NI government responds to hate crime free speech concerns

Northern Ireland's Department of Justice has agreed free speech protections are necessary in hate crime laws, following concerns raised by the National Secular Society.

The Department of Justice (DoJ) ran a consultation on a new Hate Crime Bill for NI last year. It included proposals that would broaden the definition of hate crime, create a new aggravated offence for sectarian hate crimes, and potentially expand 'hate speech' laws to cover online content.

In its response, the NSS warned some of the proposed reforms could undermine free speech. Its concerns were shared by many other respondents.

Last month the DoJ published a summary of consultation submissions and its response. The NSS welcomed many of the DoJ's responses, which addressed concerns raised about freedom of expression.

• The NSS said the threshold for hate crime legislation should be of a "sufficient high level" when criminalising a person hate motivated offences, due to the serious potential implications for free speech. Our view was held by the majority of respondents. The Minister of Justice agreed not to reduce the threshold.

• The DoJ originally proposed to replace the 'dwelling defence', which protects private speech within homes, with a 'private conversation defence' for 'stirring up hate' offenses. The NSS said it saw "no compelling case" for removing the dwelling defence, a view shared by over 90% of respondents. It said the DoJ should instead create additional protections for other private conversations. The Minister said it would retain the dwelling defence and "modernize" it to strengthen protections for private conversations.

• Most respondents, including the NSS, agreed that the definition of sectarianism in hate crime law should not include political opinion, as this could risk the freedom to expression around politics. The Minister agreed to exclude it. The DoJ also referenced suggestions from the NSS and others for more fundamental changes to address sectarianism, such as in the education system.

• The NSS said any inclusion of sectarianism in hate crime law should be 'future proofed' to include denominations from non-Christian religions if required. It said crimes motivated by non-Christian sectarianism were already occurring in the UK, including violence against Ahmadi Muslims perpetrated by Muslims of other strands of Islam. The Minister said sectarian hate crime legislation would be 'future proofed' in this way.

While the NSS welcomed these moves, it expressed disappointment that there was no mention of reviewing NI's blasphemy laws. NI is the only jurisdiction in the UK with blasphemy laws. England and Wales repealed their blasphemy laws in 2008. Scotland repealed them via the Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act 2021.

The NSS said there is "always the risk" the blasphemy laws may be invoked to silence criticism or ridicule of religion, and that their presence in NI "undermines efforts to repeal blasphemy laws worldwide". Blasphemy laws are widely used to persecute religious minorities, the non-religious and those who speak out against the status quo.

NSS head of campaigns Megan Manson said: "We are pleased that the Department of Justice has addressed several of our concerns, shared by many other organisations, regarding potential risks to free speech in proposed reforms to Northern Ireland's hate crime laws.

"But the proposals miss a glaring opportunity to scrap NI's archaic and illiberal blasphemy laws. Scotland used its recent hate crime law reform to abolish them. NI should join the rest of the UK in doing likewise."