Justice Minister Andrew Little has written an opinion piece about free speech in a newspaper.
He made the following points.
- Free speech is vitally important to hold those in authority to account.
- It is the first right to be lost under oppressive regimes.
- The New Zealand Bill of rights act affirms our right to free speech.
- Protecting free speech is crucial to our democracy.
Then he inserted a very big BUT which wiped out everything that he had said at the start.
5. Opinions and statements on social media can upset people from minority ethnic and religious communities and make them fell unwelcome, alienated or threatened therefore we need to ” balance the issues of freedom of speech and hate speech.”
Is it just me or does this sound like the government is intending to bring in anti-blasphemy laws through the back door? It also appears to be a foreshadowing of an intention to control and censor social media and websites.