Happy New Censorship!

[Diomedes]

From today, 1 January 2010, the new Irish blasphemy law becomes operational, and we begin our campaign to have it repealed. Blasphemy is now a crime punishable by a €25,000 fine. The new law defines blasphemy as publishing or uttering matter that is grossly abusive or insulting in relation to matters held sacred by any religion, thereby intentionally causing outrage among a substantial number of adherents of that religion, with some defences permitted.

This seems reasonable to me. I'm not saying I support it, just that it seems reasonable in the context of Ireland. Ireland has had a difficult socio-political climate for the past few years. With Ireland becoming a more and more integrated part of the EU its government has taken steps to conform to the paradigm of "Western Liberal Democracy." However, this has forced the government to try and straddle its constituencies of Catholic majorities with its duties as a WLD government. This bill seems to me to be a fine compromise between allowing debate, criticism, and scholarship of religion without removing Irish Catholic's majority representation in government. In the quoted section, I highlighted the word 'intentionally' to draw a distinction between this level of censorship and the many more extreme cases in theocratic countries. In this case, the Irish government is trying to censor statements along the lines of "Catholicism a fucking shitbag religion" while leaving room for more steadyminded folks to give legitimate appraisals of religious institutions. Though this law may tread on some more typical WLD principles, it seems to me to censor only those whom no advocate, religious or secular, would want in the public discourse.