I think we should be allowed to imprison people merely because we have heard from others that they may have said something offensive.
What's the point of having free speech if you can't go to prison for it?
Does it matter?
Many jokes make light of terrible situations, don't think many brits would have many jokes left to tell if we banned all that referrenced terrible situations.
So there is a "proper" way to use Facebook?
are you under the care of of a mental health professional ?
Which is what humour is all about. It helps make light of terrible situations. It laughs in the face of adversity. It helps people cope. But people shouldn't try to cope. It's all wrong.
Ok lets get one thing straight, no one is laughing at the girl getting kidnapped, murdered, raped or whatever happened, those 'laughing/cringing/ 'smiling are do so at the joke.
Same as I would laugh at any joke about any situation and to be honest I never actually laughed at the joke as it was pretty predictable and it made me 'cringe' as in a 'bit close to the bone' type of cringe but it certainly did not offend me personally as the situation is nothing to do with me.
This is what I don't understand. Being offensive, in general, isn't an issue under UK law (*IANAL) but it becomes one as soon as you post it on a public network. So if I stood up in Trafalgar Square and told this joke, I haven't committed an offence, but if I post it on Facebook, I have. Or, if I broadcast it on TV, if I understand section 4 of the act.
Moreover, I don't know what meets the standard of 'grossly obscene', but the debate on this website about whether the joke was offensive or not is enough to say to me that it's not 'grossly obscene' in that there is not broad consensus that it is offensive.
As for the second part of the act, I don't understand how this isn't covered under normal liable/slander laws?
In short, I find that the prosecutions under this act pose a real risk to free speech -- and the line gets fuzzier every day. That can't be a good thing.
It also opens the issue of "offense by proxy". How many actually saw the joke and were offended, and how many heard about the joke (and not even its contents) and were offended?
It's the kind of joke you tell to your close mates, but not on a social networking site.
But no one is talking about banning all jokes. It's the same defence as talking about immigration for example, brings waves of accusations of racism. The topic isnt a clear cut issue. In saying that something is deemed to offensive to be held within the umbrella of free speech does not automatically mean every single joke has to be immediately banned and no one can say anything any more. Its a balance of human nature.
Making light of this particularly heart wrenching situation is, I think, too far beyond the scope of free speech to be allowed. There are many other topics which also are not allowed despite free speech notably items on religion or race for example.
To take an example, if we took the existing joke and added the words "white" and "black" to the descriptions of the perpetrator and the victim, suddenly almost everyone would agree that it is not funny. Being racially offensive is regarded in the majority of the UK to be Not Funny At All to the point it has a law against it (racial hatred).
And yet, making what from an analysis of the act involved, is a far more offensive and disturbing image, it is defended under the "everything offends someone" blanket defence.
I cannot win this argument as you can logically block it with the "we'll not be able to say x soon about y" ad infinatum, however I will leave it by saying to me, it is beyond the description of a joke and I find it deeply offensive and I think it is a good thing society is making an example of someone for it.
Let me get this right:Matt Wood jokes about April Jones ,which got kidnapped and murderd Must some funny joke Long live free speech
There you go!!
It is ok to laugh or not, ok to say such a thing to provoke a reaction (no matter which one) as long as it has nothing to do with you (as individual).
Compassion is missing here, as long as it doesn't affect me, why should I care?
they found her then?
Seems that the guy only twittered it, then removed it, but then someone else copied and pasted it to Facebook, and someone else took a screenshot and posted it somewhere else.
Hardly something to be arrested over.
Tom
You right Blood nose will due
Correct, why should I get offended at something that has absolutely nothing to do with me?
Compassion and being offended are two different things entirely.
the easily or wanting to be offended will have a field day on sickipedia, i can imagine the letters to POV right now.
How is what they're doing a good example? Arresting someone for sharing a bad joke among friends, FB is not a public platform, posts are shared among friends, or have to be searched for. Do we all have to watch for snitches in our friends lists now?
yep - brilliant action. DId you hear the one about the guy who got put in prison for joking about the rape of a 5 year old girl ? Its just hysterical.
Seriously?
That info alone tells me that whatever he said, unless it was something completely non-offensive , it really was something "offensive."
Then again, maybe, somehow, you've been using a different internet than I have?
I'm not sure you read what you wrote. Probably you've never in your life laughed at a similar joke, not even perhaps when you were underage, repeated in a playground, that would be hilarious too wouldn't it? Your life ruined coz of some stupid joke.