Source: Common Sense
by Paul Jacob
“Twelve years ago, Rowan Atkinson of ‘Mr. Bean’ fame took a stand against a law that criminalizes ‘insulting’ speech. He was participating in a campaign to reform Section 5 of the Public Order Act of 1986. In his remarks launching the campaign, recently resurrected on Twitter, Atkinson said that his concern was less for himself as a person with a high public profile than ‘for those more vulnerable because of their lower profile. Like the man arrested in Oxford for calling a police horse gay. Or the teenager arrested for calling the Church of Scientology a cult. Or the cafe owner arrested for displaying passages from the Bible on a TV screen.’ … The Reform Section 5 campaign succeeded. The law was amended. But the victory, though important, was narrow. And, since that win, sweeping assaults on speech that offends somebody or other continue …” (08/28/24)
https://thisiscommonsense.org/2024/08/28/give-mr-bean-another-hearing/