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: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 30 2019, @01:39AM (1 child)
But DO mod him down if you don't like bigots!!
You realize that downmods don't make your comment disappear right? I mean you couldn't possibly be THAT dumb RIGHT?
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Saturday March 30 2019, @02:37PM
Like that damned cat, your question is both true and not true, alive and not alive. No, downmods don't make the comment "disappear" - it doesn't get erased from the hard drive (or whatever medium Soylent servers write data to). But, we all know that downmods make comments "invisible" to people who browse at zero, or +1 or even higher. If you need more info, email shroedinger@gmail.com (wonder if that's a legit email addy? I'm tempted to send a message to find out.)