan Atkinson has launched a campaign to overturn the law that bans 'insulting words and behaviour'.

The comic and his supporters want part of the Public Order Act to be repealed, saying it was having a 'chilling effect on free expression'.

He said Section 5 of the act, which outlaws threatening, abusive and insulting words or behaviour, is flawed because what constitutes 'insulting' is not clear.

Atkinson said at a Parliamentary reception: 'The clear problem of the outlawing of insult is that too many things can be interpreted as such.

'Criticism, ridicule, sarcasm, merely stating an alternative point of view to the orthodoxy, can be interpreted as insult.'

His campaign comes after a series of prosecutions such as Matthew Woods - who made sick jokes about missing five-year-old April Jones. However he was jailed for 12 weeks under the Communications Act.

However, charges to have been brought under the the Public Order Act include a 16-year-old boy being held for peacefully holding a placard reading 'Scientology is a dangerous cult', and an Oxford University student arrested for asking a policeman: 'Excuse me, do you realise your horse is gay?'

Atkinson said he wanted to 'deal with the Outrage Industry: self-appointed arbiters of the public good, encouraging media-stoked outrage, to which the police feel under terrible pressure to react'.

Former Shadow Home Secretary David Davis, who is also backing the Reform Section 5 campaign, said: 'The simple truth is that in a free society, there is no right not to be offended. For centuries, freedom of speech has been a vital part of British life, and repealing this law will reinstate that right.'

Stephen Fry has also lent his voice to the campaign, tweeting to his five million followers: 'Insults aren't nice. But should they be illegal? Support my friends in removing "insulting" from public order act.'

Click here to read Atkinson's full speech.

Published: 18 Oct 2012