Gardaí launch blasphemy probe into Stephen Fry

Right well the guards should have told that member of the public to do a bit of homework and find that they would actually have to report it to RTE and then to the BAI if RTE didn't follow their complaints process.

Blasphemy. The only truly victimless crime.

frozenfrozen wrote: »

Right well the guards should have told that member of the public to do a bit of homework and find that they would actually have to report it to RTE and then to the BAI if RTE didn't follow their complaints process.

It's a possible criminal offence and the allegation is partially against RTÉ

They better not watch Life Of Brian :D:D

Blasphemy is one of life's great pleasures. The fact that they've made it illegal here to pacify the zealots just adds extra relish. I recommend starting the day with a cup of coffee and a series of colourful blasphemous outbursts.

Brilliant! I actually hope it's a genuine complaint by a zealot, but suspect it's engineered as a protest by an Atheist group.

Either way it'll highlight that that stupid law hasn't gone away. A law that more fundamental places have pointed at and said, Hey Europe, don't hassle us, sure your own membership has similar laws. There was a referendum to get rid of it promised in 2014, and nowt done yet.

So hopefully this case will be followed to the letter of the law, with Stephen Fry brought to court, if only to make the law makers squirm in the International spotlight that follows about their own inactions

frozenfrozen wrote: »

Right well the guards should have told that member of the public to do a bit of homework and find that they would actually have to report it to RTE and then to the BAI if RTE didn't follow their complaints process.

where does it say that in the blasphemy law?

kfallon wrote: »

I'd like to report the person who complained under the Gobsh?tes in Public Act 1995!

Complete and utter f?cking moron!

its clearly someone trying to test if the law is going to ever implemented.

From the article in the OP:

The viewer insisted that he wasn’t offended by the remarks but stressed that he believed Mr Fry’s comments qualified as blasphemy under the law.

Yup, definitely sounds like a test case, in which case fair play. AFAIR the government promised to look at having a referendum on abolishing this from the constitution, so this might get the ball rolling on that.

nobody has ever been convicted of this offence, and the criminal standard of proof applies. If you look at the wording of the actual blasphemy law section 36 of the defamation act 2009:

25k max fine, no jail time.

would need to proved without reasonable doubt that what was said was grossly abusive & caused outrage among a substantial number of adherents of that religion (one complaint to the gardai won't cut it)

they intended to cause such outrage

The only reason we have a blasphemy law is because it is in our constitution, and so the lacuna in the law was covered by the inclusion of the above.

We would need to have a referendum to remove that from the constitution.


There is zero room for the gardai to actually do anything about this. If they actually wanted something done they could have complained through RTE & the BAI as I said before because it could be approached from several angles which are much more open to something being done i.e. a fine or having to broadcast a correction.


high chance it's some athiest plus individual wanting to draw attention to the fact we have a blasphemy law

expectationlost wrote: »

where does it say that in the blasphemy law?

If you wanted anything to actually be done the only way to approach it would be to complain through the proper channels to the broadcaster.


The blasphemy law can't do anything itself but it can when broadcasters are required to follow it because it exists...