The 2006 Defamation Bill, Ireland Falls in press-Freedom

by opus diablos - the regressive hypocrite party Mon Dec 20, 2010 12:40

..just called to register their outrage at being compared to these cheese-eating surrender......errrroops.

Just how do I go about committing blasphemy???

Could make for a great court case. Should I change the name to Cheese-us H. Kryst??Is that them at the door already?

by Press Freedom Mon Dec 20, 2010 13:04

Atheist ireland tried to raise awareness last year and were , of course ignored by the *Newspaper of Note* until
January the fourth and after the whole world had reported on it.

The implementation of Ireland's Blasphemy law occurred on January the first 2010.

“It is silly because medieval religious laws have no place in a modern secular republic, where the criminal law should protect people and not ideas. And it is dangerous because it incentives religious outrage, and because Islamic states led by Pakistan are already using the wording of this Irish law to promote new blasphemy laws at UN level.”

He said blasphemy laws “silence people in order to protect ideas”. “In a civilised society, people have a right to express and to hear ideas about religion even if other people find those ideas to be outrageous.”

The 25 allegedly blasphemous quotes include utterances attributed to Jesus Christ, Muhammad, Mark Twain, Ian Paisley, Salman Rushdie, Pope Benedict XVI and and an exchange between Minister for Justice Dermot Ahern and Labour’s Pat Rabbitte in the Dáil during the passage of the Bill."

(Irish Times, January 4th 2010)

http://www.atheist.ie/2010/01/25-blasphemous-quotations/

1. Jesus Christ, when asked if he was the son of God, in Matthew 26:64: “Thou hast said: nevertheless I say unto you, Hereafter shall ye see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven.” According to the Christian Bible, the Jewish chief priests and elders and council deemed this statement by Jesus to be blasphemous, and they sentenced Jesus to death for saying it.

2. Jesus Christ, talking to Jews about their God, in John 8:44: “Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him.” This is one of several chapters in the Christian Bible that can give a scriptural foundation to Christian anti-Semitism. The first part of John 8, the story of “whoever is without sin cast the first stone”, was not in the original version, but was added centuries later. The original John 8 is a debate between Jesus and some Jews. In brief, Jesus calls the Jews who disbelieve him sons of the Devil, the Jews try to stone him, and Jesus runs away and hides.

3. Muhammad, quoted in Hadith of Bukhari, Vol 1 Book 8 Hadith 427: “May Allah curse the Jews and Christians for they built the places of worship at the graves of their prophets.” This quote is attributed to Muhammad on his death-bed as a warning to Muslims not to copy this practice of the Jews and Christians. It is one of several passages in the Koran and in Hadith that can give a scriptural foundation to Islamic anti-Semitism, including the assertion in Sura 5:60 that Allah cursed Jews and turned some of them into apes and swine.

4. Mark Twain, describing the Christian Bible in Letters from the Earth, 1909: “Also it has another name – The Word of God. For the Christian thinks every word of it was dictated by God. It is full of interest. It has noble poetry in it; and some clever fables; and some blood-drenched history; and some good morals; and a wealth of obscenity; and upwards of a thousand lies… But you notice that when the Lord God of Heaven and Earth, adored Father of Man, goes to war, there is no limit. He is totally without mercy — he, who is called the Fountain of Mercy. He slays, slays, slays! All the men, all the beasts, all the boys, all the babies; also all the women and all the girls, except those that have not been deflowered. He makes no distinction between innocent and guilty… What the insane Father required was blood and misery; he was indifferent as to who furnished it.” Twain’s book was published posthumously in 1939. His daughter, Clara Clemens, at first objected to it being published, but later changed her mind in 1960 when she believed that public opinion had grown more tolerant of the expression of such ideas. That was half a century before Fianna Fail and the Green Party imposed a new blasphemy law on the people of Ireland.

5. Tom Lehrer, The Vatican Rag, 1963: “Get in line in that processional, step into that small confessional. There, the guy who’s got religion’ll tell you if your sin’s original. If it is, try playing it safer, drink the wine and chew the wafer. Two, four, six, eight, time to transubstantiate!”

6. Randy Newman, God’s Song, 1972: “And the Lord said: I burn down your cities – how blind you must be. I take from you your children, and you say how blessed are we. You all must be crazy to put your faith in me. That’s why I love mankind.”

http://www.atheist.ie/2010/01/25-blasphemous-quotations/

One presumes that the Irish Times editorial finds the publication of blasphemous libel to be indelicate.....

Olé Geraldine Kennedy who does not get the information age, cos the profit innit for her is minuscule.

by aside Mon Dec 20, 2010 13:18

Joe Duffy's audience would like to prosecute this song under Ahern's law:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljPFZrRD3J8

by V for vendetta Mon Dec 20, 2010 23:01

Perhaps this poll itself is an example of lack of press freedom! Real press freedom is in the minds of journalists. If they naturally defer to power then whatever freedom they may have, they won't actually use it to expose the rich and powerful. So in practice it may as well not exist. The way it works is People who hold certain views get certain jobs. Then they police themselves along the lines power wishes, despite having freedom to do otherwise. Thats how OUR system works. It's more subtle than having freedoms. The sooner people realise this the better.

In practice sadly more people get their news reports from TV.
Strange, as far as I can see these three below currently give most of the best most probing and thought provoking news reports and documentaries on TV!!

121 Qatar - aljazeera english
website: http://english.aljazeera.net/
youtube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/AlJazeeraEnglish?ob=0

140 Russia - RT english
website: http://rt.com/
youtube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/RussiaToday?ob=0#p/u/36/dFK...-y6hU

175 Iran - Press TV -
website:http://www.presstv.ir/

And lying ass party line RTE is at number 9???? Thats just laughable!! Sure, they are free, but they just freely lie to us anyway. what good is that freedom???

Who compiled this list? Was it
19 United Kingdom - BBC sky news
20 United States of America FOX NEWS cnn

by any chance.? theirs are some of the least trustworthy news stations and websites,(the BBC being ok some of the time )

Ridiculous!! Spend a few hours watching FOX / sky news / cnn then switch to al jazeera / RT for a breath of fresh news air

naturally socialist venezuela 133 and cuba 166 and bolivia 103 are at the bottom. Boo commies who try to help their people get free from the capitalist system. Funny that includes the murdoch news empire too where many of the greatest lies are perpetrated from.

still at least saudi arabia are recognised for what they are here although Israel?? wtf?? Like I said, there is a difference between a free press and a truthful press. A free press can use it's freedom to lie to the people and suck up to the powerful. And more often than not it does.

The end result is the same: the public are lied to, regardless of how free the press are. That makes this poll rather meaningless except to give an indication of the nature of the propaganda system each country uses

by Press Freedom Wed Dec 22, 2010 14:39

The list , which is a league and not a poll was compiled by http://www.rsf.org

Reporters Without Borders : as it says in the OP.