Graham Linehan, who was a guest of the Free Speech Union last year, was arrested by five armed police officers when he arrived in the UK over tweets he made. This should ring alarm bells in New Zealand. As a nation, we already rightly rejected ‘hate speech’ laws, and the UK continues to show us where we’d be if we hadn’t. We cannot be complacent, says Jillaine Heather, Chief Executive of the Free Speech Union.

“Arrested for a tweet? The UK is displaying the exact sort of behaviour the Free Speech Union warned about when we campaigned against the proposed expansion of New Zealand’s ‘hate speech’ laws in our nation, which would have introduced subjective and vague terms into our laws. Some claimed we were fearmongering, but a very quick look at the UK tells us otherwise.

“With hundreds of thousands of Kiwis behind us, the Free Speech Union defeated the proposed expansion of our ‘hate speech’ laws and last year, exposed the New Zealand Police for conducting unlawful training for their officers on how to identify ‘hate speech’ and ‘hate crime’. The summary of submissions on the Law Commission’s consultation on ‘hate crime’ laws released this week shows us we’re not giving up the fight. Kiwis should not be punished for their thoughts.

“We cannot rest on our laurels. We must learn from the egregious examples we’re seeing overseas where nations like the UK and Canada are allowing their speech rights to go down the drain. Vague and subjective laws are taking police away fromactual crimes and instead allowing them to arrest individuals for their thoughts.

“Whether you agree with Linehan’s tweets or not is beside the point. If we punish individuals for their words, none of us can speak freely without fear. We will not cross divides and build understanding if we think ‘hate’ will be combatted through suppression. Only through free, open, and robust debate can we find solutions and protect democracy.”

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