Are you free to speak in public, even if I find you insulting?

According to a coalition of unlikely allies, including Christians, secularists, comedians, and LGBT activists, you are, and have been since 2014. Back then, the coalition successfully campaigned against the criminalisation of insulting speech in section 5 of the Public Order Act 1986, which made it an offence to use “threatening, insulting or abusive” words or behaviour.

The campaign, which ran under the banner “Feel free to insult me“, successfully persuaded Parliament that the value of freedom of speech to a free and democratic society was such that even shocking, offensive or disturbing speech should be robustly protected, rather than criminalised, in the public square.

Continue reading “The free speech of Christians in the public square must be protected” by Jeremiah Igunnubole (Christian Today).