Freedom of speech (1)
Freedom of speech is a complex and controversial issue that needs to be debated rationally. Should it be legal to argue that the Holocaust did not take place, even though this position is contrary to all credible evidence and deeply hurtful and offensive to many Jews and others? I think it should and therefore I welcome the news that the European Union has finally – after six years of discussion – agreed a position on race hate that does not require all Member States to make Holocaust denial illegal.
Of course, if in denying the Holocaust or other acts of genocide, the language or manner used amounts to incitement to racial or religious hatred, then it should be possible to bring a prosecution against the perpetrator as it is now in UK law. Equally no incidence of Holocaust denial or other case of historical revisionism should go unchallenged by rational debate.