The Police should be as enthusiastic about protecting free speech as they are about protecting the sensitivities of religious minorities, the National Secular Society told a conference of police officers and the Crown Prosecution Service in London yesterday (18 September). The NSS’s Executive Director, Keith Porteous Wood, told the conference — which was examining the implications of the Racial and Religious Hatred Act — that as well as the Human Rights aspects and powerful arguments in principle, protecting freedom of expression is also justified on pragmatic grounds. Forbidding potentially offensive speech risks driving it underground to fester, whereas not doing so exposes it to the oxygen of public criticism.

National Secular Society – Don’t be careless with free speech, NSS tells police conference.

Tags: Free+speech, Police, NSS, Keith+Porteous+Wood