Stuff reports that an Auckland Catholic Priest is attempting to prosecute CamWest to broadcasting the 'Bloody Mary' South Park episode under section 123 of the Crimes Act - the blasphemous libel section - which I didn't know even existed.

Of course, no one has been prosecuted for this for about 80 years.

Here's section 123 of the Crimes Act in full:

1. Every one is liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding one year who publishes any blasphemous libel.


2. Whether any particular published matter is or is not a blasphemous libel is a question of fact.


3. It is not an offence against this section to express in good faith and in decent language, or to attempt to establish by arguments used in good faith and conveyed in decent language, any opinion whatever on any religious subject.


4. No one shall be prosecuted for an offence against this section without the leave of the Attorney-General, who before giving leave may make such inquiries as he thinks fit.

Very interesting indeed. Despite being a strong Christian, I do not think that this section belongs in the Crimes Act at all, and would definately support its repeal. As a Christian, I definately support freedom of speech - I think that people should privately choose to restrain from anything too inflamatory, but that is their own decision - the state should not have any law to try and enforce it.

But let's see if CamWest can be prosecuted for blasphemous libel.

Subsection (1) is fairly irrelevant as it merely states the penalty.

The easiest escape is (4), where the Attorney-General simply doesn't grant leave to prosecute. It appears (but is not certain) that the Attorney-General in this case has delegated at least the investigation to the Solicitor-General. Hopefully the decision will be to deny leave (and then repeal the section).

I doubt that they can use (3) to escape it, as I doubt South Park would agree that they use 'decent language' - it would be fun to see them try to argue it, but I doubt they would be successful there.

I am not a lawyer, but I think it could be difficult to prove (2) as well. The South Park episode was not attempting to defame the church, but was using satire, which has always been protected. Consequently, I don't think any such prosecution would succeed.

Posted by Dave Bryant at 11:13 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)