English PEN has launched a campaign to stop the British Government introducing legislation that could make it illegal to express provocative views on people’s religion.
The PEN charter states that “members pledge themselves to oppose any form of suppression of freedom of expression in the country and community to which they belong”. English PEN believes that the Government’s proposed offence of incitement of religious hatred in the Serious Organised Crime and Police Bill would suppress the freedom for people to express views on religious affairs. While the Government tries to say that the legislation will not do this, the reassurances it gives are hollow.
In an open letter to Home Secretary Charles Clarke, signed by nearly 300 members of English PEN including many of this country’s most eminent writers, we express our concern that “the new legislation encourages rather than combats intolerance. We do not need it. What we need is a signal from government that it wishes to defend true democracy and its many virtues, including those of dissent and the freedom of expression.”
The Home Office Minister Fiona MacTaggart has offered a meeting to Salman Rushdie and Lisa Appignanesi, Chair of the OFFENCE campaign and deputy President of English PEN, to discuss the proposed amendments to the bill.
