Free speech has potentially been taken down another peg in NZ with a woman arrested for a Facebook post about the Christchurch shootings. The woman has been arrested on suspicion of "inciting racial disharmony" after a message was posted to her Facebook page. She faces a maximum penalty of three months’ imprisonment or a NZ$7000 fine and living in a society that condemns free speech. However, given the recent ruling in Australia that 'Muslim' is not a 'race' she may get off given that the law she is accused of breaking is of one who “publishes or distributes written matter which is threatening, abusive, or insulting” to other people . This means that it may very well be legal at this time to insult people of a specific religion.
Decades ago they relied on neighbors to find subversives; now they just check social media.
[Ed.: The above is a paraphrase of the linked-to story, not a direct quote, and with submitter's editorialising left in. -- FP (honouring people's right to free speech ;-) )]
Also covered by the NZ Herald.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Mr Ploppy 68 on Friday March 29 2019, @10:59PM (8 children)
The submitter appears to think that NZ is a part of Australia. Not again....
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 30 2019, @12:23AM
Yeah mate, NZ is just an island where we keep some of our sheep.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 30 2019, @05:50AM (6 children)
No, she doesn't. She recognises that AU and NZ share a common base for their law systems. In Australia a ruling was made about race and religion as it is used in law for defining groups. The accused in NZ could use the same argument to negate this charge.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Mr Ploppy 68 on Saturday March 30 2019, @10:01AM (5 children)
At first reading it didn't seem that sophisticated to me. I take your point though; as an NZ'er I'm now intrigued enough to find out more about our Human Rights Act, specifically the wording of the relevant part. Whether the idea from TFA/Australia would fly here, especially in the current times, I doubt.
Also, I have been bothered for quite a while about conflation of religion and race, where criticism obviously targeted at a religious group is automatically labelled as racism. It's not quite the same thing, disregarding the cases where a large chunk of a given race will align with a particular religion. In that narrow legal sense the Australians are correct, I think, if only to bring some clarity to the commentary.
And, what's with an AC making a coherent response to a comment on teh internet? :-D
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 30 2019, @11:33AM (2 children)
Any attempt to separate race from religion is doomed to failure. It is too useful to the Jews to be able to conflate them and they have all the lawyers.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 30 2019, @02:29PM (1 child)
It isn't doomed. A court of law only needs to examine evidence and make a determination on facts.
If a Caucasian person joins islam then they don't become an arab.
If a japanese person realigns their personal spiritual path with hinduism they don't become south east asian indian.
Wearing a cloth over your head doesn't make you islamic. It's likely that it is so but not 100% the case.
Agreed that this has gone too far.
iMOHO if you don't like people having a go at your for silly things like religion then don't come to Australia. We can and will take the piss out of everything including ourselves.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 30 2019, @03:09PM
Sadly there are a number of people trying to turn Australia into another middle east conflict [dailymail.co.uk]. TFA shows NZ heading down the same path.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 30 2019, @02:31PM
I thought that adding given the recent ruling in Australia would be sufficient to indicate that the referred point was outside the topic location. It is an art to convey meaning clearly in few words for a story summation. I respect those who do this for a living.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 30 2019, @05:30PM
and it doesn't matter. you should be able to criticize what the fuck you want to criticize, unless you are a brainwashed slave.